Rosen Simeonov Dominates Day 1b of the PokerNews Cup Kulata Main Event
The second of four opening flights of the 2019 PokerNews Cup Kulata €550 Main Event at Finix Casino is in the books after 14 blinds levels of 30 minutes each.
Day 1b attracted 28 entrants including five reentries, all of which were from Bulgaria and Greece to bring the total field up to 52 entrants between the two starting flights.
By the end of the day, the field was trimmed down to just five players, each of which will enter Day 2 already in the money with each flight playing down to 15 percent of the field.
Bulgaria's Rosen Simeonov bagged almost half the chips in play and will head to Saturday's Day 2 with a big stack of 640,000 in chips. This places him ahead of Day 1a chip leader Marian Ivanov who managed to bag a healthy stack of 580,000 in chips.
Simeonov took a considerable lead early in the day and never looked back with no other player ever coming close to his chip stack.
Others to find a bag on Day 1b included Vasileios Gkogkas (second - 229,000), Andreas Chalkiadakis (third - 204,000), Eduart Eranosyan (fourth - 200,000), and Christos Kechagias (fifth - 126,000).
| Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| Rosen Simeonov | Bulgaria | 640,000 |
| Vasileios Gkogkas | Greece | 229,000 |
| Andreas Chalkiadakis | Greece | 204,000 |
| Edduart Eranosyan | Bulgaria | 132,000 |
| Christos Kechagias | Greece | 126,000 |
By the time late registration closed at the end of Level 12, just nine players remained. Bulgaria's Hristo Bogdanov and Greece's Nikolaos Pomonis were the last of the players eliminated before late registration closed not to reenter. In the same hand, Pomonis got it in with sixes and Bogdanov with sevens. They were both in both behind the queens held by Kechagias who called after the duo were both all-in and were never able to catch up.
Greece's Dimitrios Dimitros was the first out after late-registration closed. Bulgaria's Diyan Stanev was the next to go after he couldn't win a flip with tens against the big slick held by Gkogkas.
Former EPT Main Event champion Sotirios Koutoupas was the next to go when he tried to make a move with his short stack against Simeonov.
Shortly after, the bubble broke. Vasileios Tsaknis jammed for 18 big blinds with top pair holding king-queen on a king-three-four flop with two diamonds and was called by Simeonov with king-jack of diamonds. The turn was a blank but a jack came on the river to give Simeonov two pair.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be back to cover Day 1c of the Main Event at 1 p.m. EEST on Friday, May 17. Later in the day, the turbo Day 1d flight will also take place. Those bagging chips during those two flights will join the nine others that successfully did so on the first two opening flights for two more days of action on May 18-19.
*Images courtesy of Katerina Lukina.