Welcome to the Final Two Opening Flights of the PokerNews Cup Kulata Main Event
Welcome to the final two opening flights of the PokerNews Cup Main Event at Finix Casino. The action for Day 1c kicks off at 1 p.m. EEST followed by the turbo-charged Day 1d six hours later at 7 p.m. EEST.
Players will be competing for at least a share of €100,000 guaranteed for a €550 buy-in or less if they qualified online or through one of the many €60 live satellites running at Finix Casino. One of the players that qualified via a live satellite is PokerNews Global Live Reporting Manager Yori Epskamp from the Netherlands.
There will be plenty of opportunities for players to build a monster stack starting off with 50,000 in chips and unlimited reentries permitted during each of the four opening flights on May 15-17. The first three flights, including today's Day 1c, feature 30-minute blind levels. The final Day 1d flight will be fast-paced with 15-minute blind levels.
The action for each opening flight continues until just 15 percent of the field remains, at which time all players will already be in the money. Players that successfully bag chips on Day 1 will battle it out in a deeper structure of 40-minute blind levels on May 18-19 until is crowned.
Here is a look at today's structure with breaks taking place after every four blind levels.
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Big Blind Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | 100 | |
| 2 | 75 | 150 | |
| 3 | 100 | 200 | |
| 4 | 150 | 300 | 300 |
| 5 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 6 | 200 | 500 | 500 |
| 7 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 8 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 9 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 10 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 11 | 800 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
| 12 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| 13 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| 14 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| 15 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| 16 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| 17 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 18 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
| 19 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| 20 | 6,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 |
Rosen Simeonov bagged a tournament-leading 640,000 in chips on Day 1a, just ahead of Marian Ivanov, who bagged 580,000 chips on Day 1a. On there heels are Christina Orfanidou (Day 1a - 324,000), Vasileios Gkogkas (Day 2 - 229,000), and Andreas Chalkiadakis (Day 1b - 204,000).
Stay tuned at PokerNews as we bring you the biggest hands and highlights of the PokerNews Cup at Finix Casino.
*Images courtesy of Katerina Lukina
on the board. Toni Statev called, Efstathios Mathanailidis folded, and Georgios Gkampintasvili called.
for the second nut flush. Both the other players also had flushes with Statev showing 
and Gkampintasvili showing 
but Galustov's was the strongest to take down a big pot early in the day.
came on the turn. Milidis then jammed for about 30,000 after the 
paired the board on the river.
.
came on the flop. Liavas raised to 14,000. Koutoupas three-bet jammed for more than 40,000 and got a call.
came on the turn to give his opponent a flush. A blank hit the river and Koutoupas headed to the tournament desk to reenter.
for the full house and asked to see his opponent's hand which he was entitled to since it was an all-in and call situation. Gkikoulis showed the table when asked that he had 
came on the flop. Stryvakis jammed all-in for about 22,000. It folded around to Draginov who made the call.
for top pair while Stryvakis showed 
came on the turn. The 
completed the board on the river and Stryvakis found himself a double-up.
on the board. Loukas Kioutsoukis with a little less remaining in his stack made the call.
for the flush and Kioutsoukis was temporarily out. He immediately ran to the tournament desk and was seated at a fresh table within a minute.
for a straight flush and was a lock to double up with Nanos drawing dead with 
