Jan Suchanek showed his jovial side early in the day at PokerStars Championship Barcelona €10,300 PLO High Roller, telling David Frieling he accepted all slowrolls, no matter how big the pot.
However, he showed when it comes time to get in the proverbial trenches and start trading blows across the felt, Suchanek showed he can be deadly and efficient at mowing down opponents and sweeping up their chips. Suchanek has a mind-boggling lead at the close of Day 1 with 1,087,000, nearly double second-place stack Laszlo Bujtas' 598,000.
Suchanek, a Czech player who is a longtime New Zealand resident, wasn't afraid to get chips in the middle from start to finish and had a big stack almost the whole way through. The biggest boost came when he eliminated fellow big stack Gavin Cochrane at the end of the night after the three table redraw.
Besides those two top stacks, 19 other players made it through the long 13-hour grind. Others advancing to Day 2 included online stars Yuri "theNERDguy" Martins and Leo "ISILDRooN" Nordin, as well as bracelet winners Peter Eichhardt, Norbert Szecsi and Jan-Peter Jachtmann. Online nosebleeds legend Ben Tollerene made it as well, though his stack of 128,500 means he has work to do.
None of the players — not even Suchanek — can rest on their laurels and count on a cash. There's still six eliminations to go before the money is reached, and given the volatile nature of PLO, that can mean major swings. For example, players like Isaac Haxton, Henrik Eide and Jean-Noel Thorel all occupied spots near the top of the leaderboard but failed to even make the redraw.
Others busting out at least once in the jam-packed single reentry event included Viktor Blom, Jens Lakemeier, Mike Watson, Stephen Chidwick and Bryn Kenney.
The tournament drew a very healthy 111 entries after a somewhat slow start that saw the first card off the deck delayed by 30 minutes. The first-place prize will be a very handsome €277,200. To find out who will take that down, come right back to PokerNews at 12:30 on Thursday for more live coverage.
The prize pool information has been released by PokerStars. The winner of the €10,300 PLO High Roller will bank €277,200. With 111 entries — 85 unique — there will be 15 players paid, and a min-cash in 15th will be worth €18,300.
Vivian Saliba limped in, Pedro Zagalo made it 4,500, and Laszlo Bujtas reraised on the button to 16,000. Zagalo called after everyone else folded, seeing flop. Zagalo checked, Bujtas bet 14,000 and Zagalo made it 38,000. Bujtas shoved all in and Zagalo snap-called.
Bujtas:
Zagalo:
Zagalo had flopped the joint and needed to fade clubs. The turn and river were safe for him.
Jens Lakemeier opened for 2,000 under the gun and got three callers. On the flop, he potted for 8,300. Jan Suchanek repotted in middle position, chasing away the other two. Lakemeier called his remaining 12,000 or so.
Lakemeier:
Suchanek:
"That's not the hand I wanted to see," Suchanek mused.
The turn was even worse, cinching the pot for Lakemeier with the nut flush.
We came upon four players putting 10,000 apiece in the pot preflop. The flop came , and Quan Zhou potted for nearly all of his chips in the small blind. The big blind shoved for 65,000, and Mohsin Virani was given serious pause in early position. He decided to call off for about 44,000 after using a time extension. The last player mucked.
Virani:
Zhou:
Big blind:
The turn helped nobody, but the river gave Virani a straight. He scooped a massive pot at the expense of all of Zhou's chips.
Federico Quevedo bet 6,500 from middle position on a board of , and Tomasz Gluszko called from under the gun. The Polish player checked the river, and Quevedo potted for about 22,000. Gluszko shoved all in.
"Call," Quevedo said, though he didn't seem thrilled about the he showed down for top boat.
Viktor Blom, one of the most legendary online poker players in history for his nosebleed exploits in no-limit and PLO games, has taken a seat. Blom took a shot in the Main Event but couldn't get anything going yesterday. However, he's this year's second-biggest online cash winner, so it's doubtful he's hurting at all after that loss.
Another player who just grabbed a seat is Jens Lakemeier. Playing as "Fresh_oO_D" on PokerStars, Lakemeier is a mixed game legend and showed off his skills in the $2,500 Big Bet event at the WSOP, winning his first bracelet and $112,232.
Up until now, everything you've seen on PokerNews about PokerStars Championship Barcelona has been Texas Hold'em coverage, but that's about to change.
It's time for the beautiful game of four-card poker, centered around the coverage of the €10,300 PLO High Roller. The PLO High Rollers always attract an interesting and fun crowd, with multiple high-stakes online PLO cash regulars populating the field in Monte Carlo, along with the usual cast of high rollers.
Today's field will likely depend heavily on the whims of fate as far as the Main Event goes, with about half of entries for that tournament still live. As players are eliminated from that, some will likely hop into PLO.
The plan for today is to get through 14 levels, each lasting 45 minutes. That will likely get the field to a final table, or close to it. Each player gets 50,000 in starting chips and may reenter up to one time. Things begin at 100/200 and will progress to 2,000/4,000.
Cards are scheduled to fly at 12:30 p.m. local time here in Barcelona, so stay tuned here for all of the PLO action.
flop. Zagalo checked, Bujtas bet 14,000 and Zagalo made it 38,000. Bujtas shoved all in and Zagalo snap-called.
turn and 
river were safe for him.
flop, he potted for 8,300. Jan Suchanek repotted in middle position, chasing away the other two. Lakemeier called his remaining 12,000 or so.
turn was even worse, cinching the pot for Lakemeier with the nut flush.
turn helped nobody, but the 
he showed down for top boat. 
for quads.
