Welcome to Day 1b of the inaugural PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event at the spectacular Sochi Casino and Resort.
The Main Event is part of a 12-day festival of poker with a buy-in of RUB 318,000 and a guarantee of RUB 150,000,000.
Cards are in the air at Noon local time as players start with 30,000 chips and play eight 75-minute levels with a dinner break after level six and play due to end around midnight.
Day 1a saw Russia’s Andrei Shkerin top a field of 132 to bag up 144,400 chips for Day 2 while Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker is very much in contention with a stack of 115,300 while 71 players survived.
The majority of the field is once more likely to be packed with some of the best players in Russia with some of the notables expected to put in an appearance include Indian Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal, Jason Wheeler, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Maxim Panyak and Alexander Lakhov.
Day 1 level structure
Level
Duration
Small Blind
Big Blind
Ante
1
75 min
50
100
2
75 min
75
150
3
75 min
100
200
25
4
75 min
150
300
50
5
75 min
200
400
50
6
75 min
250
500
75
7
75 min
300
600
100
8
75 min
400
800
100
The PokerNews live reporting team will bring you all the action from the felt so be sure to follow along as the road to a PokerStars Sochi Champion continues.
After his late session last night with a win and a second place in Side Events, the start of day 1b had been rather bad for Maxim Panyak. However, the Russian just doubled up after getting it in for 20,100 on a flop of .
Panyak had and was called by Sergey Kogotkov with for two pair. The turn improved Panyak to a flush, and the river was no scare anymore.
On the three-way flop of with 10,000 in the middle, the action checked to Sergei Chantcev and he bet 5,000. Beka Iordanishvili called and the third player in the hand folded. The turn was checked through and Chantcev also checked the river. Iordanishvili bet 7,000.
Chantcev was not happy, but he eventually called and was shown for a straight by Iordanishvili as winning hand. So far, all had been going smooth for Chantcev, but this hand took a toll on the stack of the Russian.
On the same table as Andrei Zaichenko and Andrey Gulyy, a big pot just emerged and would see Timofey Vekshin depart under painful circumstances. It started with a raise to 1,100 by Danila Solovyev and he was called by one player before Vekshin three-bet to 6,000 in the small blind. Only Solovyev called and the flop fell . Vekshin continued for 9,000 and Solovyev called before both players checked the turn.
After the river, Vekshin moved all in for what appeared to be around 14,500 and Solovyev didn't need to ask for a count, but snap-called with for turned quads. Vekshin turned over for a full house and headed to the rail.
Down to around 8,000, Mikhail Shalamov was all in before the flop with . Alexander Zubov looked him up with the superior stack and the better hand in . The board of provided no help and that was it for the PokerStars Team online pro on home soil.
It wasn't until after he had won, that Canadian Spin & Go qualifier Jamie Stephens realized what lay ahead of him. A native of Brantford, Ontario, Stephens is one of only three players from Canada to qualify for the PokerStars Championship Main Event here in Sochi, and it took an email response from PokerStars to discover what exactly the 37-year old had secured.
A regular morning for Stephens involves firing up a few $7 Spin & Go’s on PokerStars. One morning the $8 Sochi package Spin and Go caught his eye and he decided to register one and test his luck. Stephens wasn’t entirely sure what the package actually entailed and was happy to see when the wheel stopped rolling it had landed on the ticket. He initially assumed the ticket was for a satellite or some sort of feeder into a Main Event package.
It wasn’t until he noticed how weird and super tight his opponents were playing that he thought anything more of it. He decided to pump up the aggression and continued to push around his two tablemates.
Stephens recalls one particular hand where he got a player all-in but was way behind, holding pocket nines against his opponent’s monster pair. A nine on the river gave him a sizable chip lead as he got to heads-up play. Not long after, Stephens disposed of them as well and a congratulations window appeared showing he had won a Main Event package to the PokerStars Championship Sochi.
Still a bit confused, he googled the event and found some details. He immediately emailed PokerStars support and got a response indicating he indeed did win a seat in the Main Event.
Stephens, who plays occasionally at a local casino in Brantford, began to play more often in preparation for the event, even finding a few final tables in some daily events. Wanting a bit more practice, Stephens flew to Florida to play at the Hard Rock and found a final table in a daily event there. Stephens also scored his first win on the trip, playing at a poker room in St. Petersburg, FL. Taking down a $33 daily with about 60-odd runners.
Having the ability to bring someone with him, Stephens’ uncle also made the journey along with a friend, all of whom relished the opportunity to travel to Sochi.
Stephens has really been enjoying his time so far, saying: "PokerStars has been treating us really good."
At the “Meet and Greet” with PokerStars Team Pros, Stephens was able to have a lengthy conversation with Chris Moneymaker and was even able to share a story with Moneymaker about a prop bet one of Stephens’ poker buddies had won against Moneymaker in the Bahamas.
If Stephens can spin his package into a cash, it will be the first live-recorded tournament cash of his poker career and will give him a profile on the Hendon Mob. The self-employed event planner has aspirations of winning the World Series of Poker Main Event and getting PokerStars Team Pro and fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu to fold a hand when they meet across the felt!
There was an open to 800 from one player and as the action proceeded the dealer mistakenly mucked the opener’s cards. Understandably the player was unhappy at this turn of events and the floor was called. Mistakes happen, protect your cards, was the ruling; the chips stayed in.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was in the small blind and he made it 1,200. Timur Khamidullin was in the big blind and he defended.
The flop was and Grospellier continued for 1,400. Khamidullin called to see the hit the turn. A bet of 2,600 from Grospellier saw Khamidullin call again as a decent percentage of Grospellier’s stack headed to the middle.
The river was the and Grospellier bet 6,700 and saw Khamidullin push his cards away.
Jorg Bohme opened the action with a raise to 1,000 and Alimbay Sultanov three-bet to 2,200. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau called before Evgeny Talagaev in the small blind raised to 16,000 with another 10,150 behind. Bohme moved all in and that got Sultanov and Vaskaboinikau out of the way. In table chat, Sultanov mentioned he folded pocket queens.
Jorg Bohme:
Evgeny Talagaev:
The board came and Talagaev was eliminated, while PokerStars qualifier Bohme jumped to twice the average.
Maksim Tiurin opened to 1,200 and picked up a call from small blind Natalia Panchenko before Hugo Dos Santos Videira asked to see how much Tiurin was playing. It was just over 15,000 and Videira min-raised to 2,400. Both Tiurin and Panchenko called.
The flop was and all three players checked.
The turn was the and a check from Panchenko saw Videira bet 2,850. Tiurin folded but Panchenko called.
The river was the and a check from Panchenko saw Videira check behind.
Panchenko turned over and Videira couldn’t beat those quad Tens.
We didn't see the hand, but PokerStars Team Pro Aditya Agarwal has been eliminated from the PokerStars Championship Main Event here at the Sochi Casino & Resort.
According to Twitter he ran pocket Kings into pocket jacks and was eliminated shortly before the scheduled dinner break.
Busted kk vs jj #PSCSochi
— Aditya Agarwal (@AdiAgarwal_int)
Alexander Lakhov, who had tangled with Agarwal not long ago, confirmed that it was him that three-bet out of the big blind and called the four-bet shove for 17,000 with jacks and spiked a set on the turn.