€2,200 High Roller
Day 1 Completed
2017 PokerStars Festival Hamburg
€2,200 High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2017 PokerStars Festival Hamburg
Buy-in
€2,200
Prize Pool
€174,600
Entries
90
Level
24
Blinds
15,000 / 30,000
Ante
5,000
Vardjavand Leads; Jensen and Derkowski Among Big Stacks After Day 1 of the High Roller in Hamburg
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
The most expensive tournament of the 2017 PokerStars Festival at Casino Schenefeld in Hamburg came with a buy-in of €2,200 and a cap of 80 players and that number of unique participants was reached during the registration period. Once the cards went back in the air after the dinner break, another 10 hopefuls had fired the optional single re-entry to boost the field to 90 entries in total.
After 12 levels of 40 minutes each, only 28 players bagged up and remain in the hunt for their share of the €174,600 prize pool. The top 13 spots will earn at least €3,490 for their efforts, while the winner can look forward to a payday of €46,380. Best-positioned to take down the title and PokerStars Festival High Roller trophy is well-known Hamburg-based poker player Toni Vardjavand with massive 273,900, more than nine times the starting stack.
Vardjavand is followed by fellow local player Andre Haneberg with 221,900, while Sven Leu completes the overnight podium with 182,900. Furthermore, three former European Poker Tour Main Event champions follow next with EPT3 Baden winner Thang Duc Nguyen (180,300), EPT8 Madrid champion Frederik Jensen (178,200) and EPT4 Warsaw winner Michael Schulze (78,200) all in contention.
Other notables among the Day 1 survivors are Grzegorz Derkowski (144,700), Daniel Belov (98,200), [Removed:65] (71,200), Martin Wendt (54,300) and Aleksandar Tomovic (49,900). Florian Bach was down to a mere 300 chips with the ante already at 100 before staging a massive comeback and reaching Day 2 with 67,900.
The field in Germany's second biggest city was a mixture of German players and nearby countries, especially Denmark had plenty of participants in contention with such big names as Peter Jaksland, Mick Heder and Gisle Olsen made the trip to Hamburg but all failed to bag up. Other notables that took part and busted throughout Day 1 were the Russians [Removed:19] and Andrey Andreev, as well as the Italians Francesco Delfoco, Angelo Benedetto and Salvatore Camarda.
Daniel Montagnolli entered a few levels late and quickly rose to the top of the leader board, becoming the first player with six digits after sending Sokolovskiy to the rail with a big hero call on a paired ten-high board holding ten-eight for tens and sixes. Sokolovskiy was caught bluffing with king-seven for a busted straight draw, and fellow countryman Andreev busted for a second time on that very same table shortly after.
What followed was a roller coaster ride for Montagnolli, who eventually busted with pocket nines against the queen-jack of Toni Vardjavand, who got there with a move on a ten-high flop. Vardjavand never looked back after that and eventually claimed a comfortable lead for the final day of the tournament.
The remaining 28 players will return to Casino Schenefeld on November 22nd 2017 as of 5 p.m. local time with level 13 and blinds of 1,200/2,400 and a running ante of 400. Whether or not the event will indeed play down to a champion late at night or require an additional day remains to be seen. The first of four starting days of the 2017 PokerStars Festival Hamburg €1,100 Main Event also gets underway at 1 p.m. local time and the PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates from the floor for both tournaments.
€2,200 High Roller Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Toni Vardjavand | Germany | 273,900 | 114 |
| 1 | 2 | Sven Leu | Germany | 182,900 | 76 |
| 1 | 4 | Jakob Madsen | Denmark | 136,900 | 57 |
| 1 | 5 | Kim De Han | Germany | 94,600 | 39 |
| 1 | 6 | Thang Duc Nguyen | Germany | 180,300 | 75 |
| 1 | 7 | Oleg Volosin | Estonia | 43,600 | 18 |
| 1 | 8 | Fredrik Andersson | Sweden | 34,900 | 15 |
| 2 | 2 | Negjdet Avdylaj | Macedonia | 37,800 | 16 |
| 2 | 3 | Andre Haneberg | Germany | 221,900 | 92 |
| 2 | 4 | Christian Freimuller | Germany | 61,600 | 26 |
| 2 | 5 | Adnan Dizdarevic | Germany | 35,100 | 15 |
| 2 | 6 | [Removed:179] | Germany | 56,500 | 24 |
| 2 | 7 | Daniel Belov | Estonia | 98,200 | 41 |
| 2 | 8 | Aleksandar Tomovic | Serbia | 49,900 | 21 |
| 3 | 1 | Erkan Sonmez | Germany | 48,200 | 20 |
| 3 | 2 | Jamila von Perger | Germany | 71,600 | 30 |
| 3 | 3 | Vytis Paskevicius | Lithuania | 130,000 | 54 |
| 3 | 5 | Michael Schulze | Germany | 78,200 | 33 |
| 3 | 6 | Vitaly Karayvan | Russia | 74,600 | 31 |
| 3 | 7 | [Removed:65] | Germany | 71,200 | 30 |
| 3 | 8 | Said Hossein Madani | Germany | 42,000 | 18 |
| 4 | 1 | Florian Bach | Germany | 67,900 | 28 |
| 4 | 2 | Martin Wendt | Denmark | 54,300 | 23 |
| 4 | 3 | Jonas Wohlgemuth | Germany | 49,800 | 21 |
| 4 | 4 | Frederik Jensen | Denmark | 178,200 | 74 |
| 4 | 5 | Roberto Manfredi | Italy | 78,000 | 33 |
| 4 | 6 | Grzegorz Derkowski | Germany | 144,700 | 60 |
| 4 | 8 | Rishi Bhasin | Germany | 91,700 | 38 |
End-of-day Chip Counts (full)
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
The 28 remaining players will be back at 5 p.m. local time to play down to a winner, and a recap of today's action is to follow.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
273,900 | 73,900 |
|
221,900 | -8,100 |
|
182,900 | 12,900 |
|
180,300 | 10,300 |
|
178,200 | 3,200 |
|
144,700 | -4,300 |
|
136,900 | 26,900 |
|
130,000 | 130,000 |
|
98,200 | 58,200 |
|
94,600 | 94,600 |
|
|
91,700 | 19,700 |
|
78,200 | 46,200 |
|
78,000 | 30,000 |
|
74,600 | 74,600 |
|
71,600 | 71,600 |
|
|
71,200 | 5,200 |
|
67,900 | -4,100 |
|
|
61,600 | 1,600 |
|
|
56,500 | 9,500 |
|
54,300 | 22,300 |
|
49,900 | -3,100 |
|
|
49,800 | -1,700 |
|
48,200 | 200 |
|
|
43,600 | -26,400 |
|
|
42,000 | -58,000 |
Jensen Cracks Tse's Kings
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
On the three-way flop of 
, Frederik Jensen checked out of the small blind as did the player in the big blind. Jay Tse bet 11,000 from early position and Jensen called, the big blind folded.
The 
appeared on the turn and Jensen checked once more to see Tse move all in for around 48,000, which the Dane snap-called.
Jay Tse: 
Frederik Jensen: 
The 
on the river was a blank and Tse headed to the rail just shy of making Day 2.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
175,000 | 55,000 |
|
|
Busted |
Four More Hands
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
The tournament staff have stopped the clock and announced that the players need to play four more hands before play ends today.
Beck and Offen Bust
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Wolfgang Beck sent his stack over to Sven Leu when his 
was no good versus 
while Hanno Offen ended up second-best to Thang Duc Nguyen.
Nguyen opened to 5,500m and called the shove of short stack Offen with 
. Offen was ahead with 
but the board ran out 
to improve Nguyen.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
170,000 | 30,000 |
|
|
170,000 | 77,000 |
|
|
Busted | |
|
|
Busted |
Derkowski Doubles Through Wendt
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Grzegorz Derkowski just doubled through Martin Wendt as the team approached the table. The board read 
and only Derkowski's hole cards were still showing. He had to double up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
149,000 | 104,000 |
|
|
32,000 | -113,000 |
Down to Four Tables
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Among the next casualties were Phong Than Pham, [Removed:431] - for the second time today, and Sebo Degermenci.
Jay Tse and Andre Haneberg got into a big pot before the table broke and there were 65,000 in the middle with the completed board showing 
. "You never have a bluff there," Tse shrugged and folded with 50,000 behind. Haneberg said nothing and instead rolled over 
before collecting the pot.
There are currently 31 players remaining and all survivors at the end of the level will bag up their chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
230,000 | 20,000 |
|
|
50,000 | -40,000 |
|
Busted | |
|
|
Busted | |
|
|
Busted | |
|
|
Busted |
Beck Back With a Double Up
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Wolfgang Beck shoved all in for his remaining 25,200 from mid-position. [Removed:179], sitting in the hijack, asked for a count. The dealer confirmed the amount and Henning shoved too with a stack which was almost three times as big. Everyone else folded so they were heads-up.
Wolfgang Beck:
[Removed:179]: 
The board ran out 
- Beck ended with the same pair of aces but thanks to the king-kicker he won the hand and doubled up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
55,500 | 31,500 |
|
|
47,000 | -23,000 |
Madani Busts Ali
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
"Sorry guys, I am out," Walid Abdi Ali said when he walked into the press area. The German further explained that he three-bet an open raise of Said Hossein Madani on the button while being in the small blind and quickly called the four-bet shove of Madani to put himself at risk for the last 40,000.
Madani won the flip with pocket tens against ace-king and Ali will be back in action in the Main Event in the upcoming days.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
100,000 | 50,000 |
|
Busted |