"It was a good experience," said Igor Kurganov as he walked away from the table and headed over to his girlfriend Liv Boeree, "I played six pots and lots six pots.
"There are six happy people at that table who are like 'Yes!' after my stint at the tables.
"I rejammed from the small blind with and the cutoff had . It came and here I am."
No word from the Russian whether he is planning to play the Turbo Day 1C later this evening.
Vladimir Troyanovskiy, who finished second in the PokerStars Championship Sochi earlier this year, is in the Main Event field and has already chipped up to around 80,000.
The 4 p.m. High Roller satellite is well underway attracting over 130 entrants which exceeds the numbers yesterday. So busy is the Sochi Casino at the moment they are running it in a separate room.
In the main tournament are the Main Event is still going strong and The Sochi Poker Cup is just about to get underway with 104 players registered.
Liv Boeree arrived in the tournament area with Igor Kurganov and took her seat in the Main Event.
In the big blind on the very first hand, she watched Vyacheslav Zaslavskiy, who had just eliminated a player, raise to 1,300 from the button. Valentin Podolyak was in the small blind and three-bet all in for 14,200.
Boeree thought before flatting and Zaslavskiy let out a laugh before folding.
Liv Boeree:
Vyacheslav Zaslavskiy:
Boeree tapped the table as Zaslavskiy tabled his hand. The board ran out and Zaslavksiy doubled up.
There are a number of players around the room who have stacks bubbling just under and around the 100,000 mark but Robert Askarov and then Mikhail Sokolovsky currently have the most chips.
Long way to go thought and an end of day chip leader stack is usually around 200,000.
Late registration has just closed and there were 283 entries today, marginally up on Day 1a which attracted 276.
Team Pokerstars Pros Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov are registered for the event but they have yet to take their seats and will now start to be blinded out, though their stacks are not physically in play at a table.