button in SafariStoika Cracks Queens to Eliminate Lipp and Claim Chip Lead
After an under-the-gun open to 20,000 from Matthias Lipp, everyone folded to Roman Stoika in the big blind, who flatted the min-raise. On the A♣8♣A♦ flop, Stoika checked, and Lipp continued with a min-bet of 10,000. Stoika check-raised to 36,000, which Lipp called.
Both players checked the K♦ turn to see the 5♣ land on the river. Stoika led for 33,000, then Lipp jammed his last 174,000. Stoika called. Lipp showed Q♣Q♦, but was crushed by Stoika's A♥J♠ for trip aces. Lipp was busted, and Stoika chipped up to 1.8 million and took the chip lead.
Here are the top ten chip leaders in Flight 1A:
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Roman Stoika | Russia | 1,833,000 | 183 |
| 2 | Ruslan Zhmak | Russia | 1,803,000 | 180 |
| 3 | Patrick Brooks | United Kingdom | 1,436,000 | 144 |
| 4 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 1,405,000 | 141 |
| 5 | Aleksandr Kropotov | Russia | 1,170,000 | 117 |
| 6 | Ruslan Galiullin | Russia | 1,127,000 | 113 |
| 7 | Casimir Seire | Finland | 1,109,000 | 111 |
| 8 | Yilu Yuan | China | 1,101,000 | 110 |
| 9 | David Kaufmann | Germany | 1,077,000 | 108 |
| 10 | Enver Abduraimov | Russia | 1,075,000 | 108 |
Flight 1B is in Level 4 (1,500/3,000/3,000) with 38 remaining out of 42 entrants so far.