We just saw Isaac Hagerling on the player list. Hagerling might not ring a bell if you've only followed poker since last year, as the American player only cashed once last year, and that was in a $50 tournament in Los Angeles. The year before though, he won a bracelet at the WSOP for $372,387 after defeating a tough field in the $3,000 Mix Max. We'll keep our eyes on him from now on.
With the first break of the day almost starting, a total of 46 players have registered so far. The latest additions to the field are German regular Manig Loeser and the experienced French player Michel Abécassis.
Vladimir Bozinovic opened under the gun to 400 and a player in middle position made the call. The cutoff called as well, and so did Martin Staszko in the big blind, so four players saw a flop of .
Staszko checked to Bozinovic and he fired a 900 continuation bet. Just the player in middle position made the call, both the cutoff and Staszko folded.
Bozinovic bet another 2,000 on the turn and his opponent again made the call.
The river came the and Bozinovic now bet 4,200. His opponent thought for quite some time before tossing in a single 100 chips to make the call.
Bozinovic showed with some confidence, but his hand would go face down into the muck as his opponent tabled a slow played .
The tournament is about 90 minutes underway, but players are still signing up. They have the possibility to do so the entire day, so we expect the tournament to grow considerably.
One of the latest players to sign up is Fedor Holz. The German high roller, a regular on the European circuit and winner of a big online tournament last year for $1.3 million, got 30,000 to play with and sat down at the same table as Simeon Naydenov.
Holz won a small pot from the Bxulgarian bracelet winner. Holz in the big blind called a raise from Naydenov, and check called a bet of 500 on . Both players checked the on the turn only for Holz to bet out 1,100 on the river. Naydenov quickly folded and Holz won his first small pot of the day.
Thomas Butzhammer has just taken his seat. Butzhammer finished 48th for €1,170 right here in the World Poker Tour Warm up event earlier this week.
Besides Butzhammer one more recognizable face has received a crispy 30,000 in chips: Vladimir Troyanovskiy. The Russian has collected over $3.3 million in career earnings, making him the number 6 on the Russian all time money list.
Action folded to Ognyan Dimov and he limped in from the small blind. His neighbor in the big blind bumped the action to 450 and Dimov made the call.
Dimov carefully tabbed the table on . The big blind slid forward 525 and Dimov made the call.
The Bulgarian player check called another 1,400 on the turn, before checking a third time on the river. The big blind picked out 3,150 and moved the small tower over the betting line. Dimov didn't waste much time before folding.
Jan Ramik, Czech's poker aficionado, and Georgios Sotiropoulos, the number two on the Greek all time money list, have taken their seats. The field is still rather compact, but there are more than enough familiar faces playing today.
Sergey Barbarez is, according to Wikipedia, a Bosnian former professional footballer who played for several clubs in the German Bundesliga and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. He is considered as one of the all time great players of Hamburger SV where he scored 65 goals in 174 Bundesliga games. Barbarez is no stranger to poker, his best result to date is a fourth place finish for €34,080 in the Poker EM Bade in Baden.
The other two familiar faces we identified are big time poker players.
Alexander Lakhov won both the World Poker Tour Main Event and the World Poker Tour National in Cyprus, and has almost $1.7 million in cashes on his hendon mob, making him the number 15 on the Russian all time money list.
Ognyan Dimov, who won a big event in Deauville not too long ago for well over half a million, has taken his seat as well. Dimov is fifth on the Bulgarian all time money list. Now we just need Atanas Gueorguiev and the complete top 5 of Bulgaria would be here.