We're back for the second start day here in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel as another host of players will attempt to make it through to Day 2 and have a run at becoming the first WPT winner of Season XII. Remember that this is a re-entry tournament and we'll be expecting several of yesterday's bustouts to be back again taking another shot, including last year's winner Marvin Rettenmaier, winner of just about everything going Michael Mizrachi and everyone's favourite German Dominik Nitsche. We'll also be expecting appearances from Daniel 'Jungleman' Cates and the very awesome Kara Scott.
Once again, we'll be playing ten one hour levels, starting at 1pm local time meaning we should be finishing sometime after midnight. Given it's a Saturday, we're hoping for a bigger field today and suspect the play to be a little bit more cautious given that this is the last chance anyone has of making it through.
So tune in from one o'clock for all the latest news and updates!
44 players have sat down at 1pm for the start of Day 1b but we expect many more to register as the day progresses. For some players late registration is a tactical decision, for others they may just have had a late Friday night enjoying the Cyprus nightlife.
Quite a few players haven't joined the fray yet but among those we've spotted so far include Bulgarian Simeon Naydenov, who won a bracelet at this summer's WSOP.
It looked like table 5 was going to kick off with just two players. Canadin player Maximillian Droege and Ali Baskan. Droege decided to get the chat in early: “Are we going to play heads up? You want to flip for it?” Droege had earlier wandered over to the PokerNews desk to ask about Day 1a chip leader and average count.
As we started though four players were ready and Droege stated his intentions by three-betting an opener on the first hand to 450. He got two callers and we saw a flop of . Checked to him, Droege continued with a bet of 700 and got one caller in Baskan. The turn was and both players checked. A river was checked to Droege who reached for chips and made it 1,300. Baskan made the call and mucked when Droege showed the . Looks like Droege has come to play.
Alexandr Lakhov opened to 200 from the button and [Removed:2] defended in the big blind to see a flop. Both players checked before Maksoud bet 300 on the turn, Lakhov made the call to see the on the river and Maksoud quickly bet 600. Lakhov thought for a second before flicking in the call.
Maksoud turned over - enough to win him the first pot of the day.
Serhii Leonichev had bet 250 on a board before Uri Keidar check-raised to 750. Leonichev called to see the turn where Keidar now fired out 1,075. Leonichev made the call a second time and the came on the river. Keidar now fired one last bet, 2,525 and Leonichev looked glumly on.
The Russian rechecked his cards a couple of times, looking as though he wanted to fold but simply felt he couldn't. He threw in the call and Keidar flipped . Leonichev turned over , happy to see one of the few hands he was able to beat.
Max Droege and Kara Scott were exchanging stories about their long flights to get here. Fourteen hours for Droege from Canada, the same for Scott from quite a lot closer, Italy. Droege bet 250 into Scott’s big blind. When the small blind folded, Scott responded with a raise to 625. Droege flicked his cards away. Pick on someone else was the message, and it looked like he got it.
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Checked to him, Droege continued with a bet of 700 and got one caller in Baskan. The turn was 
and both players checked. A river 
was checked to Droege who reached for chips and made it 1,300. Baskan made the call and mucked when Droege showed the 
. Looks like Droege has come to play.
flop. Both players checked before Maksoud bet 300 on the 
turn, Lakhov made the call to see the 
on the river and Maksoud quickly bet 600. Lakhov thought for a second before flicking in the call.
- enough to win him the first pot of the day.
came on the river. Keidar now fired one last bet, 2,525 and Leonichev looked glumly on.
. Leonichev turned over 
, happy to see one of the few hands he was able to beat.
