Romania's Andrei-Munteanu Soars to the Top on Day 1b of Main Event

Action continued inside the Grand Casino Liechtenstein as Day 1b of the CHF1,500 Main Event at the 2026 WSOP Circuit Liechtenstein drew 188 entries, all chasing a slice of the CHF1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. By the end of the night, the field was trimmed down to 29 players, all of whom bagged up their chips and secured a min-cash heading into Day 2.

Topping the second starting flight is Romania’s Mihai Andrei-Munteanu, who finished with 875,000. The stack not only tops the Day 1b leaderboard, but also moves him into the overall chip lead across the tournament so far. Andrei-Munteanu currently stands as the only player with more than 100 big blinds heading into Day 2.

Next in the counts is Switzerland’s Lukas Schlumpf, who bagged 740,000, while Romania’s Mihai Tabac rounds out the top three with 711,000, after max late registering, and the being the player to burst the bubble on the last hand of the night,

Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Mihai Andrei-Munteanu	Romania	875,000	109
2	Lukas Schlumpf	Switzerland	740,000	93
3	Mihai Tabac	Romania	711,000	89
4	Marc Sen	Switzerland	638,000	80
5	Manuel Lussi	Switzerland	596,000	75
6	Nils Mallon	Germany	536,000	67
7	Marcel Maurer	Switzerland	519,000	65
8	George-Valentin Otomega	Romania	510,000	64
9	Neculai Macovei	Romania	467,000	58
10	Micha Wildberger	Switzerland	440,000	55

On the bubble, Schlumpf tried to burst it earlier, by calling Michael Allgauer’s short stack shove with a suited king, but couldn’t improve against pocket sevens. Tabac entered just before registration closed and quickly doubled with pocket queens, then again with aces when Rishi Karan hero called his river shove with fifth pair. Tabac would eventually be the one to burst the bubble and bring play to a close.

From under the gun, Tabac opened ace-queen and then called the 14 or so big blind shove of Vito Branciforte, who held pocket tens. The window card was a queen, and there was no coming back for Branciforte, who earned the unwanted title of bubble boy. This pot was part of the trio that helped Tabac finish in the top three on the leaderboard.

Some of the other notables to bag up a stack on Day 1b included Neculai Macovei (467,000), who sent to the tournament into the bubble stage when his queens held against the pocket tens of Sascha Messmer. David Wintersberger (293,000) sits just outside the top ten, helped drastically by being on the right side of cooler towards the end of the night.

Also returning to the baize on Sunday is Raphael Groicher (285,000), Italy's Lorenzo Arduini (253,000), Marek Tatar (215,000), and Chandru Alt (170,000). Bracelet winner Ivo Donev (45,000), and Paul-Adrian Covaciu prop up the bottom of the counts, having just crept through with a few big blinds.

Action inside the tournament area is far from over, as Day 1c, the turbo flight, is currently still underway with its faster-paced 20-minute blind structure. A further 44 players entered this flight, with seven advancing into the second stage of the tournament.

Attention will then turn to Saturday, March 7, when the schedule continues with Day 1d starting at 12 p.m., following the same structure as today’s flight with 40-minute blind levels. Players will have one final chance to secure a seat in Day 2 later that evening when the last starting flight, Day 1e, gets underway at 8 p.m with 20-minute levels.

Remaining CHF1,500 Main Event Schedule