Lulei Hu & Semih Retzep Crack a Milly on Day 1d of Main Event

Action continued in the CHF1,500 Main Event at the 2026 WSOP Circuit Liechtenstein inside the Grand Casino Liechtenstein, with Day 1d attracting 379 entries to the festival’s flagship tournament.

After more than thirteen hours of play, the field was whittled down to 57 players, all of whom bagged up their chips and secured a min-cash heading into Day 2.

Leading the way from the penultimate starting flight was Lulei Hu, who finished with 1,162,000, the largest stack seen so far in the tournament. Germany’s Semih Retzep also crossed the million chip mark, bagging 1,110,000, while Switzerland’s Mathias Muehlebach rounds out the top three with 858,000.

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Lulei Hu	Italy	1,162,000	97
2	Semih Retzep	Germany	1,110,000	93
3	Mathias Muehlebach	Switzerland	858,000	72
4	Marcel Maubach	Germany	786,000	66
5	Adrian Liechti	Switzerland	655,000	55
6	Samuel Jager	Austria	546,000	46
7	Benjamin Hammann	France	544,000	45
8	Riccardo Gubser	Switzerland	544,000	45
9	Frank Pelster	Germany	534,000	45
10	Faris Kanaan	Germany	529,000	44

The biggest of all five opening flights was action-packed from the get-go. Muehlebach raced to the top of the counts early on by spiking a two-outer on the river to crack his opponents' aces. Later on, Faris Kanaan, who finished just inside the top ten, flopped aces-up and managed to get Andrei Chiriliuc to stack off with just one pair.

Just before late registration closed, Fabian Bartuschk scored a double knockout with pocket jacks, and looked poised to bring a decent stack through to Day 2. However, this was not the case. As the bubble approached and the action slowed, the floor staff announced the start of hand-for-hand two away from the money. Louis Peren was first to go when his two Broadway cards remained unimproved.

Then, after over an hour of bubble play, Bartuschk was forced all-in from the big blind for his last few chips. Jonas Heuser called from the small blind and found himself behind with jack-nine to the queen-eight of Bartuschk. The flop and turn were safe for Bartuschk, but a devilish jack on the river earned him the title of bubble boy for Day 1d.

Some other notables who will return to the baize for Day 2 include Karlen Aladzjan (483,000), Paul-Adrian Covaciu (360,000), who is the only player to cash twice, and therefore will forfeit his smallest stack for a min-cash. Also joining them is Claudio Di Giacomo (346,000), thanks to a runner-runner straight, and bracelet winner Weiran Pu (220,000).

While Day 1d has concluded, Day 1e, the turbo flight, is still underway. With late registration now closed, the final flight added 107 entries, bringing the total field size to 827 entries for the Main Event.

All survivors from the opening flights will combine for Day 2 on Sunday, March 8, at 1 p.m., where the official prize pool and payouts will be announced shortly after cards get in the air. The plan for Day 2 is to play down until 24 players remain. Play will resume at Level 15, with 38 minutes remaining on the clock, at blinds of 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante.