Six World Series of Poker Circuit rings have already found a new owner at the King's Casino in Rozvadov and the poker outlet in the Czech Republic near the border to Germany is gearing up for the highlights of the festival in the upcoming days. But first, Day 2 of the €3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller will get underway in one hour from now at 16:00 local time.
The initial field of 32 entries has been cut down to 14 hopefuls within the first nine levels of play, all of them fighting for the guaranteed prize pool of €100,000. However, registration and reentry remain available until the first card is dealt so there may still be changes to the field size and prizes up for grabs.
Leading the field into Day 2 is 2012 WSOP PLO world champion Jan-Peter Jachtmann with 136,800 in chips, followed by 2009 WSOPE PLO braceler winner Jani Vilmunen (126,800) and Thomas Bichon (108,800). Other notables include Florian Langmann (86,700), Vasili Firsau (68,100), 2013 Eureka Prague champion Dimitri Holdeew (63,800), as well as the two two-time WSOP bracelet winners John Kabbaj (38,500) and Jesper Hougaard (25,500).
Play recommences in level 10 at blinds 600-1,200 and there will also be a live stream with commentary in German and English available as of 18:30. The action is on a security delay of 30 minutes, as the hole cards are shown. The PokerNews live reporting team will provide all key hands until the winner is crowned and also covers the Super High Roller and the €1,000,000 guaranteed Main Event until November 9th.
Picking up the action on the three-way flop of in the last hand of the previous level, Vasili Firsau fired 6,100 from the small blind. Jesper Hougaard folded in the cutoff and Florian Langmann called from the button. Firsau also bet the turn for 12,200 and Langmann called before the fell on the river.
Firsau bet 33,300 and Langmann had just slightly less than that behind after previously tripling up his short stack. Langmann tanked for two minutes and then called, mucking his cards once he got shown the by Firsau.
After a raise to 4,000 and the call of Lukas Nemec on the button, Roman Cieslik got his last 12,000 chips in and the initial raiser called. Nemec then reraised the pot to isolate successfully and showed . Cieslik had the for aces as well, but the board delivered three diamonds to send Cieslik to the rail.
Nemec moved up to the chip leader position on the feature table after previously taking some chips off Jan-Peter Jachtmann as well.
Arvin Ravindran opened to 4,000 from under the gun and Jesper Hougaard just flat-called from two seats over to see a rainbow flop of . Ravindran continued for 10,000 and Hougaard shoved with the for bottom two pair. Ravindran had that dominated with and both the turn and river bricked.
On the heads-up flop of , Roger Hairabedian got his stack in with the for king-high and a super wrap to make a straight. Thomas Bichon looked him up with the and the board filled up with the turn and the river.
The field has been reduced to the final nine and there is now a quick five-minute break with a redraw is about to take place. Once they are down to eight players, the official final table will be streamed with hole cards. There are 26:35 minutes remaining in the current level.
Thomas Bichon limped and Hannes Scholz then raised to 8,700 from the button. Bichon put him in and Scholz called for his tournament life with around 29,000 chips.
Scholz:
Bichon:
The flop was no good for Scholz despite picking up a straight draw. The turn and the river bricked as well and that was it for the German. The action continued for one more hand before it was paused and the players were then sent on a 20-minute break.
Artur Schreiner raised to 6,000 from early position and Jan-Peter Jachtmann flat-called on the button. Jachtmann checked and then called when Schreiner got his stack in after the flop .
Schreiner: for top pair
Jachtmann: for two pair
The on the turn gave Schreiner an open-ended straight draw, however Jachtmann filled up to a full house with the river. Schreiner hit the rail and Jachtmann recovered the losses from earlier.
Arvin Ravindran raised to 8,400 and was called by Lukas Nemec on the button to see the flop of . Ravindran continued for 15,000 and then called the shove of Nemec for his last 21,000 behind.
Nemec: for two pair
Ravindran: for a pair of aces
Both the turn and the river bricked and that eliminated Ravindran in 7th place.
Lukas Nemec was the initial raiser for 7,000 and Thomas Bichon from one seat over as well as Vasili Firsau in the big blind called. On the flop flop, Firsau check-folded to a bet worth 15,000 by Nemec and Bichon called. The on the turn triggered a check from Nemec and a bet worth 35,000 by Bichon.
Nemec check-raised all in for 157,500 and Bichon snap-called with the best hand at that point.
Nemec:
Bichon:
The river ended the tournament of Nemec in sixth place, just short of the money and the remaining five players are now on the bubble.
Thomas Bichon raised and picked up one caller in Jani Vilmunen from the big blind. On the flop , Vilmunen check-called a bet of 9,000 and the hit on the turn. Vilmunen checked again with a stack of 51,000 and Bichon led for 29,500. The Finn gave it a lot of thought and then moved all in to receive a snap-call by his opponent.
Bichon:
Vilmunen:
Only a four or three could save Vilmunen, but it was the blank that sent him to the rail in 5th place and let the bubble burst. Bichon increased his already big lead further and will be opening a lot of hands in the near future.