With a min cash, Ryan Hughes would be taking over the top spot in the current Player of the Year rankings and the American is on the best way there with an above-average stack. The big stacks are pulling away further as Valentin Vornicu jumped into the lead, Sander van Wesemael dropped some but has obviously no reason to worry about so far.
Olivian Balint opened to 7,000 from early position and Adi Rajkovic called on the button. The flop fell and Balint check-called a bet of 7,000 from Rajkovic.
The landed on the turn and Balint led out for 9,500. Rajkovic made the call and the completed the board. Balint moved all-in for 24,000 and Rajkovic went into the tank. After a couple of minutes, the clock was called and Rajkovic was given 30 seconds to act on his hand. He turned over the and mucked his hand.
Not even half an hour has been played and the field has been reduced by nine players. The next trip to run out of chips included Andriy Palyuga, Urs Hauser and Patrik Ciklamini.
Aleksandr Pantiukhin raised to 6,500 and Ciklamini shoved for his last 26,000 to pick up an instant call by Pantiukhin.
Fellow Canadians, Mike Leah and Jeff Cormier, have found themselves seated next to each other at the start of Day 2. Both have aggressive styles of play and it's no surprise they got involved in a hand early on.
Mike Leah raised to 7,500 on the button and Jeff Cormier called from the small blind. The flop came and both players checked to the on the turn. Cormier led out for 8,000 and Leah called to see the on the river.
Cormier fired another bet of 22,000 and Leah tossed a chip into the pot to signify a call. Cormier turned over for just ace-high, and Leah held for a pair of kings.
Among the next players to fall were Domenico Gala, Atila Aydin, Stoyan Obreshkov and Dominik Desset. Obreshkov was down to two big blinds only when he put his hopes on . Walter Treccarichi had pocket aces and flopped top set. Obreshkov's miracle gained hope by turning the straight, but another king on the river paired the board.
Theodoros Aidonopoulos raised to 6,500 in the cutoff and Ivo Donev three-bet to 21,500 from the small blind. "How much did you start with?" Aidonopoulos asked and eventually called. Both checked the flop and Donev's bet on the turn got the job done.
Jan Bendik's raise to 6,500 was called by Darren Delahunty and Ali Sameeian moved all in to claim the pot uncontested.
Paul Michaelis was unable to run up his fewer than four big blinds and busted while David Dolak became the second casualty of the day, sending over his stack of 13 big blinds to Jesper Mertz.
There will be 114 players returning to the King's Casino for Day 2 of Event #1: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'Em MONSTER STACK. Sander van Wesemael will be leading the charge after bagging an impressive 323,500 chips on Day 1C. He will be followed closely by Valentin Vornicu (296,500), Sergio Fernandez (267,000), and Jeff Cormier (265,000).
Another player to pay close attention to will be Ryan Hefter (208,000), who won this same event in 2015 in Berlin, the last time WSOP Europe was held. Coming in as the defending champion, Hefter went on a run at the end of Day 1A and bagged a healthy stack as he looks to become a two-time WSOP bracelet winner.
When the cards get in the air, players will have their eye on the money bubble which looms just under 30 eliminations away. A min-cash will be worth €1,592 while everyone will be in search of the first-place prize of €117,708. There were a total of 561 entries throughout the three starting flights, comprising a prizepool of €538,280.
The action will resume at 2:00 P.M. inside the Poker Arena at level 15 with the blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a 500 ante. The blind levels will move to 60-minutes in length with the goal being to end play when the final table is reached.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you all of the live updates from the tournament floor.