Charlie Carrel Leads WSOPE High Roller for One Drop After Day 1
The crème de la crème of European and world poker came together today for the first ever €111,111 High Roller for One Drop held outside of the United States here at the World Series of Poker Europe at King’s Casino, Rozvadov.
It was clear that the €111,111 buy-in was going to attract only two types of players: those who could afford that buy-in, and those who think they could beat the field a tournament of this calibre would attract.
A total of 86 players came together, and after a day which saw a whopping 27 rebuys, it is Charlie Carrel who leads the 58 remaining players ahead of Day 2.
"I feel very lethargic," said Carrel, after a long day's play, "Feels like I could probably put my head on one of these tables and go to sleep. It was a really fun day!"
Bagging second in chips is bracelet-winner and poker legend Gus Hansen who said that players in the tournament weren't used to some of his plays.
"The other players that that I made a couple of interesting plays; lines that they weren't used to. I made a couple of mistakes at the end of the day, but all things being considered it was a pretty good day."
Among the rebuys were triple bracelet winner Adrian Mateos, along with fellow bracelet-winners Dietrich Fast, Jens Lakemeier, Ivan Luca and David Peters.
2016 WSOP High Roller for One Drop winner Fedor Holz, who flew into Rozvadov especially for this event, was one of four players to re-enter twice. Igor Kurganov, Julian Thomas and Jean-Noel Thorel all fired three times in this event. All but Thorel would bag ahead of Day 2, and Holz said that he had a roller coaster of a day at the tables.
"I'm in for three, but I bagged four so I think that's a positive outcome," said Holz at the end of play, "I'm still in. It's just another tournament for me. A little nicer than the other High Rollers because it's such a big field, but it's fun; it's fun as always."
This year’s WSOP High Roller for One Drop runner-up Bertrand Grospellier tweeted before play that there would be no Doug Polk to stop him this time. However, that didn’t stop him from re-entering and he bagged ahead of Day 2.
The day got underway at 2 p.m. local time, with Steffen Sontheimer taking an early chip lead after eliminating The Wolf as the first casualty of the day. Other players to bust early included Pierre Neuville who fell to the flush of Jens Lakemeier, and Dietrich Fast.
14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth turned up for the biggest event of the WSOPE so far, and proceeded to dust off his stack in around a dozen hands, after folding a straight to Bryn Kenney when the board paired, and running Ace-Ten into an opponent’s Ace-Jack.
The next chip leader was Ilya Bulychev who was the beneficiary of the coldest of decks, getting it in with an overpair against two opponents who had flopped sets. The King on the turn gave Bulychev a bigger set and he chipped up.
However, Bulychev’s chip lead didn’t last long after one of the more recent bracelet-winners in the field, Martin Kabrhel, eliminated both Igor Kurganov and Jack Salter after flopping two pair. What made things worse was that both Kurganov and Salter held pocket aces! Kabrhel sent the pair to the rail and settled in at the top of the chip counts.
The rotating door of eliminations and re-entries continued, even after the dinner break. Rob Yong and Dzmitry Urbanovich joined the field, while The Wolf, Ryan Riess and tennis legend Boris Becker were eliminated.
As the levels ticked by, Steffen Sontheimer flirted with the chip lead after the elimination of Ali Reza Fatehi, but it was Charlie Carrel who eliminated Carlo Savinelli and Mustapha Kanit to break into an eight-figure stack as the night drew to a close.
The remaining 58 players will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time to play down to a final table. Late registration will stay open until the beginning of level 13.
Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for all the action from the High Roller for One Drop.
Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 1 | Alexander Kostritsyn | Russian Federation | 1,535,000 | 19 |
| 40 | 2 | John Racener | United States | 2,525,000 | 32 |
| 40 | 3 | Bryn Kenney | United States | 655,000 | 8 |
| 40 | 5 | Teodor Lejsek | Czech Republic | 3,740,000 | 47 |
| 40 | 6 | Rob Yong | United Kingdom | 3,425,000 | 43 |
| 40 | 7 | Kenny Hallaert | United Kingdom | 3,550,000 | 44 |
| 40 | 8 | Felipe Ramos | Brazil | 3,705,000 | 46 |
| 42 | 1 | Bertrand Grospellier | France | 4,245,000 | 53 |
| 42 | 2 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | 1,865,000 | 23 |
| 42 | 4 | Jens Lakemeier | Germany | 3,005,000 | 38 |
| 42 | 5 | Jordi Urlings | Netherlands | 2,055,000 | 26 |
| 42 | 6 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | 6,190,000 | 77 |
| 42 | 7 | Martin Kabrhel | Czech Republic | 8,970,000 | 112 |
| 42 | 8 | Ivan Luca | Argentina | 3,495,000 | 44 |
| 43 | 1 | Jan Barta | Czech Republic | 1,635,000 | 20 |
| 43 | 2 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | 6,600,000 | 83 |
| 43 | 4 | Jan Schwippert | Germany | 3,065,000 | 38 |
| 43 | 5 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 5,425,000 | 68 |
| 43 | 6 | Charlie Carrel | United Kingdom | 10,000,000 | 125 |
| 43 | 7 | Ognjen Šekularac | Serbia | 4,220,000 | 53 |
| 43 | 8 | Daniel Pidun | Germany | 4,980,000 | 62 |
| 44 | 1 | Antoine Saout | France | 2,640,000 | 33 |
| 44 | 3 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 2,885,000 | 36 |
| 44 | 4 | Jack Salter | United Kingdom | 3,365,000 | 42 |
| 44 | 5 | Eugene Katchalov | Ukraine | 5,215,000 | 65 |
| 44 | 6 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 9,050,000 | 113 |
| 44 | 7 | Jannis Brauer | Germany | 3,275,000 | 41 |
| 44 | 8 | Julian Thomas | Germany | 2,025,000 | 25 |
| 45 | 1 | Dietrich Fast | Germany | 6,050,000 | 76 |
| 45 | 2 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Poland | 930,000 | 12 |
| 45 | 3 | Ahadpur Khangah | Iran | 8,455,000 | 106 |
| 45 | 4 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 1,050,000 | 13 |
| 45 | 5 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 4,555,000 | 57 |
| 45 | 8 | Moritz Dietrich | Austria | 2,300,000 | 29 |
| 46 | 1 | Sylvain Loosli | France | 2,175,000 | 27 |
| 46 | 2 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 2,145,000 | 27 |
| 46 | 3 | Fedor Holz | Germany | 4,150,000 | 52 |
| 46 | 4 | Philipp Gruissem | Germany | 6,100,000 | 76 |
| 46 | 5 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 3,270,000 | 41 |
| 46 | 6 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 3,000,000 | 38 |
| 47 | 2 | Christopher Frank | Germany | 1,905,000 | 24 |
| 47 | 4 | Max Altergott | Germany | 3,780,000 | 47 |
| 47 | 5 | Jack Sinclair | United Kingdom | 5,105,000 | 64 |
| 47 | 6 | Paul Newey | United Kingdom | 1,225,000 | 15 |
| 47 | 7 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 70,000 | 1 |
| 47 | 8 | Ilya Bulychev | Russian Federation | 4,990,000 | 62 |
| 48 | 3 | Timothy Adams | Canada | 5,530,000 | 69 |
| 48 | 4 | Gus Hansen | Denmark | 9,935,000 | 124 |
| 48 | 5 | Dominik Nitsche | Germany | 6,880,000 | 86 |
| 48 | 6 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 2,245,000 | 28 |
| 48 | 7 | Albert Daher | Lebanon | 4,040,000 | 51 |
| 48 | 8 | Bartlomiej Machon | Poland | 1,545,000 | 19 |
| 49 | 1 | Quirin Zech | Germany | 1,050,000 | 13 |
| 49 | 2 | Liv Boeree | United Kingdom | 2,935,000 | 37 |
| 49 | 3 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | 6,155,000 | 77 |
| 49 | 6 | David Peters | United States | 3,585,000 | 45 |
| 49 | 7 | Dan Shak | United States | 4,365,000 | 55 |
| 49 | 8 | Claas Segebrecht | Germany | 3,435,000 | 43 |