Day 1 Completed
Live Highlights
Day 1 Completed
Gruissem Top Dog as Four Germans Bag in Top Five

German domination of high roller events continued with Event #9: €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller at World Series of Poker Europe at King's Casino.
Four of the top five chip counts at the close of Day 1 belong to players hailing from Germany, chief among them Philipp Gruissem, who bagged just shy of six starting stacks with 2,905,000. Gruissem finds himself in very familiar territory, having won five events with buy-ins of at least $25,000 in a stellar career that's seen him rack up nearly $11 million in cashes.
Gruissem made mincemeat of poor Piotr Franczak late, first cracking his aces with pocket nines by flopping a set and then three-betting Franczak's button open with ace-king and snapping off the four-bet shove for about 30 big blinds. Franczak had ace-five and the board delivered no help.
"Philbort" is followed by countrymen Claas Segebrecht (2,675,000), Rainer Kempe (2,455,000) and Dietrich Fast (2,245,000). Sandwiched in between the final two is French super high roller Jean-Noel Thorel (2,325,000).
Kempe and Fast won late all-in pots to greatly boost their stacks and climb up the counts. The former was dealt kings and doubled the Andrew Leathem and his tens. The latter got lucky with ace-jack, hitting a jack on the river to bust fellow German Manig Loeser and his ace-queen.
The total number of entries tallied up to 104, with players allowed to reenter as many times as they wished throughout the 12 levels lasting 40 minutes apiece. As 43 players bagged with registration still open until the start of Day 2, there's still not much clarity overall in the tournament.
That said, some of the players who did make it through included 2017 WSOP Main Event final table participants Antoine Saout and Benjamin Pollak, as well as Igor Kurganov, Sam Trickett, Adrian Mateos, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and 888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche.
Day 2 of the High Roller kicks off at 2 p.m. local time Thursday, and again, registration remains open until that time. Blinds are set to move to 15,000/30,000/5,000, so players firing at the buzzer will have about 17 big blinds. Come back to PokerNews for more live coverage at that time.
Day 2 Seat Draw
Table | Seat | Player | Nationality | Chipcount | Big Blinds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
39 | 2 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 1,070,000 | 36 |
39 | 3 | Claas Segebrecht | Germany | 2,675,000 | 89 |
39 | 4 | Liv Boeree | United Kingdom | 900,000 | 30 |
39 | 5 | Dietrich Fast | Germany | 2,245,000 | 75 |
39 | 6 | Philipp Gruissem | United Kingdom | 2,905,000 | 97 |
39 | 7 | Sylvain Loosli | United Kingdom | 600,000 | 20 |
40 | 2 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | 500,000 | 17 |
40 | 3 | Igor Kurganov | Russia | 1,735,000 | 58 |
40 | 4 | Timothy Adams | Canada | 580,000 | 19 |
40 | 5 | Benjamin Pollak | France | 1,380,000 | 46 |
40 | 6 | Pierre Neuville | Belgium | 355,000 | 12 |
40 | 7 | Andrew Leathem | United Kingdom | 1,250,000 | 42 |
41 | 1 | David Peters | United States | 440,000 | 15 |
41 | 2 | Niall Farrell | United Kingdom | 1,600,000 | 53 |
41 | 4 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 1,735,000 | 58 |
41 | 6 | Jan Schwippert | Germany | 1,190,000 | 40 |
41 | 7 | Ivan Luca | Argentina | 455,000 | 15 |
41 | 8 | Daniel Pidun | Germany | 925,000 | 31 |
42 | 1 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 1,500,000 | 50 |
42 | 2 | Dan Shak | United States | 680,000 | 23 |
42 | 3 | Ryan Riess | United States | 415,000 | 14 |
42 | 4 | Dennis Yu | Taiwan | 460,000 | 15 |
42 | 7 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | 2,435,000 | 81 |
42 | 8 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | 1,675,000 | 56 |
43 | 2 | Pavel Binar | Czech Republic | 325,000 | 11 |
43 | 3 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 1,035,000 | 35 |
43 | 4 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 470,000 | 16 |
43 | 5 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | 1,115,000 | 37 |
43 | 7 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 930,000 | 31 |
43 | 8 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 905,000 | 30 |
44 | 1 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 735,000 | 25 |
44 | 3 | Mike Leah | Canada | 2,175,000 | 73 |
44 | 4 | Ognjen Šekularac | Serbia | 785,000 | 26 |
44 | 7 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | 975,000 | 33 |
44 | 8 | Antoine Saout | France | 2,030,000 | 68 |
45 | 1 | Dominik Nitsche | Germany | 420,000 | 14 |
45 | 2 | Samuel Grafton | Czech Republic | 690,000 | 23 |
45 | 3 | Opren Kisacikoglu | Turkey | 1,250,000 | 42 |
45 | 6 | John Racener | United States | 385,000 | 13 |
45 | 8 | Martin Kabrhel | Czech Republic | 1,105,000 | 37 |
46 | 2 | Bertrand Grospellier | France | 910,000 | 30 |
46 | 3 | Paul Newey | United Kingdom | 1,505,000 | 50 |
46 | 4 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | 2,325,000 | 78 |
46 | 5 | Bryn Kenney | United States | 905,000 | 30 |
46 | 6 | Bartlomiej Machon | Poland | 1,520,000 | 51 |
End of Day 1 Counts (full)
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2,905,000 | 205,000 | |||
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2,675,000 | 1,730,000 | |||
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2,455,000 | 1,305,000 | |||
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2,325,000 | 95,000 | |||
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2,245,000 | -5,000 | |||
![]() |
2,173,000 | 13,000 | |||
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2,030,000 | 180,000 | |||
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1,735,000 | -265,000 | |||
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1,715,000 | -485,000 | |||
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1,675,000 | 1,060,000 | |||
![]() |
1,600,000 | 350,000 | |||
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1,520,000 | 1,386,000 | |||
![]() |
1,505,000 | 355,000 | |||
![]() |
1,380,000 | 80,000 | |||
![]() |
1,250,000 | -250,000 | |||
![]() |
1,250,000 | -420,000 | |||
![]() |
1,190,000 | -10,000 | |||
![]() |
1,115,000 | 415,000 | |||
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1,105,000 | 105,000 | |||
![]() ![]() |
1,070,000 | -930,000 | |||
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1,055,000 | 325,000 | |||
![]() |
1,050,000 | ||||
![]() |
975,000 | -105,000 | |||
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930,000 | 300,000 | |||
![]() |
925,000 | 555,000 |
Antonius Eliminates Ensan
Patrik Antonius eliminated Hossein Ensan after he raised to 50,000 with and Ensan went all in for 150,000 total with
.
The board ran out and Ensan was eliminated with only a few hands left to play.
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1,080,000 | 490,000 | |||
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Busted |
Nasty Rivers Sends Loeser to Rail
Manig Loeser was all in for a little over 400,000 when we got to his table, seemingly having shoved over a Dietrich Fast open with . Fast had
and was drawing to three outs but he got there on the river when a fishhook fell.
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2,250,000 | 1,190,000 | |||
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Busted |
Elky Doubles as the End of Day Approaches

Martin Kahbrel opened to 50,000 before Hossein Ensan raised to 102,000 from the small blind. Bertrand Grospellier went all in for 373,000. Kahbrel folded and Ensan called.
Grospellier was ahead with against the
of Ensan. The board ran out
and Grospellier doubled with only a few hands left to play in Day 1.
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810,000 | 446,000 | |||
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310,000 | 40,000 |
Saout Eliminates Sinclair
Antoine Saout opened for 55,000 in middle position and immediately called when Jack Sinclair shoved in the cutoff for about 280,000.
Saout:
Sinclair:
"Don't worry, it's coming," Sinclair said with confidence.
He couldn't have been more wrong as the board left him dead on the turn.
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1,850,000 | 500,000 | |||
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Busted |
Gruissem Eliminates Franczak

Piotr Franczak opened for 50,000 on the button and Philipp Gruissem made it 175,000. Franczak said he was all in for what looked like about 740,000 and Gruissem snapped it off with . Franczak could only shrug and show
, and the board ran out
.
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2,700,000 | 800,000 | |||
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Busted |
- Level:
- 12
- Blinds:
- 12,000/24,000
- Ante:
- 4,000
Gruissem Doubles Through Franczak
Philip Gruisem just came from behind to double through Piotr Franczak. Franczak had aces and Gruissem covered, but Gruissem flopped a set of nines and rivered a full house to earn a big double.
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1,900,000 | 936,000 | |||
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980,000 | -880,000 |