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 |
. Loosli checked and Mateos moved all in for what would turn out to be 683,000, more than double the 300,000 or so in the pot. Loosli snap-called but his 
two pair was no good as he had gotten unlucky on the river since Mateos held 
.
on the felt. Julian Thomas called out of the small blind and checked the 
. Nitsche put his last 113,000 in. Thomas shrugged a few times and smiled before tossing in the calling chips. 
for a set, Thomas mucked his 
.
. He was ahead of Thorel who held 
was no help to Schemion. Thorel earned a big double.
. The 
