2018 World Series of Poker Europe

The 2018 World Series of Poker Europe has seen the first Non-Hold'em tournament of the festival kick off in style as Event #3: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed already surpassed the guaranteed prize pool of €100,000 on the first of two starting days at King's Casino in Rozvadov. A total of 152 unique players and 78 ere-entries created a field of 230 entries, of which 21 players bagged up chips at the end of level 18.

Leading the field of the 21 survivors is Israel's Dor Tal with 643,000, well ahead of Peter Jaksland (343,000) and Michael Magalshvili (339,000). "Oh, Dor. Yeah, I know him, we played in the same home game," Magalashvili said when glancing over to the other table upon bagging and tagging. Other notables in contention after Day 1a include Alfredo Vega Meister (300,000), Aaron Duczak (265,000), Michael Soyza (224,000), Romain Lewis (209,000), and Aussie Hall of Famer Jason Gray (197,000).

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dutch Boyd (190,000) and six-time champion Chris Ferguson (148,000) also advanced, while fellow WSOP bracelet winners Dario Alioto, Sebastian Langrock and Cord Garcia, as well as Allen Kessler and Anson Tsang were among the 14 players that cashed. Oleh Sushto ended up as the bubble boy of the first starting day.

Day 1A Payouts of Event #3: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Action of the Day

Around 50 players were seated in the first level of the day and the number of entries quickly doubled, while many participants took advantage of the unlimited re-entry option during the first 10 levels. It was not uncommon that some of the players fired at least four bullets without success.

Among those that took a shot without anything to show for just jet were the WSOP bracelet winners Jeff Lisandro, Shaun Deeb, Jeff Madsen, Roger Hairabedian and Max Pescatori. Deeb and Pescatori busted very close to the money with the former missing out on vital points for the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year leader board.

Pescatori got it in with jack-ten-ten-nine and Ivaylo Sivinov flopped two pair with ace-king-seven-six to eliminate the Italian. Sivinov was also responsible for the departure of Deeb when he flopped a straight and held a flush draw to go along with it. Deeb check-shoved with a gutshot to the same straight and the nut flush draw, but bricked both the turn and river.

The money bubble burst in level 16 and it was Oleh Sushto that ended up as the bubble boy. Peter Jaksland doubled twice and Sushto then got it in with aces to fall short against Peter Slustik, while Cord Garcia doubled up in the same hand on another table to let the bubble burst. The eliminations kept coming at a quick pace after that and more than a dozen players headed to the payout desk before bagging and tagging.

Day 1b will kick off at 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday, October 16th, 2018, and a similar, if not even bigger field size is expecxted for the second and final starting day. Make sure to tune back in then to find out who will be in the running for the third gold bracelet of the festival at Europe's biggest poker arena.

Stanislav Parkhomenko was eliminated during the last hands of the night while Chris Ferguson and Edward Lawrie doubled.

Lawrie was all in for 34,000 with and Tarek Alonso called with the . The flop was a sweat as Alonso had plenty of outs. He improved to a straight on the turn, but Lawrie made the nut flush with the river to double.

On a flop of , Lluis Valls Oncins and Peter Jaksland clashed and the former ended up all in and at risk.

Lluis Valls Oncins:
Peter Jaksland:

The turn changed nothing much yet, but Jaksland improved to a straight with the on the river to eliminate the Spaniard.

Ivaylo Sivinov also missed out on Day 2 just yet after falling victim to the hot run of Dor Tal.

Sivinov got it in with the and Tal showed the . The board came and Tal turned a ten-high straight to deal the final blow.

On the flop, Aaron Duczak bet 27,000 and Dutch Boyd gave it some thought before moving all in, Duczak folded instantly. Right after, the last hands of the night were drawn and Boyd picked a three.

At the same time one table over, Manish Goenka raised the pot out of the small blind and Stanislav Parkhomenko three-bet to 50,000. Goenka called all in for 48,000 to set up the following showdown:

Manish Goenka:
Stanislav Parkhomenko:

The board came and Goenka had reason to celebrate.

On the three-way flop of , Lluis Valls Oncins checked in the small blind and was the only one to call a bet of 24,000 by Jason Gray in the big blind. The turn was checked and Valls Oncins checked the river. Gray moved all in and that ended the hand right there, as Valls Oncins quickly folded.

Ting Ho was all in and at risk preflop with the and Amar Begovic looker her up on the button with the .

The board of provided no miracle for Ho and she exited in 25th place. All remaining 24 players will now redraw to the last three tables.

Ting Ho tripled up with trips queens against Tarek Alonso and Amar Begovic while Edward Lawrie flopped a flush with against the of Dimitrios Gkatzas.

In a battle of the blinds, Dutch Boyd was all in for 52,000 with the and Jerome Abitbol looked him up with the . The board ran out ]10d7h6sQd4s] and Boyd remained in contention, too.