El Yaacoubi Leads the Final 50 Players After Day 1 of Event #15: €3,000 NLH Closer
After 15 levels on Day 1, play has come to an end in Event #15: €3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Closer. It was a wild day that saw plenty of action throughout, accumulating a whopping 228 entries and a prize pool of €606,480.
Only 50 players will return to the felt for Day 2 and Rachid El Yaacoubi will be leading the way after amassing a huge stack of 819,500 chips to end the day. He edged out Alessandro Pichierri in the late stages, despite Pichierri leading the better part of the day.
El Yaacoubi spends the majority of his time playing tournaments in his home country of France, but his largest career score came right here at King's Resort earlier this year when he pocket a six-figure payday. He will be looking to top that number tomorrow and also earn himself a piece of WSOP jewelry in the process.
Some other notables to join him on Day 2 include Andrea Radicchi (488,500), Timo Kamphues (375,000), Manuel Fischer (370,500), Artur Martirosian (232,000), and bracelet winner Antoine Vranken (131,000). It will be a fight to get into the money with only 35 places being paid and a min-cash worth €5,029.
With the unlimited re-entry option open for the first 12 levels of the day, it created a lot of action which in turn cost some players a lot of cash at the registration desk. Some players were in for two, three, and even four bullets on the day. However, nobody topped the nine total entries from Emil Bise who still fell short of advancing to Day 2.
The action is slated to resume tomorrow at 10 a.m. local time on level 16 with the blinds at 2,500/5,000 and a 5,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 40 minutes in length with a 15-minute break after every three levels. The scheduled plan is to play down to a winner but a judgment call will be made based on the progress of the tournament.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the live updates en route to crowning a new WSOP Europe champion who will take home €148,008 and a gold bracelet.
and the action checked around to the 
on the turn. It checked to Pichierri again and he threw in a bet of 17,000. Alexandridis called and the 
completed the board.
flop with a pair of queens. The 
and 
.
completed the board. Both players knuckled the table and Kaukua tabled 
for the best hand.
on the turn provided no help for Sitbon but the 
on the river made his flush as he doubled up to stay alive.
and Hasson check-called a bet of 6,500 from Rafi. The turn brought the 
and Hasson checked again. Rafi shipped all in which put Hasson in the tank before finally ditching his cards.
and Rafi held on to eliminate Morales.
and Vranken stayed in the lead with his pocket queens. The 
on the turn and the 
