2021 World Series of Poker Europe

Event #5: €550 NLH COLOSSUS
Day: 1b
Event Info

2021 World Series of Poker Europe

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a9
Prize
€147,775
Event Info
Buy-in
€550
Prize Pool
€1,177,050
Entries
2,478
Level Info
Level
38
Blinds
300,000 / 600,000
Ante
600,000
Players Info - Day 1b
Entries
427
Players Left
43

Day 1b Wraps Up with 44 Players Advancing in Event #5: €550 NLH COLOSSUS; Ferraiuolo Near the Top of the Leaderboard

Level 18 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Antonello Ferraiuolo
Antonello Ferraiuolo

The opening flight of Event #5: €550 No-Limit Hold'em COLOSSUS has wrapped after nearly 11 hours and 18 levels were completed on Day 1b. A total of 427 entries were recorded with just 43 players advancing to Day 2. Merijn van Rooij bagged the chip lead by accumulating a healthy stack of 545,000 chips.

The Dutch poker player raced to the top of the leaderboard in the last level of the night, overcoming the likes of Pascal Foged (503,000), and Event #1: €350 NLH Opener champion Antonello Ferraiuolo (481,000). Van Rooij plays the majority of his live tournaments here at the King's Casino in Rozvadov but also managed to pick up a few World Series of Poker online cashes in this past year.

Ferraiuolo has had a great start to the 2021 WSOP Europe campaign by capturing his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet just a few days ago. The Italian racked up over €87,000 for his victory and has now put himself in the top three chip counts after Day 1b of the COLOSSUS. Rounding out the top five big stacks are Yizhaq Hay with 438,000 and Georgios Tsouloftas with 414,000 chips.

There were a few notables who failed to make it through the opening flight include bracelet winner Pete Chen, Roberto Manfredi, John Taramas, and Jan Bendik. The money bubble was reached in the second to last level of the night when Rokas Barzdzius got his last few big blinds in the middle with ace-king. Unfortunately for him, Tsouloftas flopped a straight with jack-ten and sent Barzdzius home outside of the money.

Merijn van Rooij bagged the Day 1b chip lead
Merijn van Rooij bagged the Day 1b chip lead

The final 65 players were each guaranteed €895 and a lot of the short stacks wasted no time getting their chips in the middle. Over 20 players were sent to the payout desk in the last level of the night and will have the chance to qualify in one of the later flights.

With the recent government announcements in the Czech Republic, there will only be four total flights for this event. Starting tomorrow, there will only be one flight per day with a 1,000 player cap, starting at 10 a.m. each day. Day 2 players will also be returning at 10 a.m. and playing down to a final table, which will then be carried out on Day 3.

Event #5: €550 NLH COLOSSUS Schedule

DATEDAYSTART TIME (CET)PLAY CONCLUDESTotal EntriesAdvancing
Thursday, November 25Day 1b12 p.m.After Level 1842743
Thursday, November 25Day 1c6 p.m.After Level 18--
Friday, November 26Day 1d10 a.m.After Level 18--
Saturday, November 27Day 1f10 a.m.After Level 18--
Sunday, November 28Day 22 p.m.9 Players Remain--
Monday, November 29Day 31 p.m.End of Event  

For now, players may still enter the Day 1c flight with late registration still open for a couple of more levels. The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to cover all of the tournaments throughout the WSOP Europe so keep it locked here for all of the live updates.

Tags: Antonello FerraiuoloJan BendikMerijn van RooijPete Chen