Moncef Bags Lead After Rollercoaster Day 1b in Event #14: €10,350 WSOPE Main Event
The second and final starting flight of Event #14: €10,350 WSOP Europe Main Event has concluded after another 12 hours of poker that saw a total of 147 entries. After seven levels of play on Day 1b, Moncef Karoui bagged the largest stack of the remaining 99 players.
Karoui had a rollercoaster of a day but at least it ended on the upswing as he put 555,300 chips in the bag. The poker player from Tunisia started the day strong, running up a stack to nearly 200,000 in the early going. However, another pass by his table saw Karoui sitting on a stack of around 50,000. About an hour later, Karoui had recovered what he lost and built it back up to 250,000.
When Karoui was finally able to take the chip lead after making a hero call with second pair, he started to run away with it and never looked back. In the last level of the night, Karoui took down Sonny Franco who missed a straight and flush draw, sending Karoui over the 500,000 chip mark.
Karoui is riding a wave of momentum right now, coming off a second-place finish in Event #6: €1,650 NLH/PLO Mix where he recorded his largest career tournament score. Now, having come so close to a WSOP gold bracelet, Karoui is hungrier than ever to capture one of the most prestigious titles in poker.
Some other big stacks to join Karoui heading to Day 2 include Cedric Shwaederle who bagged the second largest stack with 407,200 chips. Luuk Gieles finished the day with 368,500 chips to round out the top three chip counts. Anton Morgenstern (215,000), Christoph Vogelsang (174,700), Manuel Fritz (172,800), Matas Cimbolas (145,800), and GGpoker Team Russia ambassador Anatoly Filatov (78,000) will also be advancing to the next stage of the tournament.
It was a much smaller turnout for Day 1b compared to the first starting flight that attracted 434 total entries. However, the €5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool was reached midway through the day. It is without question that the record for the largest WSOP Europe Main Event will be reached with late registration open for another five levels on Day 2 and less than 20 more entries required to crack that mark.
2021 WSOP Europe Main Event by the Numbers
| Day | Entries | Players Advancing | Percent Advancing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1a | 434 | 277 | 64% |
| Day 1b | 147 | 99 | 67% |
| Day 2 | 384 | - | - |
| Day 3 | |||
| Day 4 |
In total, there have been 581 total entries thus far with 376 players set to return for action on Day 2. The cards will go in the air at 10 a.m. local time once again with another seven 90-minute levels on the schedule. Players will be allowed to use their one re-entry until the end of level 12 if they have not done so already. The total prize pool and payouts will be announced later tomorrow with the money bubble expected to burst some time on Day 3.
Keep it locked here for all of the live updates as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor to track the progress en route to crowning a new WSOP Europe champion.