Vasileios Chatzilazarou and Michele Pucci went heads-up to the river on a completed board of 10♦K♠8♠A♣6♦ and around 17,000 in the pot when Chatzilazarou bet 10,500 from under the gun.
Pucci then moved all in from the cutoff, having Chatzilazarou's remaining 35,000 well covered. Chatzilazarou gave it some thought for a minute before sticking in his last chips.
Pucci showed him Q♠J♦ for the nut straight and Chatzilazarou went to muck before being forced to show A♥10♥ before he headed off to the rail.
After unknown action, Alexandru Papazian got all of his 45,300 chips in the middle preflop against Levan Rcheulishvili.
Alexandru Papazian: 10♠10♦
Levan Rcheulishvili: K♥K♣
It was looking like Rcheulishvili would extend his chip lead over the field, but the J♠10♣10♥ flop said otherwise. Papazian casually hit quads to stay alive, and Rcheulishvili was drawing dead when the J♦ was turned. The 6♣ river did not matter and Papazian happily raked in his newly acquired chips.
Action was already on the river as Christophe Panetti, Daniel Dvoress, and Roland Israelashvili built a pot of around 45,000 on a board of 9♦4♣7♣A♦6♠.
Israelashvili then bet 25,000 under the gun and Panetti called in early position. Dvoress moved all in for 84,000 from the big blind, Israelashvili reshoved for 105,000, and Panetti got out of the way.
Israelashvili turned over 9♣9♠ for a set, but Dvoress had 10♦8♦ for the nut straight to double up.
After some a raise to 3,000 from Nikolay Ponomarev in early position and a call from another player at the table, Felipe Ramos made it 13,200 to go from the big blind.
With the action back on Ponomarev, he put in a four-bet to 22,400 and Ramos was the only caller.
The flop then fell J♦6♥5♥ and Ramos checked to Ponomarev, who opted to continue for 12,000. Ramos then raised to 29,800, after which Ponomarev three-bet all in, covering Ramos's 113,500 stack.
Ramos snap called and the cards went on their backs.
Felipe Ramos: J♠J♥
Nikolay Ponomarev: 8♠7♠
Ponomarev had made some moves with his suited connector, both preflop and postflop, but was still drawing live against the top set of Ramos. The 8♣ turn gave Ponomarev a useless pair, and the J♣ river saw Ramos hit quad jacks to lock up the pot and double up.
What Day 1b of the €10,350 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event lacked in numbers compared to yesterday’s opening flight it certainly made up for in star power and tension-filled pots.
A total of 120 players entered over the course of the day, bringing the total combined field up to 677 with late registration still open. Only 73 made it through the day and will now join with the 360 survivors from Day 1a, led by Levan Rcheulishvili.
Rcheulishvili busted Daniel Dvoress in a controversial pot when he had the clock called on him and put in the chips after the countdown had seemingly reached zero. Dvoress only had a bluff, while Rcheulishvili showed top pair. He later made a set of sevens to crack the queens of Santhosh Suvarna and eliminate the €50K Diamond High Roller champion on his way to bagging up 586,800. The Georgia native already has three cashes at this year’s WSOPE, including deep runs in the €2K PLO and the Mini Main Event.
David Miscikowski, a WSOP bracelet winner from nearly a decade ago, is in second place with 448,900. Nicola D’Anselmo doubled up with set over set earlier in the day and finished with 381,400, good for third place on the leaderboard. Ramzi Zuraikat was seemingly near the top the entire day after he was responsible for the first bustout of Day 1b, hitting a set of sixes on Roman Stoica as he ended up with 370,000. Hen Rosilio rounds out the top five with 363,600.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Levan Rcheulishvili
Georgia
586,800
367
2
David Miscikowski
United States
448,900
281
3
Nicola D'Anselmo
Italy
381,400
238
4
Ramzi Zuraikat
Switzerland
370,000
231
5
Hen Rosilio
Israel
363,600
227
6
Jovan Kenjic
Serbia
357,200
223
7
Miroslav Salaj
Slovakia
352,300
220
8
Andrej Cintula
Slovakia
345,800
216
9
Renat Bohdanov
Ukraine
340,000
213
10
Aliaksei Boika
Belarus
336,600
210
Dvoress, who won his second WSOP bracelet earlier this week in the €25,000 GGMillion$, reentered after losing the pot to Rcheulishvili and finished the night among the top stacks with 251,600. He’s joined by Renat Bohdanov (340,000), James Chen (333,500), Felipe Ramos (251,600), 2019 runner-up Claas Segebrecht (180,100), 2013 champion Adrian Mateos (174,300), and Andrea Dato (110,000). Quan Zhou (99,700), 2020 WSOP Online Main Event champion Stoyan Madanzhiev (85,500), and Ben Heath (83,200) ended up near the bottom and have work to do to get back in contention for the bracelet.
Adrian Mateos
Defending champion Omar Eljach waited until nearly the last minute before making an appearance. Eljach fired his second bullet into the event with just a few minutes to spare in the day and managed to increase his stack up to 137,200 as he continues his pursuit of an unprecedented repeat performance. Notables who failed to make it out of Day 1b include Nick Palma, Roland Israelashvili, Emil Bise, Shawn Stroke, and Julien Sitbon. Wooram Cho was sitting on a big stack until he tried a six-bet all-in shove but ran right into the aces of Miroslav Salaj, who ended the night with 352,300 thanks largely to that pot.
Day 2 begins at noon local time tomorrow with 433 players returning from the two starting flights. They’ll be joined by any new arrivals and reentries, as late registration remains open until the start of Level 13. The tournament needs just 87 more entries to break last year’s record field of 763. The action picks up on Level 8 with blinds of 800-1,600 and a 1,600 big blind ante. In this incredibly deep-stacked structure, the starting stack of 100,000 is still worth more than 60 big blinds at the start of Day 2.
Tomorrow is the day everyone will find out what they are playing for. It will also be the last chance for players to jump into the tournament and give themselves a chance to enter the record books as a WSOPE champion. King’s Resort in Rozvadov will be packed tomorrow, and PokerNews will be right there following all the action and providing live updates.
