Another Talent-Packed Field Descends on King's Resort For Day 1b of the WSOP Europe Main Event at Noon
The first opening flight of the World Series of Poker Europe €10,350 Main Event yesterday drew some of the top names in the game and hundreds of qualifiers. Today’s field will be a much more intimate affair, but it will still be a star-studded group that returns to King’s Resort in Rozvadov for Day 1b at noon local time.
The first starting flight saw 304 players out of 462 entries secure their tickets for Day 2. Christopher Puetz ended up as chip leader with 679,000, followed by Colossus champion Jose Gomez Casillas (665,500), 2023 WSOP Paradise runner-up Michael Sklenicka (543,800), and Yannick Schumacher (456,700). Other players to bag a big stack included Dominik Panka (375,500), Viktor Blom (306,700), Sorel Mizzi (304,000), Patrik Jaros (303,000), Uri Reichenstein (281,000), and Shaun Deeb (270,400).
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christopher Puetz | Germany | 679,000 | 424 |
| 2 | Jose Gomez Casillas | Mexico | 665,500 | 416 |
| 3 | Michael Sklenicka | Czechia | 543,800 | 340 |
| 4 | Yannick Schumacher | Germany | 456,700 | 285 |
| 5 | Diego Montone | Italy | 455,800 | 285 |
| 6 | Iago Savino | Brazil | 431,300 | 270 |
| 7 | Bastian Gallitzendoerfer | Germany | 407,000 | 254 |
| 8 | Dominik Panka | Poland | 375,500 | 235 |
| 9 | Cristian David | Romania | 374,000 | 234 |
| 10 | Mateusz Hajman | Poland | 370,200 | 309 |
Further down the leaderboard were Fahredin Mustafov (211,000), Vivian Saliba (181,600), Monsterstack champion Giuliano Bendinelli (163,500), Pierre Calamusa (151,400), Ren Lin (139,600), Renji Mao (135,900), last year’s runner-up Urmo Velvelt (133,000), 2019 champion Alexandros Kolonias (115,200), and Main Event finalist Luka Bojovic (103,800). Thomas Eychenne (99,500), 2023 champion Max Neugebauer (95,500), Manig Loeser (72,000), newly-crowned two-time bracelet winners Tobias Peters (66,400) and Darius Neagoe (65,600), and Zdenek Zizka (17,200) were among those who finished under the starting stack and will have to bounce back on Day 2.
With all the qualifiers playing the opening flight, Day 1b has traditionally been a much smaller field. Those who take their shot at the title today will begin with 100,000 and play seven 90-minute levels. Late registration remains open until the end of Level 12 on Day 2, so there are still plenty of opportunities for the field to grow much larger and approach last year’s total of 768 entries.
PokerNews will be on the floor throughout the day, so stay tuned for all the action.