Day 1a of the RUB 77,000 EPT Sochi National attracted a total of 249 players. Playing down to 15% of the field, that mark was reached shortly after 1 a.m. local time leaving 37 players to advance to Day 2.
Leading the way is Andrey Lukyanov with well over 500,000 in chips. He was responsible for the elimination of Indian Aditya Sushant earlier in the day, and kicked on late to move up the chip counts where he remained until the end of play.
Other big stacks include Valery Yantsevich (401,000), Komil Ruzaev (391,000) and Tomas Macnamara (386,000), who was responsible for the final elimination of the day.
Artur Martirosyan (308,000) and Bohdan Cherba (306,000) are the only two other players who eclipsed the 300,000 mark after just over 17 levels of play.
As to be expected for the start of the festival, plenty of familiar faces were present in the field including Vadzim Lipauka, Anatoliy Zyrin, Kyril Radzivonau and defending champion Matous Houzvicek.
Houzvicek would chip up early, but was eliminated shortly after dinner and was seen shortly thereafter in the Day 1b field.
At this stage the chip lead had jumped from player to player, with Gor Kazaryan, Zyrin and Evgenii Tsoi all holding it for brief periods before it settled on Lukyanov.
The final elimination of the day was a quiet one, and it came in the first hand of hand-for-hand play. Anton Mazurin was forced all in from the big blind and all Tomas Macnamara had to do was outkick the Russian to send Mazurin to the rail.
The 37 players have all earned themselves a day off tomorrow - should they wish - and will return at 12 p.m. on Saturday for Day 2 of the EPT National.
PokerNews will naturally be joining them, providing live updates throughout the rest of the tournament and for the duration of the festival.
flop and his opponent folded. The pair waited for hands at other tables to be finished before the cards were turned over.
and river 
meant that Macnamara's kicker played and Mazurin was eliminated in 38th place.
board he bet 6,000 and Viktor Smolyakov called. The river was the 
. Zyin bet 16,500 and Smolyakov raised in position to 45,000.
face up before Smolyakov showed 
for a full house.
board and with just 25,000 chips in the middle, Aditya Sushant checked to Andrey Lukyanov who bet 35,000.
for a rivered straight and that was enough to send Sushant to the rail.
.
and took down the pot.
. Zyrin checked and Fal bet 1,600. Zyrin check-raised to 4,500 and Fal called.
for a rivered pair and Fal nodded before mucking.
river ensured Sergachev ended the hand in the lead, sending two players to the rail and boosting his stack over the 100,000 chip mark.
board Matous Houzvicek checked out of the small blind and Valeriy Avanesyan bet 1,900 into a pot of just over 2,000. Houzvicek called.
