Satubayev Leads 101 Remaining Day 1a Players in MCOP Main Event; Ricci, Liljegren, Tsokaridis, and Janssen Complete Top 5
After nine levels of 60 minutes, Day 1a of the �4,300 Main Event of the Master Classics of Poker finished with 101 players making it through to Day 2 out of 258 entries. The 2019 edition has changed the structure a bit and Day 1a was the only starting flight that featured the full 60-minute levels. Compared to the 75 entries Day 1a attracted in 2018, today��s field crushed those attendance numbers. In 2018, the Main Event pulled in 293 entries and this year��s edition is well on course to surpass those numbers.
Claiming the Day 1a chip lead is Shyngis Satubayev from Kazakhstan with 260,200 in chips. He is followed by Andrea Ricci (191,500), Jesse Liljegren (182,000), Paraskevas Tsokaridis (166,000), and Tommie Janssen with 161,000.
Liljegren was responsible for the elimination of Ryan Riess when the latter pushed his last few chips in after Liljegren had raised. Riess held ace-ten but Liljegren was ahead with the rockets. Riess did pick up a Broadway draw on the turn but bricked the river to be sent home for today.
In a field that can be considered one of the toughest for a tournament with this buy-in, the majority consisted out of Dutch players. Janssen ended highest to represent the Dutchies and he is followed by David Hu, Sebastiaan de Jonge, Denzel Spekman, and Floyd Rosner. The defending champion, Alberto Stegeman is also still in the running to try and retain his title.
But the Master Classics of Poker always attracts the cr��me-de-la-cr��me of the poker world to Holland Casino Amsterdam. And this year is no different. Foreign players like Hossein Ensan, Paul Dando, Danilo Velasevic, Bart Lybaert, Gary Hasson, Sonny Franco, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Jan Bednar, Johan Storakers, Paul Tedeschi, Ole Schemion, and many more all found a bag for Day 2.
Unfortunately, not everyone was lucky enough to win their all-ins today. Paul Hoefer lost his last chips just before the end of the day as did Fari Chati. And they weren��t the only ones, Tobias Peters, Luuk Gieles, Fabio Sperling, Bryan Paris, Steve O��Dwyer, Claas Segebrecht, Michal Mrakes, Javier Zarco, Ioannis Angelou-Konstas, Niklas Astedt, and Juha Helppi for example will all need to try again on Day 1b.
Day 1b will take place on Thursday, November 28, at 12:30 p.m. local time. Nine levels of 20 minutes each are scheduled as this is the turbo version of the starting flight. Players who bust can reenter once during Day 1b or before the start of Day 2 at 7 p.m. local time.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the start of Day 1b until the remaining players bag up their chips for a few hours, so stick around to see who else will make it through to Day 2!