Ghazarian, Gill and Fatehi Among the Chip Leaders After Day 1b
The second starting day of the 2021 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North Cyprus $5,300 Main Event has wrapped up with 86 players out of 205 entries remaining. While the crown jewel of the festival schedule has not surpassed the $3 million guarantee yet that will likely only be a formality with two starting days to come. Furthermore, the late registration also remains open for another three levels on Day 2 to further boost the field size.
Seven players accumulated more than half a million in chips and Ali Shaerzadeh topped the Day 1b leaderboard with 699,500, followed by Harout Ghazarian (659,500), and Harpreet Gill (621,000). It was Gill who won the biggest pot of the day after he doubled through Mario Mosboeck with aces versus kings and he held onto the big pile of chips until the very end. Mosboeck re-entered successfully and advanced with a stack of 210,000.
$5,300 Main Event Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds for Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ali Shaerzadeh | Iran | 699,500 | 233 |
| 2 | Harout Ghazarian | Canada | 659,500 | 220 |
| 3 | Harpreet Gill | Canada | 621,000 | 207 |
| 4 | Nikolay Blinov | Russia | 557,500 | 186 |
| 5 | Ali Reza Fatehi | Iran | 556,000 | 185 |
| 6 | [Removed:464] | Lithuania | 551,500 | 184 |
| 7 | Sina Alamzad | Iran | 510,500 | 170 |
| 8 | Garik Tamasian | Russia | 453,500 | 151 |
| 9 | Amir Pahlawani Sarughieh | Germany | 409,500 | 137 |
| 10 | Job Greben | Netherlands | 400,500 | 134 |
John Duthie was the sole partypoker representative to join the action on the second of four starting days and quickly lost half of his stack in the opening level. He then recovered all the losses and jumped above the average before ending level nine with a stack of 95,000.
The Action of the Day
It was a slow start to the day with just seven tables in play but after barely half an hour, two players were already eliminated. Mete Ustuay turned two pair but ran into the flopped nut straight for Lukas Zaskodny and hit the rail. Soon after, Amir Pahlawani Sarughieh flopped a set of eights but Saar Wilf had the superior set of jacks to cause the second seat open. Zaskodny (382,500) and Wilf (330,000) held onto their bigger stacks until the very end and will be back for Day 2.
As the field expanded, the eliminations and re-entries kept going up and the field eventually surpassed 200 total entries.
Some of those that didn't make it through the day and will likely enter one of the remaining two flights were Bart Lybaert, Ivan Sakharov, Saman Nakhjavani, recent WSOP Circuit Main Event ring winner Andrea Ricci, Shyngis Satubayev, Matas Cimbolas, and Timur Margolin. The final hand of the night also saw the departure of rising Russian star Artur Martirosian, who attempted to run up a stack but ran into the second nut flush of Fahredin Mustafov.
Mustafov reached the final table of the $2,200 Warm Up in which he finished second, and then late registered the $10,500 High Roller to finish in fourth place. The Bulgarian advanced with 377,000 in chips, which is well above the average upon completion of the first two starting days.
Day 1c with levels of 40 minutes and Day 1d with a turbo structure and 25-minute levels will take place on Friday, September 24. The PokerNews team will provide live updates for the first flight and the final chip counts for Day 1d once they are provided before continuing the coverage as of Day 2 and until the end o the tournament.