Fernandez Leads Last 35 After Day 1b; Mustafov, Petleshkov, Lykov and Neuville Among Big Stacks
The second of three starting days of the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe €1,100 MONSTER STACK is in the books and 165 players took part to boost the overall field to 255 entries thus far at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. The tournament is well on track to reach and surpass the guarantee of €500,000, as the biggest starting field is expected for the third and final flight.
After 14 levels of 40 minutes each, only 35 hopefuls bagged up to join the 15 Day 1a survivors. Sergio Fernandez jumped into the top spot in the last level of the night after winning a flip with pocket tens against the ace-king of Ting Ho before further boosting his stack and bagging up 267,000. Fernandez is only half a big blind behind Day 1a chip leader Ismael Bojang and narrowly ahead of Jeff Cormier.
Behind Fernandez, a big gap emerged as Rene Crha claimed the second-most chips with 186,500, closely followed by 2017 WSOP International Circuit Rozvadov €5,300 High Roller champion Fahredin Mustafov with 183,000, while fellow Bulgarian Viliyan Petleshkov (178,500) also bagged up a top five stack on Day 1b. Other notables and big stacks that advanced include Maxim Lykov (153,500), Aneris Adomkevicius (153,000), Robert Schulz (143,000), Pierre Neuville (122,500), Usman Siddique (111,000), Jan Bendik (101,000), Andrej Desset (86,500) and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Eddy Scharf (59,000).
Some of the big names that took part on Day 1b and failed to bag up chips were the 2017 WSOP player of the year contenders Chris Ferguson, John Racener, Alex Foxen and Kenny Hallaert. Phil Hellmuth joined after the dinner break and his stack was soon cut in half in a hand against Maxim Lykov, which prompted one of the usual Hellmuth table chats. "It's not your fault," Hellmuth chirped to a smiling Lykov. "I make everyone look bad, just ask Jeff who has watched me for 20 years." Jeff Lisandro perked up and responded, "If it wasn't for the river Phil, you would have 28 bracelets," prompting chuckles from everyone at the table.
Kristen Bicknell had chipped up just prior before Robert Schulz flopped middle pair and a flush draw, then rivered trips tens to eliminate Bicknell. Schulz also sent Roberto Romanello to the rail after the Welshman's pocket aces ended up second best in a four-bet pot with Schulz flopping a set of nines and snap-calling the shove of Romanello. Brandon Cantu was sent to the rail after the dinner break when his jack-high flush was no good against the king-high flush of Viktor Kovachev.
During the last two levels of the night, the field was reduced signficantly and such familiar names as Felipe Ramos, Casey Kastle and Erich Kollmann ran out of chips. Kastle put his last two big blinds in with jack-nine suited versus ace-jack suited and the ace-king of eventual end-of-day chip leader Sergio Fernandez.
So far, at least 50 players will return for Day 2 on Sunday October 22nd 2017 as of 2 p.m. local time while all others that busted on either Day 1a or 1b can take another shot at the first of 11 bracelets in Europe's biggest poker arena. The final starting day gets underway at 2 p.m. local time and the registration remains open until the end of the dinner break at approximately 9 p.m. local time.