Candido Cappiello Swipes the Chip Lead During the Last Level to Lead Final 29 Players in WSOPE €1,350 Mini Main Event
A total of 1,286 players entered the €1,350 Mini Main Event at the 2024 World Series Of Poker Europe (WSOPE), but now only 29 remain in the hunt for the elusive bracelet and the €213,350 top prize.
At the top of the pack sits Candido Cappiello after a sensational last level left the Italian player holding the chunkiest bag out of all the survivors with 12,665,000 chips.
The Netherlands' Iman Ghashayar sits closely behind in second with a stack of 10,780,000, and those two were the only players to clear the ten-million chip milestone. Ghashayar is no stranger to King's Resort in Rozvadov as he has five final table appearances inside the venue, including a sixth-place finish in the opening event at the 2023 WSOPE.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Candido Cappiello | Italy | 12,665,000 | 106 |
| 2 | Iman Ghashayar | The Netherlands | 10,780,000 | 90 |
| 3 | Thomas Eychenne | France | 9,175,000 | 76 |
| 4 | Xiaohua Yang | China | 8,380,000 | 70 |
| 5 | Alen Sabic | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 7,650,000 | 64 |
| 6 | Luc Ramos | Switzerland | 6,325,000 | 53 |
| 7 | Frederik Thiemer | Germany | 6,195,000 | 52 |
| 8 | Rachid El Yaacoubi | France | 5,500,000 | 46 |
| 9 | Vazha Kometiani | Georgia | 4,880,000 | 41 |
| 10 | Vladas Burneikis | Lithuania | 4,550,000 | 38 |
The day began with 303 hopefuls all looking to make it into the money and beyond. Bracelet winners Josef Gulas, Sergiu Covrig, and Jessica Teusl all failed to make the money, as did Samuel Ju, Georgios Tsouloftas, and Fahredin Mustafov.
When the bubble approached, the usual hand-for-hand play never got started as Yuet Wong, Eden Anzio, Victor Dota, Yann Abitbol, and Giuseppe Bellusci were all eliminated in quick succession, which left the usual bubble spectacle to be sidelined.
Abitbol was the official bubble boy once all was said and done, which meant Anzio, Bellusci, and Wong all split a min-cash and received €800 each. The remaining 192 players were all guaranteed a payday of €2,400.
The eliminations then came thick and fast as Bixi Yao (188th), Gab Yong Kim (168th), Ran Koller (154th), Anson Tsang (148th), Lukas Zaskodny (104th), Emil Bise (92nd), Vivian Saliba (90th), Tobias Peters (69th), and Dave Stann (45th) all fell short of the penultimate day.
It's no surprise to see Thomas Eychenne near another final table as he bagged up 9,175,000 chips. Eychenne started the day as one of the chip leaders and sprung up the leaderboard during Level 22 when he turned a full house with pocket kings to beat the ace-eight of Faramarz Safari, who flopped trips.
Eychenne then sent Germany's Florian Sarnow to the rail in a straight-over-straight situation, which sent his name flying up the leaderboard during Level 24.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €213,350 | 8 | €31,050 |
| 2 | €145,550 | 9 | €26,250 |
| 3 | €105,850 | 10-11 | €22,850 |
| 4 | €78,650 | 12-14 | €20,280 |
| 5 | €59,950 | 15 | €9,930 |
| 6 | €46,850 | 16-23 | €8,020 |
| 7 | €37,650 | 24-29 | €6,585 |
*the top fourteen payouts include a €10,350 WSOPE Main Event Day 1a seat
Xiaohua Yang started the day as chip leader and almost stuck his name at the top of the counts again, but a big pot in the final few hands of the night saw the baton get handed over to Cappiello.
The only bracelet winner remaining in the field is Stephen Nahm, who bagged a middling stack of 4,325,000, which is good for twelfth in the counts. The short stack coming into Day 3 is Metodi Peychev with 1,245,000 — around ten big blinds.
Day 3 kicks off at 2 p.m. local time where the final 29 players will come back to battle it out with the plan being to reach the final table. Blinds will start at Level 27 — 60,000/120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante. The average stack sits at just over 4,400,000 — around thirty-seven big blinds.
Be sure to tune into PokerNews to see who can make it to the final table of the €1,350 Mini Main Event here at King's Resort in Rozvadov.