The fifth of eight starting flights has concluded in the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) Main Event and, as expected, it was the biggest yet. By the time late registration closed, 1,755 players had joined Day 1e — bringing the total number of entrants up to 3,539 (so far) for the kickoff event of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour.
Following 17 levels of play, Karol Bogusz emerged as the chip leader of the remaining 262 players after bagging up 835,000 in chips, which is good for the third spot overall through five starting flights. In a distant second is Raoul Kanme, who ended with 683,000, and rounding out the top three is Brazilian pro Nicolas Coppini with 660,000.
Day 1e Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karol Bogusz | Poland | 835,000 |
| 2 | Raoul Kanme | Netherlands | 683,000 |
| 3 | Nicolas Coppini | Brazil | 660,000 |
| 4 | Bienvenido Sanchez | Spain | 642,000 |
| 5 | Cedric Schwaederle | France | 592,000 |
| 6 | Daniele De Feo | Italy | 573,000 |
| 7 | Richard Dubini | Argentina | 557,000 |
| 8 | Beng Hong Guo | Singapore | 514,000 |
| 9 | Jose Alfaro | United States | 513,000 |
| 10 | Thomas Haverstad | Norway | 508,000 |
Day 1e Action
There were no lack of notables among the sea of players that filled up two separate tournament rooms as play got underway, including PokerStars ambassadors Benjamin Spragg and Julien Brecard.
While Brecard got off to a hot start, Spragg was unable to build much momentum and ultimately busted after running ace-king into Cyril Beudou's pocket kings shortly after dinner break. Brecard, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to add to his stack and ending up bagging 204,000.
Defending champion Lucien Cohen joined the field about half way through the day and managed to double his stack, but ultimately fell late in the day after getting his set cracked in a large pot.
The always amicable Ren Lin joined the fray just before late-registration ended and he quickly went to work by doubling through Mark Roovers with ace-king. Lin's active and unpredictable style saw him go from over 300,000 all the way down to just 18,000 as the money bubble neared. At that point, Lin began shoving preflop with a variety of less-than-stellar hands to great success and quickly grew his chip stack. Lin even managed to double up through Daniel Rezaei on the last hand of the day to vault his stack to 460,000 — more than double the average.
The money bubble burst, ending play for the day, after Uri Gilboa and Ezio Ottaviani were eliminated on different tables on the stone bubble. Gilboa ended up losing a race with pocket threes, while Ottaviani had his queens cracked by the jack-nine of Nicolas Coppini. The exact amount of a min-cash will be calculated after all starting flights have been completed.
Some other players who managed to a bag include Ami Barer (494,000), Wim Verhaegen (244,000), Alex Keating (142,000) and Jari Mahonen (114,000). They will be joined by notables from other flights who have already secured a spot into Day 2, including Marle Spragg (488,000), Jesse Lonis (434,000), Barny Boatman (300,000), Shiina Okamoto (249,000), Robin Ylitalo (200,000), and Maria Konnikova (75,000) to name a few.
All players who have yet to secure a Day-2 berth still have two starting flights left. The penultimate flight, Day 1g, is scheduled to begin on Thursday, August 29 at 11 a.m. local time. The eighth and final flight will take place on the same day at 5 p.m. and will feature a turbo-like schedule with 20-minute levels.
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