Shashikhina Tops Day 1c; Isaia and Ricci Among the Big Stacks
The third and penultimate starting day of the 2021 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North Cyprus $5,300 Main Event has concluded and 102 players out of 184 entries have secured a stack for Day 2 in the flagship tournament of the festival. While it was the slowest of the three flights at the five-star Merit Crystal Cove Hotel Casino & Spa in Girne, North Cyprus, it has ensured that the $3 million net guarantee is already in eyesight.
A close battle for the Day 1c chip lead propelled Sonia-Veronika Shashikhina to the top of the leaderboard with 499,000 in chips, followed by Alessio Isaia (471,000) and Ran Azor (455,500). Artan Dedusha turned a late entry after the second and final break into a top ten stack and he is joined among the bigger stacks by $10,500 High Roller finalist Iakov Onuchin, Kasparas Klezys, Andrea Ricci, and Piotr Nurzynski.
partypoker sponsored pro Joni Jouhkimainen also made it through with an above-average stack of 229,500 while notable casualties included the likes of Roberto Romanello, Christophe Panetti, $2,200 Warm Up finalist Matthieu Chan, Ahadpur Khangah, Miltiadis Kyriakides, and Anas Belatik.
Khangah and Kyriakides were eliminated in the most memorable hand of the day when a spectacular four-way preflop all-in resulted in a double-knockout for Ran Azor and quadruple up for Christophe Panetti in the final level of the day. However, $10,500 third-place finisher Panetti didn't make it through either despite this after bowing out against Azor during the last hands.
Shashikhina started her rise on the leaderboard when winning a flip against Mustafa Biz and also knocked out Romanello during the final stages. Another Russian needs little introduction as rising star Artur Martirosian was also in the mix on Day 1c. While splashing around the chips in his fingers, he was also involved in higher stakes cash game action on his phone and barely glanced up while he doubled with aces versus kings in a big pot. After nine levels of play, Martirosian finished with 300,000 and well above the average.
All players that failed to earn a stack for Day 2 so far can enter the turbo heat 1d with levels of 25 minutes each as of 8pm local time. Furthermore, the late registration also remains open for another three levels the following day when all Day 1 survivors combine to one field for the first time. The crown jewel of the festival in North Cyprus will then play down to the money en route to determining a winner on Monday, September 27.
Stay tuned for all the action from the return of the MILLIONS tour as the PokerNews team will provide as many key hands as possible in the days to come.