Jason Wheeler Claims the Lead After Day 1b of the PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event
Day 1b of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Sochi RUB 150,000,000 guaranteed Main Event saw another 247 players fork out the buy-in of RUB 318,000 (approx. $5,590) and join the action at the Sochi Casino and Resort, Krasnaya Polyana. Along with the 132 entries of yesterday's first starting day, this makes for a field size of 379 entries, however, this number may still increase as the late registration remains open until the cards are back in the air for Day 2 at 12 p.m. local time.
After eight levels of 75 minutes each, it was American poker pro Jason ��jdpc27�� Wheeler who used his starting stack of 30,000 and ran it all the way up to 180,800. Wheeler already reached the final table of a Side Event here in Sochi and finished 8th in the RUB 132,000 National High Roller for RUB 452,000 yesterday. Originally from Chicago, Wheeler now calls Amsterdam his home and frequently travels the international circuit while having amassed more than $3.1M in live tournaments and close to $8M in online cashes to date.
Other big stacks and notables that made it through to Day 2 include Lavrentiy Ni (174,800), Sergey Isaev (158,300), Seyed Ghavam (149,400), and Mikhail Galitski (125,000). Well-known Russian tournament grinders Vladimir Troyanovskiy (116,500) and Alexander Lakhov (103,400) ended the day with more than double the average, while early big stack and National High Roller champion Maxim Panyak had to settle for (72,700). EPT13 Malta champion Aliaksei Boika (77,800), Nacho Barbero (71,600), Jonas Lauck (65,100) and Pedro Lamarca (57,700) are further familiar faces of the international poker circuit that advanced to Day 2.
Three players represented the red spade at the Sochi Casino and Resort today: Team Online's Mikhail Shalamov ran short with pocket eights into nines and PokerStars Team pro Aditya Agarwal first bluffed off half of his stack against Alexander Lakhov before ending up second-best to Lakhov with kings versus jacks after a jack appeared on the turn. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier entered the tournament mid-way through the day and scored a late double to advance with 43,200, he will be joining Chris Moneymaker for Day 2 tomorrow.
Other big names that failed to bag up for the night included former EPT Prague champion Martin Finger, 2011 WPT Vienna winner Dmitry Gromov, Andrey Andreev, Yury Gulyy, Andrey Zaichenko, Denis Pisarev, Alex Kravchenko, Sergei Chantcev, Konstantin Maslak, Harry Lodge and Shyngis Satubayev.
Wheeler entered the tournament several levels late and the biggest pot of the American saw him turn trips nines with jack-nine suited to bust an opponent with pocket aces. The big stack of Ni was also the result of an aces cracked story when he called the big river shove of Galitski with king-jack suited for the second nut flush on a paired board. Galitski's relentless aggression after that saw the Russian climb back up and secure more than four times the starting stack for Day 2.
As it stands, just over 200 hopefuls out of a 379-entry strong field will return for Day 2. So far, the Main Event has an overlay of RUB 36,300,000 (approx. USD 642,000) and all players that wish to join before the first card is dealt on Saturday will receive 30,000 in chips at blinds of 500/1,000 with a running ante of 100. Day 2 will play a total of six levels of 75 minutes and it remains to be seen whether the money will be reached or not. The 2017 PokerStars Championship Sochi is the first major festival along with PokerStars Festival Chile where a PokerStars sponsored tour will revert back to the 15% payout structure for its major tournaments.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action until a winner is crowned on May 31st before the action continues right away at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Alexander Zholnerchik | Belarus | 14,200 |
| 1 | 3 | [Removed:19] | Russian Federation | 69,200 |
| 1 | 4 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 84,700 |
| 1 | 5 | Daniil Goldshteyn | Russian Federation | 43,800 |
| 1 | 6 | Bertrand Grospellier | France | 43,200 |
| 1 | 7 | Alexander Nekrasov | Russian Federation | 92,600 |
| 1 | 8 | Daniil Kiselev | Russian Federation | 89,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Ruslan Yakimov | Ukraine | 73,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Maxim Mamonov | Russian Federation | 49,800 |
| 2 | 3 | Mikhail Korotkikh | Russian Federation | 20,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Ruslan Voitovich | Russian Federation | 49,400 |
| 2 | 6 | Seyed Ghavam | Iran | 149,400 |
| 2 | 7 | Denis Gashko | Russian Federation | 6,100 |
| 2 | 8 | Maksim Bura | Russian Federation | 45,700 |
| 3 | 1 | Dmitry Chop | Russian Federation | 76,000 |
| 3 | 2 | Vsevolod Nikolaev | Russian Federation | 20,800 |
| 3 | 4 | Ezatulla Amani | Russian Federation | 75,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Alimbay Sultanov | Uzbekistan | 28,700 |
| 3 | 6 | Vitaly Karayan | Russian Federation | 19,700 |
| 3 | 7 | Artem Nosach | Ukraine | 19,600 |
| 3 | 8 | Mikhail Manukyan | Russian Federation | 26,200 |
| 4 | 1 | Vadim Kim | Kazakhstan | 19,900 |
| 4 | 2 | Tsogtjargal Yadamjav | Mongolia | 16,200 |
| 4 | 3 | Rustam Kuliev | Russian Federation | 11,500 |
| 4 | 4 | Vladimir Shabalin | Russian Federation | 35,500 |
| 4 | 5 | Yury Zinkevich | Belarus | 76,800 |
| 4 | 6 | Chris Moneymaker | USA | 115,200 |
| 4 | 7 | Andrey Sakolishch | Russian Federation | 19,200 |
| 5 | 1 | Sergey Isaev | Russian Federation | 158,300 |
| 5 | 2 | Alexandr Minakov | Russian Federation | 15,500 |
| 5 | 4 | Konstantin Ramazanov | Russian Federation | 36,700 |
| 5 | 5 | Evgeniq Alikin | Russian Federation | 48,600 |
| 5 | 6 | Konstantin Puchkov | Russian Federation | 19,800 |
| 5 | 7 | Alexander Kostritsyn | Russian Federation | 49,100 |
| 5 | 8 | Aleksandr Zhilinskii | Russian Federation | 27,300 |
| 6 | 1 | Mark Simankov | Russian Federation | 69,200 |
| 6 | 2 | Sergey Lomakin | Russian Federation | 59,000 |
| 6 | 3 | Vasilii Polukarov | Russian Federation | 41,100 |
| 6 | 4 | Vahe Martirosyan | Armenia | 7,900 |
| 6 | 5 | Hazret Nebejev | Russian Federation | 89,500 |
| 6 | 7 | Natalia Panchenko | Russian Federation | 51,100 |
| 6 | 8 | Alexey Nikolenko | Russian Federation | 35,500 |
| 7 | 2 | Artur Ibragimov | Russian Federation | 60,500 |
| 7 | 3 | Aleksei Danilov | Russian Federation | 25,000 |
| 7 | 4 | Andrei Kaigorodtsev | Russian Federation | 40,400 |
| 7 | 5 | Konstantin Kostyakov | Russian Federation | 44,500 |
| 7 | 6 | Sertan Citinoglu | UK | 59,400 |
| 7 | 7 | Sergey Trenin | Russian Federation | 51,300 |
| 7 | 8 | Artem Savchenko | Russian Federation | 49,600 |
| 8 | 1 | Evgeny Nekrasov | Russian Federation | 18,200 |
| 8 | 2 | Michal Majewski | Poland | 93,300 |
| 8 | 3 | Igor Sharaskin | Russian Federation | 27,000 |
| 8 | 4 | Denis Davydov | Russian Federation | 27,400 |
| 8 | 5 | Anton Shamrayevsky | Russian Federation | 95,100 |
| 8 | 6 | Vladimir Lubyanov | Russian Federation | 14,500 |
| 8 | 7 | Siarhei Buracheuski | Belarus | 75,300 |
| 9 | 1 | Vladimir Medvedev | Russian Federation | 78,200 |
| 9 | 2 | Boris Yanpolskiy | Russian Federation | 45,200 |
| 9 | 4 | Dzmitry Rabotkin | Belarus | 42,400 |
| 9 | 5 | Mikhail Soltanov | Russian Federation | 104,000 |
| 9 | 6 | Gaby Livshitz | Israel | 56,600 |
| 9 | 7 | Andrey Ivlev | Russian Federation | 31,500 |
| 9 | 8 | Vladimir Demenkov | Russian Federation | 36,200 |
| 10 | 1 | Denis Pavlenko | Uzbekistan | 21,500 |
| 10 | 2 | Timur Bubnov | Russian Federation | 102,500 |
| 10 | 3 | Dmitry Yurasov | Russian Federation | 67,800 |
| 10 | 4 | Alexey Chukhnin | Russian Federation | 69,600 |
| 10 | 6 | Stanislav Vlasov | Russian Federation | 58,900 |
| 10 | 7 | Konstantin Kazaev | Russian Federation | 40,500 |
| 10 | 8 | Vadim Kuvshinkov | Russian Federation | 26,900 |
| 11 | 1 | Laurynas Levinskas | Lithuania | 32,600 |
| 11 | 2 | Dmitry Manashov | Russian Federation | 65,800 |
| 11 | 3 | Maxim Panyak | Russian Federation | 72,700 |
| 11 | 4 | Donatas Pilinkus | Lithuania | 108,900 |
| 11 | 5 | Alexey Vlasov | Russian Federation | 67,000 |
| 11 | 6 | Artem Vezhenkov | Russian Federation | 70,100 |
| 11 | 7 | Robert Askarov | Russian Federation | 21,000 |
| 11 | 8 | Igor Dimitrijevic | Serbia | 57,900 |
| 12 | 2 | Dmitrii Filimonov | Russian Federation | 58,900 |
| 12 | 3 | Ramil Boyazitov | Russian Federation | 87,700 |
| 12 | 4 | Danila Solovyev | Russian Federation | 63,200 |
| 12 | 5 | Andrei Chernokoz | Russian Federation | 49,500 |
| 12 | 6 | Alexey Bilyuchenko | Russian Federation | 30,500 |
| 12 | 7 | Andrey Shatilov | Russian Federation | 8,500 |
| 12 | 8 | Mikhail Galitski | Russian Federation | 125,000 |
| 13 | 1 | Suleyman Suleymanov | Russian Federation | 56,900 |
| 13 | 2 | Sinopiants Arkadii | Russian Federation | 42,700 |
| 13 | 3 | Viktor Sorokin | Russian Federation | 50,500 |
| 13 | 4 | Nadar Kakhmazov | Russian Federation | 120,000 |
| 13 | 6 | Andrey Morgun | Russian Federation | 54,800 |
| 13 | 7 | Vladimir Volov | Russian Federation | 48,800 |
| 13 | 8 | Denis Chiginev | Russian Federation | 59,800 |
| 14 | 2 | Olga Finogenova | Russian Federation | 69,500 |
| 14 | 3 | Vasily Andrienko | Russian Federation | 91,900 |
| 14 | 4 | Timur Khamidullin | Russian Federation | 23,600 |
| 14 | 5 | Ricardo Tavares | Brazil | 20,500 |
| 14 | 6 | Alexey Makarov | Russian Federation | 31,000 |
| 14 | 7 | Ivan Arbatskii | Russian Federation | 38,500 |
| 14 | 8 | Vladimir Dobrovolskiy | Russian Federation | 50,400 |
| 15 | 1 | Yurii Zdanovskyi | Ukraine | 59,100 |
| 15 | 3 | Andy Tyler | UK | 38,600 |
| 15 | 4 | Dmitriy Motorov | Russian Federation | 51,100 |
| 15 | 5 | Pedro Lamarca | Spain | 57,700 |
| 15 | 6 | Osman Yel | Russian Federation | 61,400 |
| 15 | 7 | Yeow Chung Chong | Singapore | 82,100 |
| 15 | 8 | Aleksei Dedov | Russian Federation | 20,400 |
| 16 | 1 | Ivan Kozyrev | Russian Federation | 22,900 |
| 16 | 2 | Sergey Chernega | Russian Federation | 19,700 |
| 16 | 3 | Vitaliy Li | Russian Federation | 89,600 |
| 16 | 4 | Jason Wheeler | USA | 180,800 |
| 16 | 5 | Sergey Isupov | Russian Federation | 84,700 |
| 16 | 6 | Hugo Dos Santos Videira | Portugal | 61,200 |
| 16 | 8 | Van Thach Vu | Russian Federation | 92,800 |
| 17 | 1 | Alexander Lakhov | Russian Federation | 103,400 |
| 17 | 2 | Egor Gerasimchuk | Russian Federation | 64,000 |
| 17 | 3 | Mikhail Medvedev | Russian Federation | 14,800 |
| 17 | 4 | Vitaliy Beter | Russian Federation | 31,300 |
| 17 | 5 | Ivan Neiaskin | Russian Federation | 63,000 |
| 17 | 6 | Ekaterina Kaminskaia | Russian Federation | 14,300 |
| 17 | 7 | Maksim Nosenko | Russian Federation | 61,200 |
| 17 | 8 | Konstantin Rysev | Russian Federation | 70,200 |
| 18 | 1 | Pavel Kovalenko | Russian Federation | 85,000 |
| 18 | 2 | Dmitry Vitkind | Russian Federation | 67,000 |
| 18 | 4 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 71,600 |
| 18 | 5 | Pavel Ignatov | Russian Federation | 45,600 |
| 18 | 6 | Lavrentiy Ni | Kazakhstan | 174,800 |
| 18 | 7 | Arash Khosravi | Iran | 41,400 |
| 18 | 8 | Yury Filimonov | Russian Federation | 51,000 |
| 19 | 1 | Sergey Feklisov | Russian Federation | 69,600 |
| 19 | 3 | Nikita Bochkin | Russian Federation | 37,300 |
| 19 | 4 | Maksim Reshetov | Russian Federation | 44,000 |
| 19 | 5 | Maxim Lykov | Russian Federation | 78,700 |
| 19 | 6 | Yulius Sepman | Russian Federation | 47,800 |
| 19 | 7 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | 77,800 |
| 19 | 8 | Ivan Glushkov | Russian Federation | 23,900 |
| 20 | 1 | Roman Seleznev | Russian Federation | 35,400 |
| 20 | 2 | Anton Pozdniakov | Russian Federation | 43,800 |
| 20 | 3 | Andrei Shkerin | Russian Federation | 144,400 |
| 20 | 4 | Jonas Lauck | Germany | 65,100 |
| 20 | 5 | Said Butba | Russian Federation | 96,800 |
| 20 | 7 | Dmitry Grishin | Russian Federation | 12,400 |
| 20 | 8 | Alexey Fedin | Russian Federation | 24,900 |
| 21 | 1 | Aram Vartevanyan | Russian Federation | 87,900 |
| 21 | 2 | Andrey Golubev | Kazakhstan | 65,100 |
| 21 | 4 | Igor Arekin | Russian Federation | 31,500 |
| 21 | 5 | Ulrich Jungen | Switzerland | 89,300 |
| 21 | 6 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 66,200 |
| 21 | 7 | Matheus Rodrigues Duarte | Brazil | 32,800 |
| 21 | 8 | Oleg Lipkin | Russian Federation | 35,800 |
| 22 | 2 | Oleg Chebotarev | Russian Federation | 73,000 |
| 22 | 3 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | 133,500 |
| 22 | 4 | Vladimar Shashkov | Russian Federation | 72,000 |
| 22 | 5 | Vladislav Tonkikh | Russian Federation | 69,000 |
| 22 | 6 | Ilya Sumzin | Russian Federation | 15,300 |
| 22 | 7 | Sergei Petrushevskii | Russian Federation | 69,500 |
| 22 | 8 | Aleksei Savenkov | Russian Federation | 26,000 |
| 23 | 1 | Pavel Shirshikov | Russian Federation | 44,600 |
| 23 | 2 | Abraham Passet | Germany | 50,200 |
| 23 | 3 | Arman Atshemyan | Armenia | 105,500 |
| 23 | 4 | Viktor Shener | Russian Federation | 68,100 |
| 23 | 5 | Vadim Botosan | Russian Federation | 31,700 |
| 23 | 6 | Maksim Pisarenko | Russian Federation | 87,500 |
| 23 | 7 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | 49,200 |
| 23 | 8 | Iurii Simonov | Russian Federation | 54,900 |
| 24 | 1 | Igor Yaroshevskyy | Ukraine | 23,800 |
| 24 | 2 | Andrey Gulyy | Russian Federation | 36,500 |
| 24 | 3 | Alexey Sorochinskiy | Russian Federation | 1,000 |
| 24 | 5 | Konstantin Bugaev | Russian Federation | 35,800 |
| 24 | 6 | Aleksandr Denisov | Russian Federation | 77,000 |
| 24 | 7 | Vladimir Kartachov | Russian Federation | 48,400 |
| 24 | 8 | Evgeny Platonov | Russian Federation | 41,600 |
| 25 | 1 | Nikolay Prokhorskiy | Russian Federation | 60,900 |
| 25 | 3 | Oleg Sklyanov | Russian Federation | 30,600 |
| 25 | 4 | Sergei Kan | Uzbekistan | 111,500 |
| 25 | 5 | Vyacheslav Bondartsev | Kazakhstan | 21,000 |
| 25 | 6 | Nikolay Fal | Russian Federation | 26,100 |
| 25 | 7 | Sergey Baburin | Russian Federation | 26,300 |
| 25 | 8 | Kostiantyn Tupalo | Ukraine | 43,900 |
| 26 | 1 | Dmitrii Makarov | Russian Federation | 48,200 |
| 26 | 2 | Artsiom Zhadinsky | Belarus | 115,600 |
| 26 | 3 | Gevorg Vazgenovich | Ukraine | 43,600 |
| 26 | 5 | Alexandr Potievskiy | Russian Federation | 39,900 |
| 26 | 6 | Roman Kundasov | Russian Federation | 23,900 |
| 26 | 7 | Benjamin Lamprecht | Austria | 26,300 |
| 26 | 8 | Yuriy Zabolotniy | Russian Federation | 62,600 |
| 27 | 1 | Roman Tutoyan | Russian Federation | 37,600 |
| 27 | 2 | Andreas Walter | Germany | 46,700 |
| 27 | 3 | Dmitrii Merzlikin | Russian Federation | 25,200 |
| 27 | 4 | Grigorii Rodin | Russian Federation | 16,200 |
| 27 | 5 | Jorg Bohme | Germany | 81,800 |
| 27 | 6 | Mikhail Molchanov | Russian Federation | 36,400 |
| 27 | 8 | Jorge Cantos | Argentina | 22,900 |
| 28 | 1 | Alexandr Prysev | Russian Federation | 38,000 |
| 28 | 2 | Mikhail Rudoy | Russian Federation | 141,100 |
| 28 | 3 | Ihar Soika | Belarus | 30,400 |
| 28 | 4 | Alexander Kovalev | Russian Federation | 48,100 |
| 28 | 5 | Yerlan Aisin | Kazakhstan | 39,500 |
| 28 | 6 | Dmitriy Shutenko | Russian Federation | 19,500 |
| 28 | 7 | Sergei Hohlov | Russian Federation | 24,800 |
| 28 | 8 | Fiodar Skrunda | Belarus | 7,300 |
| 29 | 1 | Dmitry Nikitin | Russian Federation | 103,000 |
| 29 | 2 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russian Federation | 116,500 |
| 29 | 3 | Junya Yamada | Japan | 36,900 |
| 29 | 4 | Alexander Lukyanov | Russian Federation | 52,800 |
| 29 | 5 | Konstantin Tolokno | Russian Federation | 58,700 |
| 29 | 6 | Yehor Filipenko | Ukraine | 87,000 |
| 29 | 7 | Dmitrii Grinenko | Russian Federation | 32,700 |
| 29 | 8 | Sarkis Karabadzhakyan | Russian Federation | 59,400 |