Bednar Tops 10 Survivors on Day 1D; Kabrhel, Heidel and Zukernik Advance
The half-way point has been reached in the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe Event #1: €550 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold'em, as four of the eight starting days have concluded at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. Day 1D attracted a field of 164 entries, of which the top 25 spots were paid, and the final 10 players bagged up their chips with 19 minutes left in level 18.
Jan Bednar claimed 633,000 to his name and is currently third in chips for all 51 players that advanced to Day 2 thus far, trailing Day 1A chip leader Dariusz Glinski (669,000) and Day 1C chip leader Daniel Prior (649,000). Quite remarkably, Bednar, in fact, made it to the money in the earlier flight of the day and finished in 16th place out of 125 entries for €809 before jumping right back into the action.
Several other notables are among the 10 survivors of Day 1D such as Flavio Decataldo (574,000), Bulgaria's Aleksandar Denishev (494,000), Philipp Zukernik (403,000), Oliver Heidel (393,000), Mick Heder (386,000),Jan Ramik (297,000) and Martin Kabrhel (291,000). The master of speech play, currently second in his country's all-time money list, already has one WSOP bracelet and four WSOP circuit rings to his name, all of which he won within the last two years right here at King's Casino.
Kabrhel entered late and quickly scored a double up to get things started, then became one of the big stacks. Near the money bubble on the last three tables, he experienced a roller coaster ride and switched into push or fold mode. Rakesh Lalwani and Tomas Petru were among those that fell victim to this strategy, and other players that cashed but failed to bag up include Michal Lubas, Anson Tsang, Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler and Marek Blasko.
Day 1D Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Payout (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Philippe Bouhnik | France | 1,283 |
| 12 | Plamen Yakimov | Bulgaria | 1,283 |
| 13 | Michael Braeutigam | Germany | 1,069 |
| 14 | Marek Blasko | Slovakia | 1,069 |
| 15 | Adrian Buzan | Germany | 1,069 |
| 16 | Mykhailo Gutyi | Ukraine | 914 |
| 17 | Tomas Petru | Czech Republic | 914 |
| 18 | Mykola Lakatosh | Czech Republic | 914 |
| 19 | Jan Gompers | Germany | 802 |
| 20 | Allen Kessler | United States | 802 |
| 21 | Anson Tsang | Hong Kong | 802 |
| 22 | Adrian Rus | Romania | 802 |
| 23 | Rakesh Lalwani | India | 802 |
| 24 | Michal Lubas | Poland | 802 |
| 25 | Refael Dahan | Israel | 802 |
Action of the Day
In level one, some 50 players were seated and that number soon grew to more than 100 as all hopefuls eliminated from the previous starting day gave it another chance in the evening flight. Among those to bow out more than once were such notables as Roman Motovsky, Sander van Wesemael, Teunis Kooij, Shaun Deeb, Roland Israelashvili, Timo Kamphues, Carlo Savinelli and Michael Soyza.
Six-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Ferguson continued his late entry strategy, but failed to capitalize from it to bust before the money. Dutch Boyd experienced the same fate and further casualties before the money bubble included Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy, Jaroslav Peter and Andrea Klein. Hand-for-hand mode on the money bubble lasted all but one hand. Jan Ramik was fortunate enough to crack aces with pocket fives to survive, while Francesco Cirianni lost a flip with pocket jacks against the ace-queen of Mykhailo Gutyi to let the bubble burst.
Three levels remained to be played for all remaining 25 players and the all in showdowns kept coming at a rapid pace. Michal Lubas lost a big flip with jacks to ace-king and Rakesh Lalwani missed his nut flush draw against the top pair of Martin Kabrhel. The elimination of Allen Kessler came in far more dramatic fashion, though.
After a min-raise by Philipp Zukernik, Allen Kessler three-bet shoved for 12 big blinds and Michael Braeutigam mistakenly tossed in two chips out of the blinds to call Zukernik's raise. Braeutigam had to call off Kessler's shove with seven-six suited and cracked the pocket tens of the American poker pro by turning a flush and rivering a straight flush.
In the final two levels of the night, another nine players ran out of chips including Gutyi, Braeutigam and Marek Blasko to reduce the field to the final 10. That's when the bags came out to end the day ahead of the planned schedule with 19 minutes remaining in level 18.
2018 WSOPE €550 The COLOSSUS Schedule
| Day | Date | Starting Time | Late Reg | Entries | Survivors | Further Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Tuesday October 9th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 154 | 12 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 24 spots paid |
| 1B | Wednesday October 10th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 167 | 17 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 26 spots paid |
| 1C | Thursday October 11th | 12:00 | ~17:40 | 125 | 12 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 19 spots paid |
| 1D | Thursday October 11th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 164 | 10 | Play concluded with 19:00 left in level 18, top 25 spots paid |
| 1E | Friday October 12th | 12:00 | ~17:40 | tba | tba | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, the money will be reached |
| 1F | Friday October 12th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | tba | tba | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, the money will be reached |
| 1G | Saturday October 13th | 12:00 | ~17:40 | tba | tba | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, the money will be reached |
| 1H | Saturday October 13th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | tba | tba | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, the money will be reached |
| 2 | Sunday October 14th | 15:00 | - | tba | tba | Level duration increases to 40 minutes |
| 3 | Monday October 15th | tba | - | tba | - | Play Down to a champion |
So far, the event has generated a total of 610 entries and 51 players advanced to Day 2. Both numbers will rise significantly, as the two respective flights on Friday and Saturday are expected to fill Europe's biggest poker arena and put the tournament on track to surpass the guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000. As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor from start-to-finish for all you need to know about the first chance to win a coveted gold bracelet during the festival.