Oleg Furman opened the button to 27,000 and got called by Osman Aksu in the big blind.
The K♥2♠3♣ flop landed and action checked to Furman who continued for 35,000. Aksu called.
The 5♠ hit the turn and the action slowed down and checked through to a 10♦ river.
Aksu opted to lead the river for another 35,000 and Furman went into the tank for a moment. After about a minute he landed on a fold while showing a three. Aksu nodded and showed a he had the goods as he flashed a king.
Chad also shares highlights from his vacation on a Virgin Voyages cruise where he played in the WPT at Sea poker room, Matt tells you how you can win a seat into the $10,000 WPT World Championship, and Connor comes to you straight from the EPT Cyprus, which just kicked off.
Finally, Chad chats with Jeffrey Allan Grosso, author of the poker book Dirty Dealing. In it, he alleges that his ideas and screenplay were stolen by Miramax Films and ultimately turned into the movie Rounders. It might sound crazy, but there was a court case and everything. Chad read the book prior to chatting with Grosso, who opened up about what he claims happened, how he feels about it, and why he ultimately decided to write a book about his experience.
Listen to those stories and more on the latest episode of the PokerNews Podcast.
Hand-for-hand play began and on the second deal the players came to a stop with four different players all in and at risk on four different tables. After all of the hands were dealt-out two of the four players hit the rail and the other two found a double.
The official bubble was Kim Wittendorff who called off with pocket aces but would fall to the two pair of his opponent. A few tables over it was Amirreza Arami Roudsari who would lose when his opponent drilled a queen to hit top pair on the river.
All players must put chips in a bag to move on to Day 2 and be in the money, so both of the bubble players will be going home empty handed.
Day 1b of Event #17: $2,200 High Roller at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus attracted 433 runners, which along with Day 1a’s 1,011 brought the total field up to 1,444 players that made their way to the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. This generated a massive prize pool of $2,772,480.
After 20 levels of play, 64 players remained in the second flight of the day. PokerStars ambassador Alejandro Lococo (665,000) is no stranger to bagging a big stack and today was no different. He may have started off quietly but when the bubble began to approach, he could be seen pushing the action and going for all of his opponent's chips on a regular basis. He will enter Day 2 as the chip leader of this flight and be in the mix for the overall spot.
There were however multiple players to bag big stacks. Pascal Hartmann (610,000) of Germany, Sarkis Wael (484,000) of Lebanon, Henok Tekle (466,000) of the Netherlands and Ran Shahar (444,000) of Isreal will all be on Lococo's radar as Day 2 begins.
Place
Name
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Alejandro Lococo
Argentina
665000
111
2
Pascal Hartmann
Germany
610000
102
3
Sarkis Wael
Lebanon
484000
81
4
Henok Tekle
Netherlands
466000
78
5
Ran Shahar
Israel
444000
74
6
Oleg Furman
Israel
415000
69
7
Osman Aksu
Turkey
330000
55
8
Nicanor Sula
Moldova
327000
55
9
Andreas Tomazou
Cyprus
315000
53
10
Ravil Khamatgareev
Russia
310000
52
Some other notable names to bag chips and move on to Day 2 were PSPC Champion Aliaksandr Shylko (96,000) of Belarus, 2018 EPT Barcelona Main Event Champion Piotr Nurzynski (99,000) of Poland, and 2013 EPT Barcelona Main Event Champion Tom Middleton.
Unfortunately, not everyone was so fortunate. Among those to bust on Day 1b were PokerStars Ambassadors Ben “Spraggy” Spragg and Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot. Plus, WSOP Bracelet winner Pete Chen to name just a few.
Day 2 will kick off Monday October 16th at 12:00 p.m. EET and will see a total of 216 players returning when the flights are combined. Play will begin with 5:12 left on the clock in level 17, 3,000/6,000/6,000 blinds, where Flight 1a left off. The seat draw and prize breakdown will be announced before play begins in the morning.
Although Lococo holds the chip lead there are multiple players from both flights on his heals and as always, it is anyone’s tournament to win.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates straight from the tournament floor of Event #17: $2,200 High Roller.