The first day of action of the $5,300 EPT Cyprus Main Event came to an end at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa and after ten one-hour levels, 133 players made it through Day 1a out of 467 entrants.
At the end of the day, Milos Skrbic is the one who finished as the chipleader, with 402,000 chips. Behind him, the podium is completed by Dario Sammartino (297,000) and Parker Talbot. Early in the day, the PokerStars Ambassador had opportunities to build a stack, doubling up before the dinner break for example and he kept it big all day long, finishing with 276,000 chips.
Looking for a possible second EPT Main Event victory in a row after EPT Barcelona, Simon Wiciak also reached the Top 10 with 233,000 chips, closely followed by 2013 PCA winner Dimitar Danchev (211,000). But PokerNews AmbassadorLukas Robinson did better, ending the day with an impressive stack of 247,000 chips.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip count
Big blinds
1
Milos Skrbic
Serbia
402,000
335
2
Dario Sammartino
Italy
297,000
248
3
Parker Talbot
Canada
276,000
230
4
Klemens Roiter
Austria
272,000
227
5
Vadym Koriagin
Ukraine
266,000
222
6
Marian Virlanuta
Romania
264,000
220
7
Lukas Robinson
United Kingdom
247,000
206
8
Simon Wiciak
France
233,000
194
9
Daniyar Aubakirov
Kazakhstan
217,500
181
10
Dimitar Danchev
Bulgaria
211,000
176
Day 1a action
Players were impatient to discover Cyprus for the first-ever EPT on the island. So a few notable players played directly on Day 1a, such as PokerStars Ambassador Alejandro Lococo, but his day quickly came to an end.
2023 PSPC winner Aliaksandr Shylko didn't qualify either, as he was eliminated twice, the second time against Aksel Aygun's aces. At Shylko's table during the day, Thomas Eychenne also failed to qualify along with 2022 EPT London winner Ian Hamilton,Mustapha Kanit, Dominik Nitsche or Samuel Ju.
Like them, players such as Julien Sitbon (119,000), Johan Guilbert (110,000), Alexandre Vuilleumier (101,000), or Paul Newey (98,000) have also qualified with an average stack. Adrian Mateos (70,500 chips) is not far behind, along with the 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan (63,000).
"It was a tough day," Gaelle Baumann said as she was leaving the tournament area with 40,500 chips. She is not the only one in this situation because Peter Jorgne (41,500), Sam Greenwood (35,000), Bart Lybaert (34,000), Joao Vieira (30,500), Kenny Hallaert (27,000), or Mehdi Chaoui (22,500) didn't manage to get a lot more chips than the starting stack.
The second flight of the EPT Cyprus Main Event will kick off Tuesday, October 17 at noon local time with the same structure as Day 1a : starting stacks of 30,000 and blinds beginning at 100/100/100. Registration will also remain open until the start of Day 2.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow to provide more updates in the EPT Cyprus Main Event!