Paulius Plausinaitis Leads the Way after Day 1 of $50,000 EPT Super High Roller
After eight levels of play in the $50,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Cyprus, Paulius Plausinaitis has emerged as the overall chip leader, bagging an impressive 1,193,000 chips going into Day 2, worth just under 200 big blinds.
Plausinaitis already has one high roller trophy so far from the inaugural EPT Cyprus, having taken down the second $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em event for $264,690, and will no doubt be aiming to add a second EPT Cyprus high roller trophy to his collection in this event.
Day 1 saw a total of 39 entries which generated a prize pool of $1,849,890. That number is certain to increase further as late registration is available until the start of play for tomorrow's Day 2. Of the 39-entrant field, a total of 18 players were able to bag a stack at the end of the night.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paulius Plausinaitis | Lithuania | 1,193,000 | 199 |
| 2 | Ognyan Dimov | Bulgaria | 1,080,000 | 180 |
| 3 | Quan Zhou | China | 947,000 | 158 |
| 4 | Alexandre Vuilleumier | Switzerland | 936,000 | 156 |
| 5 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 864,000 | 144 |
| 6 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | 700,000 | 117 |
| 7 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 609,000 | 102 |
| 8 | Maher Nouira | Tunisia | 600,000 | 100 |
| 9 | Francisco Benitez | Uruguay | 537,000 | 90 |
| 10 | Jules Dickerson | United Kingdom | 467,000 | 78 |
A total of four previous EPT Champions bagged chips going into Day 2, including Artur Martirosian (228,000), Steve O'Dwyer (364,000), Adrian Mateos (609,000) and Ognyan Dimov (1,080,000), who bagged the second-largest stack of the evening and is the only player aside from Plausinaitis to finish the night over one million chips.
Notables to bust before the end of the night include Lewis Spencer, Sam Greenwood and PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton.
Day 1 Action
Martirosian got off to a quick start today, picking off a bluff from Aleksejs Ponakovs during the first level to chip up early. Other players to find early success today include Quan Zhou, who rivered a wheel straight to eliminate Gha Iakobishvili early on after Iakobishvili had rivered a set only to run into Zhou's rivered straight.
Plausinaitis also began distinguishing himself from the rest of the field early on after eliminating Greenwood with pocket-kings against Greenwood's ace-king. Plausinaitis would sit comfortably as one of the biggest stacks in the room for the rest of the day, later busting out Kayhan Mokri with a set of tens to pass the point of one million chips and firmly separate himself from the rest of the field.
Leon Sturm had a roller coaster Day 1, picking off a bluff from Grafton during the middle stages of the day to double up. Sturm's momentum slowed down later in the evening after losing a four-bet pot against Plausinaitis and then later being forced to fold in another big hand against Francisco Benitez during the last few hands of the evening.
Ognyan Dimov began picking up steam during the second half of the Day, at one point making a full house to bust Mikita Badziakouski. Not long after he would eliminate Iakobishvili, who was on his second bullet of the day, with pocket aces to surpass one million chips and join Plausinaitis at the top of the counts.
Day 2 starts tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. local time. Action will start on Level 9, with the blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a 6,000 big blind ante.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all your live coverage needs for this and every other event at the 2023 EPT Cyprus.
