2014 partypoker WPT National Prague Main Event Day 1b: Nikolay Tsanev Leads
As expected, there were more players by far on the second starting day of the €2,000 partypoker World Poker Tour National Main Event at the Corinthia Hotel in Prague. Until the end of Level 8, 183 entries would gather in King's Casino and only 101 of them would bag up chips. However, all players that busted on Day 1b and only had one entry so far can still reenter until the end of Level 9, which will be around 14:00 CET on Saturday.
Alexander Lakhov remains the overall chip leader with 182,900 after his impressive climb on Day 1a, while Nikolay Tsanev jumped into the lead for Day 1b in the last level of play when he cracked the 10♦10♥ via a back-door straight when his opponent had turned a set. Tsanev, a Bulgarian player, completed a straight on the river of a J♦2♥3♠10♣K♠ river with the Q♥9♣.
Not far behind are Oliver Heidel (169,700) and Fahredin Mustafov (160,000). David Vamplew silently amassed 148,500 in chips, and then Pawel Kapczynski bagged up 142,400 despite losing a big pot to Manuel Sanchez Morito with queens versus kings.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikolay Tsanev | 178,700 |
| 2 | Oliver Heidel | 169,700 |
| 3 | Fahredin Mustafov | 160,000 |
| 4 | David Vamplew | 148,500 |
| 5 | Pawel Kapczynski | 142,400 |
| 6 | Manuel Sanchez Morito | 132,400 |
| 7 | Krzysztof Czerwinski | 121,800 |
| 8 | Simeon Naydenov | 121,100 |
| 9 | Stanislav Nicholson | 117,500 |
| 10 | Koray Aldemir | 112,300 |
Among the bigger stacks were World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Simeon Naydenov (121,100), Koray Aldemir (112,300), Andrew Hulme (104,700), Matthias Kürschner (103,200), Maxim Panyak (94,500), Sebastian Langrock (91,100), and Alin Grasu (80,000).
Other familiar faces of the international poker circuit were less fortunate. Fabrice Soulier busted both entries on Day 1b, as did Bryn Kenney and Roberto Romanello. Giacomo Fundaro, Sam Cohen, Joey Weissman, and Sergio Aido all reentered after busting Day 1a and didn't bag up chips, either. WSOP Main Event runner-up Felix Stephensen took another shot at the WPT title, but his top two pair with ace-king was crushed by the set of eights of Owain Carey in Level 3.
With the registration still open, the payout structure will be announced within the first few levels of Day 2 and most likely the players of the final three tables will receive a return on their investment. The tentative plan for Day 2 is to play either a maximum of 10 levels of 60 minutes each or until the last 18 players have been reached. This is yet to be confirmed, though, depending on the late entries at the start of Day 2.
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