Danijel Kucurski Heads Field at Close of Day 1a of MPNPT Bratislava
The MPN Poker Tour has arrived in Bratislava for the very first time, bringing with it the Tour’s friendly mix of local and globe-trotting poker enthusiasts, pros, and qualifiers to the beautiful Slovakian capital. This stop also represents the MPNPT’s first partnership with the Cash Game Festival, taking place simultaneously (April 4-8), with regular streaming, at the Banco Casino.
A field of 88 entrants took aim at the €150,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event’s Day 1a, including Mateusz Moolhuizen (fourth-place finisher at MPNPT Morocco in January), Betsafe Pro Monika ‘HeyMonia’ Zukowicz, Philip Huxley, Jari Hurri, Andy Hills and last year’s MPNPT Tallinn champion Keimo Suominen. Of these regular players, only Moolhuizen and Hurri made it through, with 98,500 and 64,700 chips respectively.
In the lead after the first flight lies Danijel Kucurski with 233,000 chips, comfortably ahead of his closest chip rivals Daniel Camus (192,300) and Leo Pietila (179,600). An extraordinary 16 nationalities are represented in out of the 26 Day 1a survivors, representing the truly international field that travels to the MPNPT events.
Both Paf and the Betsson Group (encompassing Betsson, NordicBet and Betsafe) are encouraging their online qualifiers here in Bratislava with last-longer competitions for the Main Event. The last player standing from each will win a full package to the next MPNPT stop. Our current chip leader Kucurski won his €550 seat on Betsson and will be keeping one eye on his fellow qualifiers starting their Main Event journeys today in Day 1b.
Live reporting from the Main Event continues at noon sharp today, regardless of the fact that the Online Qualifiers’ Party took place last night at floating venue RIVA. Click here to recap Day 1a’s blog and view the full end-of-day chip counts, and visit the MPN Poker Tour Facebook page for party galleries and more.
Side events kick off with a €110 Win the Button tournament starting at 7 p.m. CEST tonight (head to mpnpokertour.com for full schedule details). All players buying in to an MPNPT Bratislava side event (or following @MPNPokerTour, interacting with the live blog or using #MPNPT) receive a free LIVE Fish Party ticket, which awards a three-handed turbo shot at prizes ranging from MPNPT merchandise to the Jackpot – a €1,500 MPNPT package for an upcoming stop on the tour. More information can be found at the Media Desk.
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