Hot Runs the Hottest on Day 1b of The Big Wrap in Rozvadov
The second starting day of The Big Wrap wrapped up in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Casino and Resort in Rozvadov. As expected, a more significant field emerged in the popular casino near the border to Germany with a guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000 luring in players from near and far for the €2,350 Pot-Limit Omaha Main Event.
After 128 entries on Day 1a the previous day, that number was almost doubled thanks to 221 entries including 165 unique players and 56 re-entries. Along with the twenty entries in the online Day 1 on partypoker, the current field size stands at 369 entries, and at least 155 players will return to their seats as of 2 p.m. local time when the action resumes at blinds of 2,000/4,000.
After twelve levels of 40 minutes each, it was a familiar name of the European poker scene that emerged at the top of the leaderboard as Besim Hot beat Veton Raka for the top spot with a stack of 720,000. Raka follows close behind with 702,000. The top five also includes Shahin Dezfoulli (576,000), Simone Fumagalli (573,000), and Katerminka (558,000).
It was no smooth sailing for Hot all the way, as he quickly lost the stack on the first bullet before a late surge propelled him into the lead.
Only the top five bagged up more than half a million in chips, but plenty of notables made it through to Day 2 such as Sameer Khurana (430,000), Paresh Doshi (385,000), Maksim Shuts (380,000), Maksim Pisarenko (310,000), Tomasz Kozub (277,000), Jan-Peter Jachtmann (237,000), Marek Blasko (230,000), and partypoker ambassador Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (144,000).
Among those that required more than one shot at running up a stack and succeeding, were also WSOPE PLO bracelet winner Lukas Zaskodny (244,000), Jonas Kronwitter (203,000), Alexander Norden (173,000), Gisle Olsen (164,000), and Hokyiu Lee (85,000).
Less fortunate were Andrej Desset, Mick Heder, Marek Tatar, Karel Kovarik, Alexandre Viard, Jesper Hougaard, and Petr Targa to name just a few of those that came and left without anything to show for just yet. With two levels of late registration remaining on Day 2, some of them may, however, be back in action after a good night's sleep.
Especially after the dinner break, the pace of all-in showdowns and re-entries accelerate. Simone Fumagalli tripled up in a three-way all-in when he turned the nut straight with a flush draw and held against top set and top pair as well as the nut flush draw.
Soon after, it was Yordanov Karagogov that doubled to half a million in chips when his wrap got there against a set.
Towards the end of the night, the chips were flying left and right in an attempt to run up a decent stack for Day 2. It was no surprise that the rollercoaster ride cut the field into more than half and the 95 Day 1b survivors will join the 52 players that bagged up on Day 1a.
The Talk and Gisle Olsen bagged up twice and will carry over their bigger stack while another nine online qualifiers join the action as of Day 2, along with at least 15 satellite winners. Be sure to tune back in for more PLO spectacle from Rozvadov as the penultimate day will see the money bubble burst with the PokerNews team on the floor to provide all the action.
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