Phil Ivey Leads WSOPE €25,500 Platinum High Roller
It was a delayed start to the day in Event #8: €25,500 Platinum High Roller, but once the cards got in the air, the players quickly got down to business. In an abbreviated Day 1 of the tournament, none other than Phil Ivey bagged up the chip lead with 3,895,000 chips after just 12 levels, leading the remaining 30 players.
Ivey himself only played three levels after entering the field after the last break of the night. In the largest pot of the tournament thus far, Ivey busted Abdelhakim Zoufri in a cooler spot. Ivey flopped a straight with a flush draw and completed his flush on the turn while Zoufri made the nut straight. Ivey bet all three streets and shoved all-in on the river that Zoufri paid off.
Earlier in the day, Ivey was heads-up with King's Resort owner Leon Tsoukernik in the €100,000 Short Deck High Roller. Tsoukernik came out on top of that battle, but Ivey still earned a payday of over €826,000. After taking a break for a couple of hours, Ivey made his way back down to the casino and carried that momentum through the last two hours of the night.
The second-largest stack of the day belongs to high-roller regular Timothy Adams with 3,650,000. Adams gained the majority of his chips after flopping a set of eights against Yusuf Kurt, who flopped top pair with an open-ended straight draw. Adams filled up on the river and eliminated Kurt in a pot of over 2,500,000 chips.
James Chen (3,500,000) and Kahle Burns (3,090,000) were the other two players to bag over the 3 million-mark.
In what was nearly a 90-minute delay before the tournament got underway, eventually, enough players were registered to get the cards in the air. Even with a 500 big blind starting stack to kick things off, there was no shortage of action in the early goings. In fact, there were two eliminations before the first break with Sam Grafton and Alex Foxen both having to hit up the registration desk again.
The number of entries steadily grew throughout the course of the day, and a total of 54 were registered by the end of Day 1. Late registration will remain open for another two levels on Day 2 and the tournament has been extended to a three-day event. That means, on Day 2, they will play down to the final six players.
James Chen, coming fresh off a WSOP bracelet victory in the €250,000 Super High Roller, has that taste of winning now and holds one of the top stacks again. In the last level of the night, Chen flopped a set of fours in a three-way pot and managed to double up through Rainer Kempe's pocket aces. Chen wrapped up the night with a stack of 3,500,000 chips as he hopes to add another bracelet to his collection.
Some other notables to keep an eye on Day 2 include Anson Tsang (2,770,000), Johannes Becker (2,360,000), and Manig Loeser (2,340,000). Both Tsang and Loeser made deep runs in Event #7: €1,100 Turbo Bounty Hunter last night, finishing in fifth and third place, respectively. Becker got himself off to an early lead and held that through much of the day but plateaued out in the latter stages. The 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Hossein Ensan also bagged up a stack of 480,000 to return to on Day 2.
Some players will have to put up another €25,500 tomorrow if they wish to get back in the field. Dario Sammartino, Andreas Eiler, Jack Sinclair, and Anatoly Filatov were all eliminated at one point or another and chose to hold off on their re-entries. Late registration will remain open until after Level 14 on Day 2.
The cards will go back in the air at 1:00 p.m. on Monday with the blinds resuming at 20,000/40,000 and a 40,000 big blind ante. Each player will be given a fresh set of six time-banks at the start of the day. As always, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor to bring you all of the action throughout the entire day. Check out the Live Updates and Day 2 seat draw in the WSOPE Live Reporting hub.
