Andreas Zampas Bags Huge Lead After Day 1 of €10,300 PLO Grand Slam Championship
It was a busy day at Arena Casino Tirana. No less than 55 players were seated at the start of the €10,300 PLO Grand Slam Championship hosted by Diamond Poker Series, with the clock reading 136 entries at the end of the night. Last edition's number of 128 has already been surpassed, but it is to be seen if the ambitious €2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool will be met during the remaining two levels of late registration.
When Day 1 finished, the biggest of the 51 bags belonged to Greek player Andreas Zampas, whose stack of 2,388,000 will be worth 240 big blinds when Day 2 starts. Zampas steadily grinded his 200,000 starting stack to seven figures throughout the day, a respectable stack for Day 2. However, during the final two hands of the night, he clashed with Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who had been one of the chipleaders up until that point. Zampas received a full double-up to more than two million while Jachtmann was left with just 107,000 at the end of the night.
Zampas' nearest contender is yesterday's €5,200 Opener champion Tom Vogelsang. Vogelsang had to fire a couple of bullets but was rewarded with a stack of 1,579,000 to bring to Day 2. Like Zampas, Vogelsang earned most of his chips in a late-night clash, in his case against Daniel Tordjman. Other chip millionaires include bracelet winners Dario Alioto and Amir Mozaffarian, as well as Andrew Ige, who sat with Vogelsang at the final table of the Opener.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andreas Zampas | Greece | 2,388,000 | 239 |
| 2 | Tom Vogelsang | Netherlands | 1,579,000 | 158 |
| 3 | Leon Freiholz | Germany | 1,514,000 | 151 |
| 4 | Dario Alioto | Italy | 1,251,000 | 125 |
| 5 | Michail Karapanos | Greece | 1,215,000 | 122 |
| 6 | Andrew Ige | United States | 1,084,000 | 108 |
| 7 | Amir Mozaffarian | Germany | 1,017,000 | 102 |
| 8 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 1,000,000 | 100 |
| 9 | Daniel Tordjman | France | 884,000 | 88 |
| 10 | Ronald Keijzer | Netherlands | 851,000 | 85 |
Plenty of other well-known Omaha crushers made it to the end of Day 1 as well. Ronald Keijzer bagged 851,000 thanks to a late surge as he is looking for his second final table of the week. Fellow PLO bracelet holders Ismael Bojang (316,000), Lautaro Guerra (375,000) and Tomas Ribeiro (638,000) bagged up as well, as did Diamond Poker Series serial cashers Giorgos Tsoupras (785,000), Youness Barakat (653,000), and Stanislau Melhui (241,000).
Meanwhile, the likes of Hossein Ensan, Nino Pansier, Elie Nakache, Nikolaos Lampropoulos, Robert Cowen, Joni Jouhkimainen, Blaz Zerjav and hometown hero Arjel Daci, the only player from Albania in the field, will have to try again tomorrow if they want a shot at the title.
Day 2 will restart at 4 p.m. local time tomorrow, January 28, and will have two more levels of late registration. The blind will begin at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante, with the latest anyone can sit down with a fresh stack of 200,000 being the first hand of Level 12: 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 big blind ante. Day 2 is scheduled to play down to the final two tables, but the tournament might proceed further if that point is reached early.
Tune back in to PokerNews tomorrow to find out who makes it into the money and will have a shot at becoming the second-ever PLO Grand Slam champion.