Day 1b of the 2019 EPT Open Sochi Main Event Kicks Off at Noon
Two starting days remain for the 2019 PokerStars EPT Open Sochi RUB133,000 Main Event (~$2,040) and there is very little doubt that guaranteed prize pool of RUB70,000,000 won't be surpassed easily as a strong turnout for Day 1a attracted a massive field of 468 entries at the stunning Casino Sochi in the mountains of Krasnaya Polyana.
Roughly one third of the field made it through with 166 survivors that all secured their seats for Day 2 already. All those came up short in their bid so far have another two starting days ahead and Day 1b is scheduled to kick off at noon local time.
Unlike the first flight, the level duration has been cut in half and 10 levels of 30 minutes each will be played as Day 1c kicks off right after at 6 p.m. local time.
The top stack to beat for the overall lead is Andrey Andreev's impressive 381,400, more than 12 times the starting stack of 30,000. Anatolii Filonenko made it through with 299,400 and PokerStars ambassador Chris Moneymaker bagged a top-five stack with 226,300. Whether anyone will be able to beat that in the two turbo flight remains to be seen.
Day 1 Level Structure
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Big Blind Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| 2 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| 3 | 100 | 200 | 200 |
| 4 | 100 | 300 | 300 |
| 5 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 6 | 200 | 500 | 500 |
| 7 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 8 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 9 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 10 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
Unlimited re-entries are allowed throughout the entire Day 1s and the registration closes at the start of Day 2 with blinds of 800-1,600 with a big blind ante of 1,600. The event is played in the new popular big blind ante format and the level duration will return to 60 minutes as of Day 2 when all survivors combine to one field.
October 11th also features the start of the RUB10,500 "Moneymaker's Road to PSPC" in which the winner takes home a Platinum Pass valued at more than €26,000 for the second PokerStars Players NL Hold'em Championship (PSPC) in Barcelona on top of the regular prize pool.
Stay tuned for what shapes up to be another day with plenty of poker action here in Sochi as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor from start-to-finish.