Milos Skrbic, Dario Sammartino and Parker Talbot In The Lead After Day 1a
The first day of action of the $5,300 EPT Cyprus Main Event came to an end at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa and after ten one-hour levels, 133 players made it through Day 1a out of 467 entrants.
At the end of the day, Milos Skrbic is the one who finished as the chipleader, with 402,000 chips. Behind him, the podium is completed by Dario Sammartino (297,000) and Parker Talbot. Early in the day, the PokerStars Ambassador had opportunities to build a stack, doubling up before the dinner break for example and he kept it big all day long, finishing with 276,000 chips.
Looking for a possible second EPT Main Event victory in a row after EPT Barcelona, Simon Wiciak also reached the Top 10 with 233,000 chips, closely followed by 2013 PCA winner Dimitar Danchev (211,000). But PokerNews Ambassador Lukas Robinson did better, ending the day with an impressive stack of 247,000 chips.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip count | Big blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milos Skrbic | Serbia | 402,000 | 335 |
| 2 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 297,000 | 248 |
| 3 | Parker Talbot | Canada | 276,000 | 230 |
| 4 | Klemens Roiter | Austria | 272,000 | 227 |
| 5 | Vadym Koriagin | Ukraine | 266,000 | 222 |
| 6 | Marian Virlanuta | Romania | 264,000 | 220 |
| 7 | Lukas Robinson | United Kingdom | 247,000 | 206 |
| 8 | Simon Wiciak | France | 233,000 | 194 |
| 9 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | 217,500 | 181 |
| 10 | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | 211,000 | 176 |
Day 1a action
Players were impatient to discover Cyprus for the first-ever EPT on the island. So a few notable players played directly on Day 1a, such as PokerStars Ambassador Alejandro Lococo, but his day quickly came to an end.
2023 PSPC winner Aliaksandr Shylko didn't qualify either, as he was eliminated twice, the second time against Aksel Aygun's aces. At Shylko's table during the day, Thomas Eychenne also failed to qualify along with 2022 EPT London winner Ian Hamilton, Mustapha Kanit, Dominik Nitsche or Samuel Ju.
Artur Martirosian didn't run into aces but into queens, which led to his elimination in a three-way pot. A few minutes later, Olga Iermolcheva also lost with a pair of nines against a better pair on the flop in the last level. Both of them will need to return on Day 1b to attempt to qualify for Day 2.
On the other hand, Conor Beresford had a successful run in the last few hands, taking nearly two starting stacks from 2023 EPT Barcelona finalist Carl Shaw. Thanks to that pot, Beresford bagged 178,500 chips while Shaw's stack decreased to 104,500.
Like them, players such as Julien Sitbon (119,000), Johan Guilbert (110,000), Alexandre Vuilleumier (101,000), or Paul Newey (98,000) have also qualified with an average stack. Adrian Mateos (70,500 chips) is not far behind, along with the 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan (63,000).
"It was a tough day," Gaelle Baumann said as she was leaving the tournament area with 40,500 chips. She is not the only one in this situation because Peter Jorgne (41,500), Sam Greenwood (35,000), Bart Lybaert (34,000), Joao Vieira (30,500), Kenny Hallaert (27,000), or Mehdi Chaoui (22,500) didn't manage to get a lot more chips than the starting stack.
The second flight of the EPT Cyprus Main Event will kick off Tuesday, October 17 at noon local time with the same structure as Day 1a : starting stacks of 30,000 and blinds beginning at 100/100/100. Registration will also remain open until the start of Day 2.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow to provide more updates in the EPT Cyprus Main Event!