Marian Virlanuta Tops Flight, Bagging Over One Million Chips
The PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus, running at the luxurious Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, continued today with Day 1c of the $1,100 Eureka Main Event. The flight attracted 716 entries and, after a hectic bubble that saw two players bust, 106 players made it through to Day 2.
Marian Virlanuta of Romania topped the flight with a staggering chip lead of 1,156,000, the only player so far to bag over one million chips. Virlanuta has several five figure scores under his belt already and is now well on track for his biggest ever cash, if he can run well enough and utilize his chip advantage.
Behind him, finishing Day 1c in second place, was Roman Korenev of Russia, who bagged 692,000. Korenev has over $2.5 million in live winnings, according to Hendon Mob, his greatest result earning him a WSOP bracelet.
Omer Cubukcu rounds out the top three as the only other player in the flight to bag over 600,000.
Eureka Main Event Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marian Virlanuta | Romania | 1,156,000 |
| 2 | Roman Korenev | Russia | 692,000 |
| 3 | Omer Cubukcu | Turkey | 607,000 |
| 4 | Tian Hao Zheng | China | 583,000 |
| 5 | Alexandre Vuilleumier | Switzerland | 516,000 |
| 6 | Nikolaos Oikonomou | Greece | 482,000 |
| 7 | Razvan Sabau | Romania | 445,000 |
| 8 | Akinobu Maeda | Japan | 405,000 |
| 9 | Dinesh Alt | Switzerland | 402,000 |
| 10 | Endrit Geci | United Kingdom | 399,000 |
There were plenty of familiar faces in the field and among those to find a bag were Ana Marquez (332,000), Pablo Silva (319,000), Julien Sitbon (298,000), as well as PokerStars Team Pro players Sebastian Huber (155,000) and Benjamin Spragg (116,000).
Notables who weren't fortunate enough to make Day 2 include 2023 EPT Barcelona Main Event winner Simon Wiciak, 2023 EPT Cypus Eureka Main Event winner Ankit Ahuja, and the winner of the inaugural EPT Cyprus Main Event, Gilles Simon, as well as PS Team Pro players Marle Spragg and Felix Schneiders.
The flight was the busiest so far by a long shot, the tournament floor brimming with hopefuls from the get-go. The field continued to grow right up until late registration closed, at which point there was only one way it could go - hundreds of bustouts followed over the next few hours until the bubble arrived in sharp fashion.
On the second hand of official bubble play, five tables were paused for all in and calls. Two players doubled up, one hand resulted in a split, while Kiletto and Pamukcu both busted on the bubble to bring Day 1c to a close.
Players who bagged for Day 2 are already in the money, although prize pools and payouts won't be confirmed until all starting flights are complete.
Anyone who didn't manage to find the bag still has two starting flights left if they want to take a shot. Day 1e begins on Friday 11th at 11 a.m., while the turbo flight Day 1f runs from 5 p.m. local time.
Day 2 will take place on Saturday, October 12 at noon.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as live reporters bring updates straight from the tournament floor for the remaining starting flights and the rest of the tournament all the way down to a winner.