Stefan-Sebastian Ionita Bags Chip Lead on Day 1c of the $5,300 MPP Main Event
After the end of Day 1c of the $5,300 Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event, and while Day 1d Turbo is ending, it is now time to focus on Day 2 for all the players who managed to qualify. At the stunning Merit Royal Diamond Hotel in Northern Cyprus, 376 entrants were recorded on the third flight of the tournament, which became the biggest of all.
But out of these 376 entries, only 100 players found a bag tonight. And the player who put the most chips in his bag is Romania's Stefan-Sebastian Ionita, who ended up the day with 2,990,000 chips. Qualified for this Main Event after he finished second of EAPT Bucharest last November, he won a big pot against Tom-Aksel Bedell (1,365,000) during the last minutes of the day to take the chip lead. WPT champions Dmitry Gromov (2 ,830,000) and Matas Cimbolas (2,615,000) are second and third in chips.
$5,300 MPP Main Event Day 1c Top 10
| Place | Player | Country | Chip count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stefan-Sebastian Ionita | Romania | 2,990,000 | 100 |
| 2 | Dmitry Gromov | Russia | 2,830,000 | 94 |
| 3 | Matas Cimbolas | Lithuania | 2,615,000 | 87 |
| 4 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | 2,585,000 | 86 |
| 5 | Kalidou Sow | France | 2,375,000 | 79 |
| 6 | Danyel Boyaciyan | Netherlands | 2,290,000 | 76 |
| 7 | Denis Vlasov | Russia | 2,250,000 | 75 |
| 8 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | 2,195,000 | 73 |
| 9 | Azizjon Rakhimov | Uzbekistan | 2,140,000 | 71 |
| 10 | Timo Kamphues | Germany | 2,115,000 | 71 |
2017 Pokestars Championship winner Kalidou Sow (2,375,000) and Teun Mulder (2,195,000) had the biggest stacks all day long. They lost a few chips at the end of the Day, but still filled their bags with more than two million chips. The same goes for Mehdi Chaoui, who almost tripled up quickly before finishing with 2,040,000.
Among the other qualified players are Maksim Shornikau (1,715,000), Tobias Peters (1,415,000), Natan Chauskin (1,285,000), Rehman Kassam (1,030,000) and Robert Schiffbauer (945,000), followed by Damir Zhugralin (870,000), Farid Jattin (845,000), Nenad Dukic (615,000) or Fabian Quoss (520,000).
Felipe Ketzer fought all day long at the table, but his stack didn't grow much as he almost bagged the starting stack (320,000). Bart Lybaert (300,000) is in the same situation, despite being on the feature table during the last hours of Day 1c. But their stacks are still bigger than Giorgiy Skhulukhiya's 170,000-chip stack, the shortest of all.
Play resumes tomorrow, Friday, May 10th at noon local time for Day 2 with blinds starting at 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 60 minutes in length with a break scheduled every two levels.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of this $5,300 Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event !