Jocius Takes Day 1a Chip Lead of the WSOP International Circuit Main Event; Begovic and Chmielewski Chasing 2nd Main Event Title
The first day of the WSOP International Circuit Rozvadov Main Event has come to an end after twelve levels of 40 minutes each have been played. The first of two starting flights attracted 205 unique players and 31 reentries to create 236 entries in total to battle it out for the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and WSOPE Main Event Tickets. Claiming the Day 1a chip lead out of the 98 remaining players is Lithuania’s Arunas Jocius.
Jocius only has one live tournament cash recorded to his name according to The Hendon Mob which he collected last week when he finished in 48th place in the WSOPC Mini Main Event. That might have been a good forewarning for his result in the Main Event. He has bagged 384,700 for Day 2 which equals 240 big blinds when play commences on Sunday, October 13.
Trailing Jocius in the chip counts are Dominik Arnold and Marius Iftimia who both also surpassed the 300,000-mark by bagging 363,300 and 359,700 respectively. Amar Begovic won the WSOPC Main Event in 2018 for €220,000 when he beat the 690-strong field. He has a great chance to repeat this feat as he bagged 231,900 in chips today. Marcin Chmielewski won at the beginning of 2017 and is still in it to win a second title and ring as he bagged 61,400.
Other previous WSOPC Rozvadov Main Event winners Emil Bise and Martin Kabrhel were less lucky. This was also the case for Andrej Desset, Ondrej Lon, Michael Magalashvili, Pierre Neuville, Thai Ha, Milad Oghabian, Albert Hoekendijk, and maybe the most illustrious player to have entered the field today, Viktor Blom for example. They all tried once or twice today to make it through but will need to return for Day 1b to try again.
Jaroslav Peter won the Seven Card Stud Limit Ring earlier this week and is aiming to add a second one to his collection. He was at the top of the chip counts throughout most of the day and ended up with 205,300 in his bag. As expected, the Czech players came out in throngs and a bunch of them made it through. Players like Vaclav Vlach, Lukas Zaskodny, Josef Snejberg, and Jakub Oliva have had success here at the beautiful King’s Resort before and will looking for even more of the same.
Day 1b will commence at 2 p.m. local time on Saturday, October 12 and follow the exact same structure of Day 1a which featured 12 levels of 40 minutes and a break of 15 or 30 minutes after every three levels. Players can reenter once during each flight or during the first two levels on Day 2 and players who are unsatisfied with the stack that they bagged on Day 1a can elect to play again to try and build a better one. If the player bags on Day 1b too, they can select which stack they will use on Day 2.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand, as usual, to bring you all the action from the Czech Republic as soon as the cards go back in the air!