Ricci Leads Final Nine in Rozvadov; Shylko and Gilboa in Contention
The nine-handed final table of the 2021 WSOP International Circuit €1,700 Main Event at the King's Resort in Rozvadov is set. Out of a field 912 entries, hopefuls from five different countries remain in contention for the lion's share of the €1,342,920 prize pool. Germany has four hopes in the mix while Italy boasts two finalists.
Andrea Ricci jumped into the top spot during the final stages of a long day, which started with 81 contenders and lasted nine full levels in order to reach the final table. The Italian was the only player to bag up an eight-figure stack and will enter the final table with 63 big blinds.
Another four players are within four big blinds and that also includes Aliaksandr Shylko, who finished in fourth place during this very tournament back in 2019.
Furthermore, the 2019 EPT Sochi Main Event winner Uri Gilboa will also be back on Tuesday, September 14, when a champion is crowned. He brings up the rear end of the leaderboard with just nine blinds but three other finalists are just a few big blinds ahead. The nine finalists and tenth-place finisher Mihai Stinca have also locked up a seat for the 2021 WSOP Europe Main Event worth €10,300 each.
2021 WSOP International Circuit King's €1,700 Main Event Final Table Line-Up
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sami Karli | Germany | 6,810,000 | 43 |
| 2 | Simone Lombardo | Italy | 6,475,000 | 40 |
| 3 | Ahmad Achegsei | Germany | 2,175,000 | 14 |
| 4 | Andrea Ricci | Italy | 10,085,000 | 63 |
| 5 | Uri Gilboa | Israel | 1,385,000 | 9 |
| 6 | Mr. Bond | Germany | 3,375,000 | 21 |
| 7 | Aliaksandr Shylko | Belarus | 6,730,000 | 42 |
| 8 | Vincent De Neve | Germany | 6,410,000 | 40 |
| 9 | Mourad Tounnouti | Netherlands | 2,135,000 | 13 |
The action will resume at 2pm local time the following day with blinds of 80,000-160,000 and a big blind ante of 160,000. All nine contenders have locked up at least €10,459 locked up for the efforts but a significantly bigger payday of €236,489 awaits for the eventual champion.
Among the notables that fell throughout the day were the WSOP bracelet winners Martin Kabrhel, Vangelis Kaimakamis, and Armando D'Amanzo, Thomas Bichon, two-time WSOP Circuit Ring winner Emil Bise, Andrea Dato, Szymon Wysocki, and Robert Kokoska.
Especially during the early stages, the eliminations came at a rapid pace. The first level alone resulted in 20 casualties and D'Avanzo closed the gap to chip leader Ahmad Achegsei after he knocked out Vincent Lamy with aces versus kings in a preflop contest.
Kabrhel was sent to the rail on the final five tables when he lost a flip with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Alexey Mishuk. The big of D'Avanzo to add a WSOP Circuit ring to his poker resume after recently claiming his maiden gold bracelet on GGPoker ended just shy of the final three tables. His ace-queen found no help against the pocket queens of Alexey Mishuk.
Once the last three tables were set, the rise of Andrea Ricci started. He knocked out "Sammy" and Georgios Tsouloftas to take over the lead. The road from there on wasn't without speed bumps but especially during the very late stages, Ricci had the best of it against Achegsei several times to cement his status as the chip leader.
Two bubbles were played at the very end - one for the nine-handed final table and the other for the WSOP Europe ticket. Two Romanians came up second-best on these occasions as Petru Proca lost a battle of short stacks with Uri Gilboa and Mihai Stinca never recovered from a massive blow by Sami Karli with ten players remaining.
Stay tuned for the conclusion of this event on September 14 as the PokerNews team will be back to provide all the key hands from the first flop until the last river card.