Bleiker Bags the Overnight Lead in Event #86
The first of four days of poker action in Event #86: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed Championship has concluded after ten hours of high-quality poker action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
Felix Bleiker (425,400) was able to top a stellar line-up and put himself in great shape going into the second day's battles, with a big chip lead.
Recent Event #51: $2,500 Mixed Omaha champion Yuri Dzivielevski (329,000) fought his way to seal a place near the top with John Andress (329,000) matching the Brazilian's efforts.
Andrey Pateychuk (320,300), Mustapha Kanit (285,400), and Sergi Reixach (278,600) are also well positioned for Day 2, with David Peters (213,200), John Hennigan (188,500), Barry Hutter (156,100), Ben Heath (149,700), Jennifer Tilly (117,600), Nick Schulman (115,000), Alex Foxen (105,300), Andras Nemeth (103,600), Robert Mizrachi (96,800), Sam Greenwood (84,800), and Stephen Chidwick (62,500) also returning tomorrow.
The entrants total reached 248, with 113 remaining on the tournament screen at the end of the play, but that number is set to grow with late registration open until the start of Day 2 at 2 pm on Sunday, July 14.
Eric Kurtzman rose up the chip counts aided by a perfect start when he won the hand of the day. In just the third level, Kurtzman eliminated Aliaksei Boika and left Steven Highfill on crumbs after he hit a straight flush on the river. Boika's holding improved to a full house on the final card with Highfill secured the nut flush. But when all the chips went into the middle, both players lost to Kurtzman, and he held onto those chips as the levels progressed.
WSOP bracelet winners Danny Tang, Chris Brammer, Julien Martini, Brian Yoon, Ryan Laplante, Kristen Bicknell, Andrew Lichtenberger, Mike Leah, and Calvin Anderson were among the players who were unable to process.
Eight-time winner Erik Seidel fell at the hands of the four-time winner Dominik Nitsche early on in the day after Seidel's top pair with king-jack was no against the two pair Nitsche held with seven-five.
Other well-known names to hit the rail included Lucas Greenwood, Sam Grafton, Patrick Leonard, Sergio Aido, 2018 WSOP Main Event winner John Cynn, Steffen Sontheimer, Thomas Boivin, Chris Hunichen, Ali Imsirovic, Seth Davies and last year's fifth-place finisher Scott Margereson.
Join us back here at PokerNews from 2 p.m. local time for continued coverage of this star-studded event populated with some of poker's most powerful players.