Tal Leads After Day 1A; Soyza, Boyd and Ferguson Among 21 Survivors
The 2018 World Series of Poker Europe has seen the first Non-Hold'em tournament of the festival kick off in style as Event #3: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed already surpassed the guaranteed prize pool of €100,000 on the first of two starting days at King's Casino in Rozvadov. A total of 152 unique players and 78 ere-entries created a field of 230 entries, of which 21 players bagged up chips at the end of level 18.
Leading the field of the 21 survivors is Israel's Dor Tal with 643,000, well ahead of Peter Jaksland (343,000) and Michael Magalshvili (339,000). "Oh, Dor. Yeah, I know him, we played in the same home game," Magalashvili said when glancing over to the other table upon bagging and tagging. Other notables in contention after Day 1a include Alfredo Vega Meister (300,000), Aaron Duczak (265,000), Michael Soyza (224,000), Romain Lewis (209,000), and Aussie Hall of Famer Jason Gray (197,000).
Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dutch Boyd (190,000) and six-time champion Chris Ferguson (148,000) also advanced, while fellow WSOP bracelet winners Dario Alioto, Sebastian Langrock and Cord Garcia, as well as Allen Kessler and Anson Tsang were among the 14 players that cashed. Oleh Sushto ended up as the bubble boy of the first starting day.
Day 1A Payouts of Event #3: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Stanislav Parkhomenko | Bulgaria | 953 |
| 23 | Ivaylo Sivinov | Bulgaria | 953 |
| 24 | Lluis Valls Oncins | Spain | 953 |
| 25 | Ting Ho | United States | 859 |
| 26 | Georges Chehade | Lebanon | 859 |
| 27 | Anson Tsang | Hong Kong | 859 |
| 28 | Allen Kessler | United States | 859 |
| 29 | Cord Garcia | United States | 859 |
| 30 | Dario Alioto | Italy | 859 |
| 31 | Sebastian Langrock | Germany | 859 |
| 32 | Martin Rothaermel | Germany | 859 |
| 33 | Pasquale Vinci | Italy | 799 |
| 34 | Zakhar Galper | Israel | 799 |
| 35 | Peter Slustik | Slovakia | 799 |
Action of the Day
Around 50 players were seated in the first level of the day and the number of entries quickly doubled, while many participants took advantage of the unlimited re-entry option during the first 10 levels. It was not uncommon that some of the players fired at least four bullets without success.
Among those that took a shot without anything to show for just jet were the WSOP bracelet winners Jeff Lisandro, Shaun Deeb, Jeff Madsen, Roger Hairabedian and Max Pescatori. Deeb and Pescatori busted very close to the money with the former missing out on vital points for the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year leader board.
Pescatori got it in with jack-ten-ten-nine and Ivaylo Sivinov flopped two pair with ace-king-seven-six to eliminate the Italian. Sivinov was also responsible for the departure of Deeb when he flopped a straight and held a flush draw to go along with it. Deeb check-shoved with a gutshot to the same straight and the nut flush draw, but bricked both the turn and river.
The money bubble burst in level 16 and it was Oleh Sushto that ended up as the bubble boy. Peter Jaksland doubled twice and Sushto then got it in with aces to fall short against Peter Slustik, while Cord Garcia doubled up in the same hand on another table to let the bubble burst. The eliminations kept coming at a quick pace after that and more than a dozen players headed to the payout desk before bagging and tagging.
Day 1b will kick off at 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday, October 16th, 2018, and a similar, if not even bigger field size is expecxted for the second and final starting day. Make sure to tune back in then to find out who will be in the running for the third gold bracelet of the festival at Europe's biggest poker arena.