Eldabach Claims Overall Lead After Day 1b; Peters and Zerjav Among Big Stacks
The second and final starting day of Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha attracted a large field in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Resort in Rozvadov. After 199 entries on the first flight the day prior, a strong turnout more than doubled that tally as 424 entries were recorded on the final starting day. That brought the total field up to 623 entries and created an overall prize pool of €295,925.
The lion's share of that, $264,910 to be exact, will be up for grabs in the upcoming two days as the second gold bracelet event of the 2021 World Series of Poker Europe will play down to a champion. Only 43 players survived Day 1b and they will join the 19 contenders of Day 1a to battle for their chance at claiming live poker's most coveted prize.
Dorel Eldabach claimed the Day 1b and overall lead after accumulating 625,000 in chips. The King's regular and Pot-Limit Omaha specialist has eight WSOP cashes to his name, most notably a runner-up finish in the 2020 GGPoker.com Event #62: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha for $168,478. Eldabach surpassed Bjorn Verbakel (609,000), Ken Beckers (551,000) and Ugur Coskun (514,000) on the overnight leaderboard as the only four players with more than half a million in chips.
Top 10 Chip Counts Day 1b Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorel Eldabach | Israel | 625,000 |
| 2 | Bjorn Verbakel | Netherlands | 609,000 |
| 3 | Ken Beckers | Belgium | 551,000 |
| 4 | Ugur Coskun | Switzerland | 514,000 |
| 5 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | 483,000 |
| 6 | Blaz Zerjav | Slovenia | 479,000 |
| 7 | Taras Slabyk | Germany | 459,000 |
| 8 | Udo Hemmert | Germany | 434,000 |
| 9 | Saulius Tumosa | Lithuania | 398,000 |
| 10 | Jose Obadia | Spain | 368,000 |
Big stacks after Day 1b also belong to Tobias Peters, Blaz Zerjav, Saulius Tumosa and Jose Obadia. Peters was forced to re-enter and steadily built his stack from there on out and notched up large pots with the eliminations of Simon Taberham and Florian Sarnow. Likewise, Zerjav thrived after a late surge when he first doubled and then knocked out Pierre Mothes.
Lithuania's Tumosa was involved in the action on the money bubble and ensured a min-cash of €900 for nearly two dozen players when he sent Nicola Angelini to the rail on the money bubble.
Other notables to advance from Day 1b include Michael Magalashvili, Quirin Zech, David Hu, and Aliaksandr Shylko. A trio of WSOP bracelet winners also made it through as Martin Kabrhel, Sebastian Langrock and Stoyan Madanzhiev bagged and tagged for the night. Kabrhel fired multiple bullets before running up a stack but was one of the players at risk right before the money bubble.
Once the min-cash of €900 was secured, 21 players collected payouts in the final two levels of the night including notables such as Andriy Lyubovetskiy, Dario Alioto, Danny Covyn, and Tomasz Gluszko. Alioto cashed on both Day 1s but failed to make the cut in his bid for a potential second gold bracelet.
Payouts on Day 1b Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | Michael Adam | Czech Republic | € 1,055 |
| 45 | Arkadiusz Liszewski | Poland | € 1,055 |
| 46 | Hamoun Habibi | Netherlands | € 1,055 |
| 47 | Pierre Mothes | Germany | € 1,055 |
| 48 | Nick Maljers | Belgium | € 1,055 |
| 49 | Andriy Lyubovetskiy | Ukraine | € 985 |
| 50 | Tomasz Puchalski | Poland | € 985 |
| 51 | Danny Covyn | Belgium | € 985 |
| 52 | Christina Joergensen Solli | Norway | € 985 |
| 53 | Adrian Kyiak | Ukraine | € 985 |
| 54 | Alexander Eder | Austria | € 985 |
| 55 | Linda van de Ree | Netherlands | € 985 |
| 56 | Pawel Keller | Poland | € 985 |
| 57 | Benoit Michielsens | Belgium | € 900 |
| 58 | Dario Alioto | Italy | € 900 |
| 59 | Denys Fedorenko | Ukraine | € 900 |
| 60 | Valter Hansson | Sweden | € 900 |
| 61 | Konstantinos Tzimas | Greece | € 900 |
| 62 | Karsten Kobbing | Germany | € 900 |
| 63 | Tomasz Gluszko | Poland | € 900 |
| 64 | Hristo Peychev | Bulgaria | € 900 |
The 62 remaining contenders will return at 2pm local time on Monday, November 22 for the penultimate tournament day. Blinds will recommence at 4,000-8,000 and a big blind ante of 8,000. Day 2 is scheduled to play down to the final table, which will then be live-streamed the following day. As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will provide as many of the key hands as possible en route to crowning a champion here in Rozvadov.