Records Will be Broken, Guaranteed!

(Photo: Elena Chadaeva)

When you have an event with a €1million guarantee, the sweetest feeling for all involved comes when the numbers break through the barrier – and keep rising! For King’s Casino in Rozvadov, the WSOP Circuit Main Event passed that mark early on day 1b, 385 players entering before the afternoon had settled into the winter darkness here in the heart of Europe.

Among them, as mentioned yesterday, November NinerVojtech Ruzicka – but the cameras were mostly on others for a change, in the form of 888 ambassador Sofie Lovgren from Sweden, part of a large contingent from 888 which also contained the presenter-cum-poker player Natalie Hof from Germany, the seasoned girls adding an element of glamour to the Main Event.

(Photo: Elena Chadaeva)

Though neither had played the Ladies Event the night before – Prague’s Sylva Simordova taking down the Circuit Ring in what was a largely-amateur but fiercely-contested final table – they helped to boost what was already looking to be one of the biggest circuit events outside of the USA.

Rings and resounding anthems

Simordova turned up for the official ring ceremony and was joined by Alexander Burkart who won the PLO/NLHE mix title and also Bulgarian Viliyan Petleshkov who had scooped the High Roller the previous evening. The nice touch at Kings is that each player’s national anthem is played as they are awarded their circuit rings – a great memory to go with great achievements!

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Once again the casino, just a stone’s throw from the German border, was packed out. The Main Event and 6-max ring event – the final two from 14 rings on offer at the 19-day-long festival filling the main hall to capacity, while the cash games and VIP high-rollers took over the upper level.

Also up for grabs over the weekend is the Player of the Festival title, the winner of which gets a seat to the Casino Championship worth $10.000. It looks like being a 3-horse race with Bulgarian Viliyan Petleshkov (who took down yesterday’s €5K High Roller event for €57,000) and Russian Alexander Lakhov leading the way on 72.5 points.

Martin Kabrhel of Czech Republic is sneaking up on the rails with 70 points and a top 10 finish in the Main Event by many others, however, could completely upset the applecart.

(Photo: Elena Chadaeva)

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Big names, big expectations

So, what happened to the big names today?

2011 WSOP runner-up Martin Staszko fired one bullet yesterday, and another one early on today, so he’s on his ‘last chance saloon’ attempt this evening – and by 9pm he was among the chip leaders, which also included Lovgren and Hof!

Last year's winner Mateusz Dziewonski was hoping to repeat his success of last year, when he took down the inaugural WSOP Circuit Main Event and a whopping €206,927 to go with the coveted ring, but late in the day he had to re-buy, a new stack only equating to half the average in level 11 at 500-1000 ante 100.

(Photo: Elena Chadaeva)

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Bad beats and feeling the heat!

Naturally, in a tournament so large, the bad beats and suck-outs will be fast and furious, and one of the worst saw Sven Latzke hit the rails, despite getting it all-in with K♦ K♣ against Ali Abdalla’s

Q♠ Q♦.

When the flop came…

Q♣ Q♥ 8♥

…a disbelieving Latzke jumped to his feet exclaiming: "What the f*ck!" - and with the turn missing the first of the two kings required, it was all over for the German.

Not everyone was sad or upset about busting however, the friendly German player in the next clip hoping for a double-up or better, but hitting the rails instead when the queen hit the turn.

End of all days?

Of course not, only the two day 1’s and the 802 hopefuls for the ring had been whittled down to just 348 living to fight at least another day. Among them were many of the big names:

Pierre Neuville 102,800

Martin Kabrhel 63,000

Vojtech Ruzicka 48,000

Martin Staszko 47.600

Mateusz Dziebowski 44,900

Sofia Lovgren 43,100

and when they all return on Sunday for day 2 they will all be led by Francisco Arce, the day1a and overall chip-leader with a resounding 317,800.

So, that’s a wrap as they say in Hollywood – quite what they say in Rozvadov I don’t know, but the King's Casino is open 24/7 so perhaps they don’t really need the phrase!

(Photo: Elena Chadaeva)

WSOP Circuit Main Event Chip leaders going into day 2

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