Mussini, Bendik And Gegic Top the Day 1F Counts; 38 Players Advance
The biggest starting day of the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe Event #1: €550 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold'em is in the books and Day 1F saw a total of 405 entries whittled down all the way to just 38 survivors after 18 levels of 30 minutes each. Including all other five previous flights, the total attendance currently stands at 1,333 entries and 122 players have bagged up chips so far to lock up a four-figure payday.
A new overall chip leader was crowned on Day 1F as Italy's Nico Mussini shot to the top of the leaderboard in the final level of the night and claimed 918,000 to his name. Former EPT Grand Final champion Jan Bendik, who sits in 1st place in Slovakia's all-time money list, follows in second place with 812,000 and Rifat Gegic made it through with 712,000.
Pocket aces played a crucial role at the end of the night to crown the new top two stacks heading into Day 2. Bendik sent Florian Stellbaum to the rail when he got it in with aces versus kings preflop, while Mussini cracked the pocket aces of Attila Havacs and Tal Noach with pocket kings to win the biggest pot of the tournament to date.
Other notables that advanced from the sixth of eight starting days include Oshri Lamani (666,000), Connor Heelis (447,000), Rafi Elharar (344,000), Francesco Delfoco (300,000), Ohana Shlomo (292,000), Elias Abou Saleh (210,000), Erich Kollmann (184,000) and Georges Chehade (174,000).
The top 61 spots were paid and the money bubble burst in level 16. Petr Vlcek was crowned the bubble boy in the very first hand on the stone cold bubble when losing a flip with ace-king against the Rafi Elharar. Among those that cashed but failed to punch their ticket for Day 2 through Day 1F were such big names as Zoltan Gal, Viliyan Petleshkov, Renato Kaneoya and Konstantinos Tsirakidis.
2018 WSOPE €550 The COLOSSUS Schedule
| Day | Date | Starting Time | Late Reg | Entries | Survivors | Further Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Tuesday October 9th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 154 | 12 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 24 spots paid |
| 1B | Wednesday October 10th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 167 | 17 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 26 spots paid |
| 1C | Thursday October 11th | 12:00 | ~17:40 | 125 | 12 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 19 spots paid |
| 1D | Thursday October 11th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 164 | 10 | Play concluded with 19:00 left in level 18, top 25 spots paid |
| 1E | Friday October 12th | 12:00 | ~17:40 | 318 | 33 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 48 spots paid |
| 1F | Friday October 12th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | 405 | 38 | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, top 61 spots paid |
| 1G | Saturday October 13th | 12:00 | ~17:40 | tba | tba | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, the money will be reached |
| 1H | Saturday October 13th | 18:00 | ~23:40 | tba | tba | Play 18 Levels of 30 Minutes, the money will be reached |
| 2 | Sunday October 14th | 15:00 | - | tba | tba | Level duration increases to 40 minutes |
| 3 | Monday October 15th | tba | - | tba | - | Play Down to a champion |
Action of the day
More than 150 players were signed up for Day 1F a few minutes before the start of play and that number grew rapidly, as all players that busted the earlier flight jumped right back into the action. Allen Kessler, Shaun Deeb, Roland Israelashvili, Maria Lampropulos, James Romero, Michael Eiler, Lasse Frost and Michael Soyza were just some of the notables that failed to successfully run up a stack.
By the end of level three, Grzegorz Wyraz had already busted twice and was among the first players to run out of the single re-entry option. In the second attempt, Wyraz called the shove of Jessica Teusl with king-ten for second pair on an ace-high board only to see Teusl show turn over trips fives.
Rakesh Lalwani jammed blind and busted in a three-way all in with ten-seven suited against pocket kings, Peter Kamaras flopped a nut flush and couldn't hold up either. The eliminations kept on coming and poker enthusiasts from near and far such as Jerome Sgorrano, Anson Tsang and Yang Zhang were among the casualties.
By the time level 16 had kicked off, the money spots were only a dozen eliminations away and Elena Litvinyuk was among those to bow out just before hand-for-hand mode lasted all but one hand. Litvinyuk lost a classic race with pocket queens against the ace-king of Erich Kollmann. Once Petr Vlcek lost the flip to become the bubble boy, almost two dozen hopes were crushed and replaced with the opportunity to re-enter the last two flights.
An even busier day is expected on Saturday, October 13th, 2018, as the final two starting days of this very event traditionally attract a big field on the weekend. Expect brief waiting times to get a seat and a poker arena filled with hundreds of players that take a shot at the guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000 and beyond.
Day 1G kicks off at 12 p.m. noon local time with registration available until 5.40 p.m. local time and the evening flight Day 1H gets underway at 6 p.m. local time, entries and re-entries can be purchased until approximately 11.40 p.m. local time. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action of the final two starting days.