Igor Kurganov Leads Day 1 of Super High Roller
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The opening day of the €100,000 Super High Roller at the 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final has come to a close. Following the first eight levels of action, Igor Kurganov emerged as the chip leader with an even 1 million in chips. Of the 64 entries tallied, 44 remained when the day was over.
Kurganov is no stranger to success at the EPT Grand Final. He has six cashes from this festival, with the earliest coming in 2011 when he took second in the €10,300 Turbo High Roller for €123,000 in Madrid. In 2012, he amplified his EPT Grand Final winnings in a big way by capturing the title and first place in the €25,500 High Roller to the tune of €1.08 million.
In 2013's stop, Kurganov placed 74th in the Main Event for €16,000 and seventh in the €25,500 High Roller for €154,700. He followed those results up the next year with two more — first taking third in this event, the €100,000 Super High Roller, for over €1.128 million and then cashing in 52nd place in the Main Event for €24,400.
All told, Kurganov has hauled in over €2.526 million from the EPT Grand Final.
One thing that will be working against him is the fact that through the first three editions of this event, only one Day 1 chip leader has cashed — Jason Mercier in 2013 when he took second for more than €1.115 million.
Speaking of Mercier, he bagged 142,000 to advance to Day 2.
Other notables who advanced from Thursday's start to the event were Ole Schemion (930,000), Erik Seidel (857,000), Fedor Holz (536,000), Talal Shakerchi (392,000), Phil Ivey (360,000), and Daniel Negreanu (273,000). Last year's winner, Daniel Colman, moved on with 248,000.
Two other players who advanced were George Danzer (615,000) and Anthony Zinno (527,000). Both of these players are playing their first super high roller event and did very well on Day 1 to bag up over double the starting stack. Now we'll wait to see if they can ride the early momentum to a big result.
Day 2 will commence at 12:30 p.m. local time, and PokerNews will be back for more live coverage straight from the tournament floor. Registration and reentry will remain open until the start of Day 2, so the field size will likely increase before things kick off. We'll see you tomorrow.
board and McDonald was drawing slim with his 
against Muehloecker's 
. The river was a low card, but not the deuce McDonald needed. Instead, the 
popped up, which gave Muehloecker quads.
, Tsoukernik check-called a bet of 5,200 from the small blind. His opponent, O'Dwyer, seated in the cutoff seat, fired another 10,500 on the 
fell on the river, and Tsoukernik bet out 33,000. O'Dwyer went into the tank.
for a semi-bluff.
