The official field size for Day 1a has been confirmed with 624 entries and that means the first of three starting days will play down to the final 94 hopefuls.
No longer in contention for that are the following players below.
There was over 15,000 in the middle on a flop of as stacks were going into the middle for Antal Mezei in early position and his opponent in middle position.
Antal Mezei:
Opponent:
Mezei found himself getting in a mountain of chips after flopping top set against his opponent's cowboys and only needed to fade the two remaining kings in the deck on the runout to double. The dealer complied with his wishes, bringing a turn and river to leave Mezei's hand best when all was said and done. His remaining stack was pushed forward and totaled to be 73,500, which his opponent paid off as he grumbled about losing a big pot with a big pair.
"I had aces," Panagiotis Grigoriou said as he was out of his chair already and sighed.
What had happened? Grigoriou clashed with Li Chen who was all in with the and crushed. However, the board came and Chen was the only player with a spade in the hand to double and leave Grigoriou short.
A player in early position opened to 3,400 and action folded around to the cutoff, who called. David Katav was on the button and three-bet to 11,200, getting a call from the original raiser and a fold from the cutoff.
The flop came and the early-position player checked. Katav put out a continuation-bet of 10,000 and his opponent let his hand go without much deliberation.
With the pot, Katav now finds himself at just shy of 225,000 with Level 11 soon coming to a close.
Word on the street is that Thomas Haverstad was down to three and a half big blinds on dinner and he has just tripled up before the blinds went up. He was called two ways by big stacks Matan Krakow and Michel Leibgorin, and the final board was showing as the remaining two active players checked it down on the river.
"All players must show" the dealer insisted and Haverstad rolled over , Krakow had for a pair of jacks and Leibgorin had the for an inferior pair of nines and missed gutshot.
A player in early position opened to 5,000 and saw the hijack call. Kristian Kostiander was on the button and also came along to take action three ways to a flop of . The early-position raiser made a continuation-bet of 5,500 and the hijack quickly folded.
Action was then back on Kostiander and he thought for a few moments before sliding forward a stack of T5,000 chips large enough to put his opponent all in. The player thought for about 10 seconds and then sent his cards to the middle of the table face down to earn Kostiander the pot.
"King, king against jack, jack," Giorgiy Skhulukhiya mentioned in table chat as he pointed to the player in the six seat, which happened to be Egor Procop who now sits on a massive stack.
As far as Skhulukhiya is concerned, he faced a raise to 4,500 by Vladas Burneikis and jammed his last 24,400. Ondrej Jakubcik called in the big blind and Burneikis folded.
Giorgiy Skhulukhiya:
Ondrej Jakubcik:
The board came and Skhulukhiya remained in contention.
Rifat Palevic was in the big blind and defended versus an open to 5,000 by the player on the button. The two saw a flop of and Palevic check-called a continuation-bet of 6,000. The turn then came and both players checked.
The river fell and Palevic checked again. His opponent put out a bet of 23,000 and Palevic thought for a couple of moments and then check-raised to 50,000. His opponent took a chip from his stack and tossed it into the middle to call, with the chip making a small arc on its journey to the felt.
Palevic then showed for backdoor trips.
"What the f**k?" his opponent said quietly and calmly in a confused manner. "What were you calling with on the flop?"
"Queen high," said Palevic. "I thought it might be good, but this time it was not. I remember you; clearly you don't remember me," Palevic added.
"I don't even know what to say," responded the other player, causing both players to laugh as Palevic finished stacking his chips. "It was a good river for me and a bad one for you."