Ryan Hefter Finishes With a Strong Day 1A in His Title Defence!
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It was an action-packed day at the WSOP Europe inside the King's Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. The series kicked off with Day 1A of Event #1: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'Em Monster Stack and it was Ryan Hefter making the biggest spotlight of the day.
Hefter, the defending champion of this event in 2015, came through the day as one of the largest stacks sitting at 208,000. Hefter hails from New York, New York and made the trip to WSOPE mainly for this event. Hefter only has four recorded live tournament cashes for a total of $210,457. Another win in the Monster Stack event could lead to Hefter extending his trip to play in some more events throughout the series.
There were many notables that flooded the tournament area on opening day of the 2017 WSOP Europe rendition. There was much anticipation as to who would show up of those contenders in the Player of the Year race. Of the top ten players in contention, Chris Ferguson, John Racener, Ryan Hughes, and Alex Foxen have all made the trip to King's Casino from the United States. Foxen and Racener both made deep runs on Day 1A but were eliminated in the last couple levels. Ferguson busted earlier in the day and Hughes (81,500) was the only one of the four to bag chips to move onto Day 2.
Some familiar names to find a bag at the end of Day 1A include chip leader Ismael Bojang (268,500), Jeff Cormier (265,000), Mike Leah (96,000), and James Akenhead (46,500). Bojang is coming off a strong WSOP in Las Vegas with eight cashes, his best being an eighth-place finish for $46,887 in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'Em - 6 Handed event. He has a total of over $2.7 million in live tournament earnings and will be looking to have another strong series on his home turf.
There were a total of 90 entries to walk through the doors of the Poker Arena today, many of which were unable to make a deep run. Of those, Kristen Bicknell, Catalin Pop, Felipe Ramos, Pierre Neuville, Roberto Romanello, Jeff Lisandro, Marc MacDonnell, Daniele Primerano, and Kenny Hallaert all hit the rail early on. There is a good chance that all of these players will be back to battle on the felt for Day 1B tomorrow.
The remaining 15 players will return on Sunday for Day 2 where the blinds will increase to 60-minute levels. There are still two starting flights remaining for those looking to join them.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor on Friday at 2:00 PM local time to bring you all of the action from Day 1B.
and the action was checked to Delahunty who announced all-in. Hughes mucked his cards and Hefter snap-called. "Oops!" Delahunty said aloud as Cormier mucked his cards. Delahunty turned over 
but Hefter tabled a set with 
. 
and Delahunty picked up a flush draw on the turn again. This time, the 
on the river wasn't as helpful and Hefter scored a massive double up through Delahunty.
.
but was up against the 
of Racener. The turn was the 
and Delahunty picked up a flush draw. The 
on the river gave Delahunty his flush and Racener was eliminated late on Day 1A.
and Abela was eliminated. Only a mere minute later, it was also game over for Fahredin Mustafov. He three-bet shoved for his remaining 18,000 and initial raiser Romain Follet looked him up.
. The next hand, Chris Ferguson raised to 1,800 and MacDonnell from one seat over three-bet to 5,700. Hefter let go from the big blind and Ferguson's shove for around 13,000 was quickly called by MacDonnell.
turn nor the 
and it was Baric with the freeroll on his opponent. The turn brought the 
and Baric made the flush to eliminate his opponent.
for trip aces while Neuville showed 
