Eleven Remain in Little One For One Drop, Who Will Capture A Gold WSOP Bracelet?
On the 18th day of the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe in the packed King's Casino in Rozvadov, the ninth of eleven bracelets to be awarded is up for grabs. All remaining players in the smaller of the two events for ONE DROP, Event #8: €1,111 Little One for One Drop, will return at 2 p.m. local time and play down until a winner has been crowned.
Two starting days brought out 868 hopefuls, who've been whittled down to 11 after two days of playing. Abdelhakim Zoufri holds a commanding lead over the rest of the pack and will be the de-facto favorite coming in today. The Dutchman has a breakout year at the felt and already won over $400,000 in the past 12 months alone. Zoufri knows how to claim top-spot honor: just three months ago, he conquered a WSOP Circuit Ring by winning the €3,500 High Roller at the WSOP International Circuit event in Holland Casino Rotterdam, and he will be looking to add a shiny bracelet to complement that ring.
Although Zoufri is going in as the perennial favorite, several dangerous contenders are lurking in the wings. One of them is Thomas Hofmann, who sits in second place with 2,170,000. Hoffman is fresh off a deep run in THE COLOSSUS earlier this week, where he finished in 17th place out of 4,000+ hopefuls and parlayed his €550 investment into a payday of €11,414.
Third in chips is Artan Dedusha (2,130,000), who made a name for himself during the 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event. Dedusha was the chipleader after Day 2 and eventually finished in 52nd place, which netted him $145,733. Another player familiar with a deep run in the WSOP Main Event is Jonas Lauck, who will return as one of the short stacks with 535,000 in chips. Lauck finished 37th in 2016 ($174,826) after suffering a brutal beat with pocket aces against the ace-king of eventual runner-up Gordon Vayo deep on Day 6.
The other seven players still in contention for the first-place prize of €170,764 and the coveted gold WSOP bracelet are Day 1a chipleader Serghei Lisiy (1,965,000), Oleh Haisiuk (1,915,000), Johannes Toebbe (1,550,000), Albert Hoekendijk (1,375,000), Przemyslaw Klejnowski (625,000), Vlado Banicevic (560,000), and Stanislav Koleno (435,000).
Cards will be in the air at 2 p.m. local time with blinds of 20,000/40,000 and a running ante of 5,000, and the field will combine to an unofficial final table at 10 players with €9,306 guaranteed thus far. Levels will be 60 minutes throughout the day. Follow PokerNews as we crown a new WSOP gold bracelet winner today!
Day 3 Seat Assignments
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | 1 | Albert Hoekendijk | Netherlands | 1,375,000 | 34 |
| 83 | 3 | Stanislav Koleno | Slovakia | 435,000 | 11 |
| 83 | 4 | Artan Dedusha | United Kingdom | 2,130,000 | 53 |
| 83 | 5 | Abdelhakim Zoufri | Netherlands | 4,260,000 | 107 |
| 83 | 8 | Przemyslaw Klejnowski | Poland | 625,000 | 16 |
| 83 | 9 | Vlado Banicevic | Montenegro | 560,000 | 14 |
| 89 | 1 | Thomas Hofmann | Switzerland | 2,170,000 | 54 |
| 89 | 2 | Johannes Toebbe | Germany | 1,550,000 | 39 |
| 89 | 3 | Jonas Lauck | Germany | 535,000 | 13 |
| 89 | 7 | Serghei Lisiy | Russia | 1,965,000 | 49 |
| 89 | 9 | Oleh Haisiuk | Ukraine | 1,915,000 | 48 |