World Series of Poker Europe Kicks Off
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) festival began on Saturday and will run until the 4th of November at King’s resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. The WSOPE has been held at King’s resort for three years in a row and this year there is something for everyone, with buy-ins ranging from €350 in the opening tournament to €250,000.
“We heard the feedback and are happy to add some mixed games and some bigger buy-in tournaments in order to encourage more players to make the trip,” said King’s Resort owner Leon Tsoukernik.
“After hosting some big events here at King’s recently, players insisted to me they would come back to WSOP Europe if we added a few additional tournaments. So, we have now done so, and we look forward to welcoming them with this revised WSOP Europe schedule in October.”
€350 Opener No-Limit Hold’em Day 1A
The WSOPE began on Saturday night with the first flight of the €350 Opener No-Limit Hold’em tournament. This tournament attracted 1,011 entries with 84 players bagging up their chips after level 14 – the end of play for the day.
Day 1A, the first starting day of the competition attracted 399 entries, of which 84 made it through to the second day of play.
At the top of the pack going into day two from day 1A of the competition was Renat Bohdanov with 525,000 chips. He was the only player above half a million chips at the end of the day. Following Bogdanov, was Bartel Kars from the Netherlands with 374,000 and in third place was Roland Israelashvili with 332,000.
There were other notable players of the 84 who survived the first day, including Rafi Elharar with 255,500 and Adi Rajkovic with 194,500. The winner of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha which took place in summer of last year Ismael Bojang had a stack of 164,000, Allen Kessler followed with a chip count of 136,500. Kessler entered late to the tournament and experienced his fair share of ups and downs. With a short stack of only 8,000, he clawed his way back and managed a double up with pocket tens against ace-jack held by Krzysztof Jaguscik who had paired his ace on the flop. Kessler hit a ten on the river to keep afloat in the opener.
The opening day also saw multiple big names defeated in the €350 buy-in competition. Daniel Negreanu, the six-time WSOP bracelet winner busted early, as did the current leader of the WSOP player of the year race Robert Campbell.
Daniel Negreanu was one of the big names to bust early in the competition. ©www.wsop.com
€350 Opener No-Limit Hold’em Day 1B
The second flight of Event number one drew in 612 registrations, bringing the total number of registrations to 1,011. Only 160 of the entrants to the second flight bagged up their chips after the 14th level, bringing the total number of players going into day two of the tournament to 301. The second flight began with much more success than the first. Almost double the number of registrants began the competition than in the previous flight. The day 1B entries almost exceeded the number needed to surpass the guarantee for the tournament.
The chip leader from day 1B was the Russian Elena Litvinyuk, ending with a healthy 385,500. Whilst this was not enough to dethrone Renat Bohdanov from the top of the pack, it was an impressive stack to bring to the second day of play. Litvinyuk was closely followed by Daniel Braude with a stack of 357,000 chips.
The rest of the top 5 of the day 1B flight were Krzysztof Jaguscik with 310,000, Jonathan Wong who held 302,500 chips, and Thai Ha who had 292,500. The 2017 player of the year Chris Ferguson failed to make it through to the second day of play. Despite two re-entries he busted during the final level of the day. The payouts were announced just before the end of the day. 152 places were in the money and the top prize was an impressive €56,654.
The main event of the competition has a buy-in of €10,350 with €5,000,000 guaranteed in the prize pool. ©www.wsop.com
€350 Opener No-Limit Hold’em Day 2
After the second day of play in the opening tournament of the WSOPE at King’s in Rozvadov, only 10 competitors remained.
The chip leader was Eyal Bensimhon, who bagged up a stack of 6,800,000 at the end of play. Bensimhon has over $400,000 in WSOP earnings so far in his career and recently reached the final table the €777 WSOP Circuit Luck 7s at King’s Resort and looked strong going into the final day of play. He managed to quickly climb to the top of the chip counts after some late wins, which included a huge pot which he won against Amato Land. This pot netted him over four million chips after Landi shoved all-in on a Jack-high flop. Bensimhon had, however, hit triple jacks which won him a massive number of chips.
Behind Bensimhon was Norbert Mosonyi, with 5,110,000 chips and the day 1A chip leader Renat Bohdanov was in the third position going into the final day of the €350 Opener.
On the route to breaking the bubble in the tournament, many notable faces were eliminated. Phil Hellmuth, Martin Kabrhel and Sofia Lovgren are just a few examples of these.
Hagay Kraus was the final player to be eliminated without a cash reward. He moved all-in on a paired board with queens. Simone Marconi held pocket kings, giving him the better two-pair. Once the bubble had burst, the eliminations came thick and fast. The day 1B chip leader Elena Litvinyuk dropped out of the tournament in 113th, cashing for €485 and Allen Kessler came 62nd, taking home €783.
At the end of the day, only 47 players made it to the dinner break, and about two hours after this, the play was down to its final two tables. Ismael Bojang was knocked out in 14th place after a tough beat by Norbert Mosonyi. Bojang had pocket jacks against Mosonyi’s pocket eights, but Mosonyi hit a set on the flop, causing Bojang to exit the tournament with €2,363. Justin Frolian followed shortly, cashing for €2,363 and Joerg Baumgarten reached 12th place and took home €2,996.
Krzysztof Jaguscik was the one to leave to bring the tournament to its final 10 competitors. He had just over one big blind after a series of lost hands and shipped his last chips into the middle with king 4. Bensimhon was his opponent with queen five, and he hit a queen minutes before the end of play for the day.
The WSOPE is being held at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, the Czech Republic for the fourth consecutive year. ©pokerroomkings.com
€350 Opener No-Limit Hold’em Day 3
The tournament ended on Wednesday night with the Day 1A chip leader Renat Bohdanov topping the pack to take home the €56,654 prize and entry to the WSOPE main event (worth €10,350) as well as the first bracelet of the series.
Bohdanov came out trumps after a heads-up battle with Hungarian, Norbert Mosonyi, who also received entrance to the WSOPE main event as well as €33,112.
Bohdanov and Mosonyi became the final two players after Eyal Bensimhon was eliminated in third place (cashing for €23,386). Bensimhon shoved all in for around 2,800,000 with king three suited from the small blind and with hardly a moment of hesitation Mosonyi called with ace six. Bensimhon hit two pair on the flop, and Mosonyi paired his ace. A six on the river gave Mosonyi the better two pair and sent Bensimhon packing.
Mosonyi and Bohdanov were heads up for about 3 hours before the final hand of the tournament. Mosonyi raised to 1,500,000 with king five of diamonds. Bohdanov followed this by shoving all-in with Ace 9. Three aces came down on the board, giving Bohdanov the edge, and ultimately the top spot in the competition.
The WSOPE will continue until the 4th of November, with many exciting tournaments to come.
