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WSOPE: Renat Bohdanov wins Event #1 Opener

The opening event of the most prestigious tournament around the world, the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) crowned its Event #1 €350 Opener No-Limit Hold’em champion Renat Bohdanov at Kings’ Resort, marking his greatest victory in poker career for €53,654 along with a WSOPE Main Event ticket worth €10,350.

The Ukrainian outlasted the field beating Norbert Mosonyi in heads-up. The entire event saw a vast field of 1,011 entries, each paying €350 buy-in. As the field broke to only 10 players returning at 2 pm yesterday to continue their quest for WSOP gold.

The chip leader from Day 2 Eyal Bensimhon was a tough contender juggling his way to grab the WSOP bracelet adding to his WSOP Circuit Ring but unfortunately fell into 3^rd place. The 2019 WSOP’s Big 50 3rd place finisher Rafi Elharar finished 7^th, while the 6-time bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro who went down to 8^th when his A7 remained behind Samuel Mika’s QQ.

The tournament progressed with four final players, Mosonyi climbed up the ranks knocking out Mykhailo Hryhoriev holding an inferior pair. Afterall, Bohdanov ace-six left Bensimhon’s king-three reducing him to scraps. In the final hand of the tournament, Mosonyi (Kd 5d) raised 1.5 million while the table had Bohdanov’s (Ad 9s) entire stack. The former called after some deliberation and found no help on Ah Ks 10d As 6s, improving the latter’s hand into trip aces. Ultimately, Mosonyi was eliminated in the second position for €33,112.

Top 9 final payouts

1. Renat Bohdanov – €53,654 (~INR 42.44 Lakhs)
2. Norbert Mosonyi – €33,112
3. Eyal Bensimhon – €23,386
4. Mykhailo Hryhoriev – €16,736
5. Samuel Mika – €12,138
6. Michal Kral – €8,923
7. Rafi Elharar – €6,651
8. Jeff Lisandro – €5,026
9. Ricardas Vymeris – €3,853

Event #2 €550 PLO

King’s Casino, Rozvadov is jammed with the greatest poker players in the world, all putting their efforts to grab the gold bracelet. Day 1A registered 169 players and each of them paying €550 buy-in. After 18 levels of play, the event saw only 12 players progressing to Day 1B. Amassing the largest stack of the day was Marcel Brunner with 668,000 chips followed by bracelet winner Dash Dudley with 657,000 chips.

Day 1B saw Shaun Deeb returning in action to chase another WSOP Player of the year title. This four-time bracelet winner commanded the chip lead for the day bagging 947,000 chips. Certainly, the competition is fierce taking into account a total of 309 runners to join Day 1B and only 26 managed to big chips to Day 2. Several notable players in contention include bracelet winners Jeff Madsen (371,000), Sebastian Langrock (355,000) and Anthony Zinno (258,000), two Indian countrymates making deep runs, namely Nitin Jain (160,000) and Aditya Singh (148,000) all progressing to Day 2.

After a long day in King’s Casino, the field eventually narrowed down to the final 6 players. Ukrain’s Denis Drobina concluded Day 2 leading with 3,875,000 chips. With more than $600,000 live earnings, Drobina is yet to add the WSOP bracelet to his poker career. Undoubtedly the battle will not get any easier with several bracelet winners in contention.

Other notable players to cash out on Day 2 include bracelet winner Anson Tsang (7^th, €5,800), 4-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (18^th, €1,445), bracelet winner Sebastian Langrock (23^rd, €1,445), two Indian countrymates Nitin Jain (38^th, €1,075) and Aditya Singh (36^th, €1,075) halted on their journey.

Day 2 top 6 chip counts

1. Denis Drobina – 3,875,000-
2. Christopher Back – 2,880,000
3. Ivo Donev – 2,130,000
4. Dash Dudley – 1,700,000
5. Ming Juen Teoh – 965,000
6. Oshri Lahmani   – 360,000

Event #3 €1,350 Mini Main Event

With a total of 174 entries including 42 re-entries, each player chipped in €1,350 buy-in to enter the WSOPE Mini Main Event. As the tournament progressed, the field broke down to 34 players progressing to Day 2. The chip leader Aleksandr Merzhvinskii bagged 1,255,000 chips followed by Thai Ha with 1,035,000 chips.

Day 1A top 10 chip counts

1. Aleksandr Merzhvinskii – 1,255,000
2. Thai Ha – 1,035,000
3. Alain Crettenand – 797,000
4. Moritz Koelsch – 795,000
5. Stanislaw Miadzel – 784,000
6. Chris Ferguson – 763,000
7. Bartlomiej Staszczak – 756,000
8. Viktor Blom – 739,000
9. Shaun Deeb – 736,000
10. Ming Hong Teoh – 727,000

Event #4 €250,000 Super High Roller

The 2019 WSOPE Super High Roller is the most expensive tournament, so far registering 24 entries entering for a buy-in of €250,000. The event narrowed down to a small number of 16 remaining players at the end of Day 1. The chip leader of the day was Taiwan’s James Chen bagging 16,405,000 chips.

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