🇮🇱 Alexey Mishuk steals the show on Day1 A+B!

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It was a very special day here at King's Resort in Rozvadov during the EPM with a guaranteed €2 million. The qualifiers from the first flight, Day 1A, joined those from the second flight, Day 1B, which ended yesterday, and played for another eight levels until reaching 12% of the field.

Out of 967 entries, 117 players, including the six qualifiers from Prague, advanced to Day 2, which is scheduled for next week. For the Top 7 players who took part in Day 1A+B, seven tickets for the WSOP Europe Main Event, which will be held this fall, were also available, worth €10,000 each.

Today's best performer was Israeli Alexei Mishuk (pic below), who bagged 1,610,000 chips. Here are his statements at the end of the day.

"Today, I began with 105K, as I busted one hour before the end yesterday and re-entered. It went all pretty well from the very beginning and went up quite quickly. I was just there for a couple of hours, but then I lost a few hands and went down to 113K.

At one point, I picked up Aces and almost doubled up without showdown. Then, I hit a set and kept going. The biggest hand? It was a preflop showdown with J-J vs K-J.

When I sat at the table, I saw this player whom I know and who is good. He knew putting pressure was a good strategy, as were 7 tickets up for grabs. I saw him going all-in often, and he has not even been in orbit since I came. He was on the BB, and I raised with pocket Jacks, knowing that he might just go all-in, and so he did.

I thought just for a little bit because we were both very deep (I had around 740K at the beginning of the hand), but eventually, I called and managed to scoop a huge pot.

Aside from these particular situations, I was expecting the field to make more mistakes than usual because they’re not giving enough value to the time they have to wait for the right spot. You need to find the players who are willing to lose more chips against you, and luckily, I did!"

The Top 5

Talking about the Top 5 today is somewhat reductive since the top seven players were the day's protagonists, having all won tickets for the WSOP Europe. Let's see who they are. The second in the count is Marius Serban Moldoveanu from Romania, with 1,528,000 chips, followed by Czech player Pepa G, with 1,453,000. In fourth place is German player Ramses, with 1,426,000.

The fifth place is occupied by Slovenian Dok Igor, with 1,418,000. The sixth and seventh places, which still earn a ticket, go to Dutch player Abdellah Mazid, with 1,410,000, and German player Marco Janssen, with 1,260,000.

Below is the complete chip count for Day 1A + B, played here at King's Resort. Further down, there is space for what happened in Prague, with 43 entries and six qualifiers for Day 2, for a total of 117 players guaranteed to participate in this beautiful tournament's second step.