The largest major poker tournament in European history has cast a big shadow on WSOP Europe, where more than 2,600 entries turned out to take up most of the space with the record-breaking Main Event.
Good for you if you're lucky enough to still have chips in the rapidly shrinking WSOPE Main Event, but most of the field is now gone. The first WSOP festival in Prague, however, is far from over, and the many players who busted from Main Event have jumped into the brand-new Rounder Cup.
The Rounder Cup is a €2,750 buy-in with a split field that pits players from Europe against the rest of the world. The split flights went down on Tuesday at the Prague Hilton, where 104 players punched their ticket to a Day 2. It's one of the last chances at European bracelet glory before the tour packs up for the summer series.
Benny and the Brits
Day 2 will combine both flights and the field includes plenty of WSOP Europe's standout bracelet seekers. Benny Glaser is in the hunt as a representative of Great Britain, a country that played the Europe flight. He's joined in the EU field of 61 by chip leader Toni Zengovski from North Macedonia and fellow Brits Ryan Mandara and Tom Middleton, who bagged top-ten stacks. They final 61 players come from a total field of 380 entries on the European side.
Rounder Cup EU Flight Top 10 chip stacks
- Tony Zengovski (North Macedonia) - 423,000 (84bb)
- Aleksandr Shevlyakov (Russia) - 402,000 (80bb)
- Toivo Rinne (Finland) - 396,000 (79bb)
- Stefan Ionita (Romania) - 332,500 (66bb)
- Ryan Mandara (UK) - 312,500 (62bb)
- Ivan Uzunov (Bulgaria) - 311,500 (62bb)
- Mauricio Ferreira Pais (Germany) - 298,500 (59bb)
- Joris Ruijs - (France) - 287,500 (57bb)
- Tom Middleton (UK) - 284,500 (56bb)
- Arsenii Karmatckii (Russia) - 263,500 (52bb)
Canada leads, Deeb lurks
Turning to the Rest of the World, 267 players showed out and Canada's Mike Leah is at the top of a list of 43 returning runners. Leah, who already grabbed some of the spotlight this week at WSOP Europe, is joined by Paul Hong at the top in a top ten that also includes Mehdi Chaoui.
Rounder Cup World Flight Top 10 chip stacks
- Mike Leah (Canada) - 550,000 (183bb)
- Paul Hong (Australia) 531,000 (173bb)
- Fernando Nogami (Brazil) - 380,000 (126bb)
- David Mzareulov (USA) - 373,000 (124bb)
- Marcelo Aziz (Brazil) - 328,500 (109bb)
- Mehmet Siginc (Canada) - 298,500 (99bb)
- Mehdi Chaoui (Morocco) - 285,000 (95bb)
- Feng Yu (China) - 277,500 (92bb)
- Ajay Allee (USA) - 256,000 (85bb)
- Chenxiang Miao (China) - 244,000 (81bb)
But there are even bigger stories brewing on the rest of the World's leaderboard, where plenty of notable names still have a shot at the bracelet. Among them are three-time bracelet winner Ryan Leng and WSOP Main Event runner-up John Wasnock, who both sit just outside the top ten. Martin Zamani is also nearby, sitting just behind Wasnock with 59 big blinds for Day 2.
Also in the mix is Jeff Madsen, who has four WSOP titles, and Mike Watson, a Triple Crown winner who has yet to win a live bracelet. Paulina Loeliger and Corey Eyring will also return, as well as Shaun Deeb, who can add even more points to a run at the WSOP Player of the Year with another deep run at the European series.
Rounder Cup notable chip counts
- Ryan Leng (USA) - 222,000 (74bb)
- John Wasnock (USA) - 178,000 (59bb)
- Martin Zamani (USA) - 178,000 (55bb)
- Jeff Madsen (USA) - 108,500 (36bb)
- Mike Watson (Canada) - 101,500 (33bb)
- Shaub Deeb (USA) - 99,000 (33bb)
- Paulina Loeliger (USA) - (31bb)
- Corey Eyring (USA) - 67,000 (22bb)
- Daniel Shak (USA) - 43,000 (14bb)
- Jonathan Little (USA) - 16,000 (5bb)
They all return at Noon local time on Wednesday to combine flights and play down to a winner with blinds starting at 3,000/6,000/6,000. Payouts start at the final 98 players, so six players will hit the door before the money bubble bursts.
Images courtesy of World Series of Poker.
