Sirzat Hissou will return with the top stack after two opening flights of the €10,350 Main Event at the 2024 World Series of Poker Europe in the Czech Republic. Hissou is back for more after he held the lead just 24 hours prior on the final day of the €50K Diamond High Roller before Martin Kabrhel nipped him for a third bracelet.
The first flight of the Main Event drew 507 players on Friday before Saturday's second chance brought another 121 entries into a prize pool that now sits just below €6 million with registration available through Level 12 on Day 2.
Hissou's House
Hissou jumped into the Main Event bright and early after his second-place finish to Kabrhel in the previous evening's finale of the €50K Diamond High Roller He fired an unsuccessful bullet before spinning up his second stack into the 657K from a starting stack of 100K for the overall lead.
Viktor Blom went on a run in the late levels of the second flight to bag a top-five chip stack behind Hissou. Kestutis Jungevicius was the closest player to the leader and he bagged just over 370K to end the night. Returning bracelet winners from Day 1B include Nick Palma, Boris Angelov, Dario Sammartino, and four-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen — who bagged 228K for Day 2. Hissou was the only player from Day 1B to finish in the top 10 on the overall leaderboard.
Svesko leads Day 1A
The opening flight brought the bigger of the two fields and Serbia's Darko Svesko joined Bartolomeo Tato as the only duo above the half-million mark after seven 90-minute levels. The list of Day 1A survivors included Alex Foxen, David Dongwoo Ko, Daniel Rezaei, and Roman Hrabec. Foxen and Dongwoo Ko finished with top-10 stacks with Foxen good for 10th overall.
The surviving 331 players from Day 1A combine with 121 runners from Day 1B at noon Rozvadov time to create a returning field of 412 players from an original pack of 628 entries. Registration remains open through Level 12 and players are allowed one reentry.
WSOPE Main Event Top 10 Day 1 A/B Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sirzat Hissou | Germany | 657,200 |
| 2 | Darko Svesko | Serbia | 535,900 |
| 3 | Bartolomeo Tato | Italy | 504,100 |
| 4 | Patrik Jaros | Czechia | 497,200 |
| 5 | Boris Kuzmanovic | Croatia | 469,800 |
| 6 | Birger Ohl | Germany | 486,800 |
| 7 | Cecile Ticherfatine | France | 450,000 |
| 8 | Lars Brodin | Sweden | 393,300 |
| 9 | Yaroslav Ohulchanskyi | Ukraine | 392,700 |
| 10 | Alex Foxen | United States | 389,900 |
