The final few preliminary events are playing out at the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe, that is if you can call a €100,000 poker tournament a “preliminary” event. Day 2 of the €100,000 Diamond High Roller has completed action, with Russia’s Anatoly Filatov holding the lead over €250,000 Super High Roller runner up Chin Wei Lim and a short-stacked Phil Ivey.
Plenty of Reentries Were Used
39 entries came in on Day 1 on Wednesday and 25 players were still alive when Day 2 began on Thursday. Those numbers would ramp up quickly, however, as many players took advantage of the unlimited reentry tournament. How many reentries would you take in a €100,000 tournament? Dominik Nitsche ponied up SEVEN entries into the tournament, while Matthias Eibinger put out five shots in the tournament. Others such as Rainer Kempe and 2019 WSOP Europe bracelet winner Kahle Burns also took multiple shots, but only one of these men would survive to the final table.
By the time the clock signaled the end of the reentry/late entry period, the numbers were a surprise. 72 entries were tallied for the event, building a decent €6,840,000 prize pool for the final eleven men to fight over. The min-cash in the event would bring only a slight improvement IF you only entered the tournament once (€154,285), but the first prize was the thing that everyone had their eyes on – a €2,172,104 payday and the WSOP Europe bracelet.
The final two eliminations before hitting the money were particularly interesting. With 13 players remaining, Eibinger saw Chris Ferguson shove his remaining million or so chips into the pot as Eibinger looked down at pocket Aces. Naturally, Eibinger called and saw that he was massively dominating the Q-10 off suit of Ferguson. Once the flop and turn ran out 6-4-3-9, Eibinger’s knockout of the former WSOP Player of the Year was complete (the innocuous river was another nine) and the tournament was down to hand-for-hand play.
Ivey was the man who brought the tournament to the money. After Sam Grafton raised the betting to 1.7 million chips from the hijack (and only left 30K behind), Ivey called from the small blind and Ole Schemion got out of the way in the big. The money was obviously heading to the center post-flop, so Grafton tossed in his last chips and Ivey covered it before the flop even hit the felt. The race was on and it was a close one from the start:
Ivey: A♥ 8♥
Grafton: pocket deuces
The drama ended rather quickly, however. Ivey caught his Ace on the A-7-3 rainbow flop and, with another Ace on the turn, left Grafton looking for one of the two remaining deuces in the deck. The King on the river improved neither man, earning Ivey the pot and sending Grafton out of the King’s Casino with nothing to show for his entry into the Diamond High Roller.
Doling Out Some of the Prize Pool
With the final 11 players determined, the next step was to get to the final table and hand some of the prize pool out. Lim was able to send former World Champion Ryan Riess to the showers, knocking Riess out with pocket nines that had to fade Riess’ gut shot Broadway draw to eliminate Riess in 11th place. After Eibinger ended Paul Phua’s tournament in tenth place, using pocket Aces to take out Phua’s A-Q off suit, the final table was set with Filatov a massive leader.
Instead of stopping play with the official nine-handed final table, officials decided to play for one more elimination before calling it a night. That end would come in a big three-way battle that saw Filatov try to take out Jean-Noel Thorel and Daniel Pidun. Filatov had the best of it pre-flop with pocket Queens over Pidun’s pocket eights and Thorel’s Big Slick, but both Pidun (shortest of the three) and Thorel were the ones all-in.
The cards would tell a different tale, however. Filatov and Pidun (cruelly) both hit on the Q-J-8 flop, but it also opened up straight outs for Thorel. A five on the turn was innocent enough, but a ten on the river gave Thorel the unlikely Broadway straight and the entire bounty of more than 26 million chips. It knocked Filatov’s lead down a bit, but it also sent Pidun home as the ninth-place finisher as the Day 2 action ended.
1. Anatoly Filatov, 42.3 million
2. Matthias Eibinger, 27.445 million
3. Jean-Noel Thorel, 26.085 million
4. Chin Wei Lim, 20.46 million
5. Christoph Vogelsang, 15.385 million
6. Ole Schemion, 5.9 million
7. Danny Tang, 3.9 million
8. Phil Ivey, 2.375 million
Filatov is going to be tough to catch, but the players in pursuit are some of the best in the world. Lim, especially, would like to get one notch higher than what he finished in the Super High Roller and Eibinger needs to at least finish fourth or better to recoup his buy-ins for the tournament. Then there’s Ivey, but he’s going to need some help if he is to climb out of the basement to the penthouse.
The final table will play out on Friday, the day before the €10,000 Main Event begins. The €2.172 million-plus first prize will be a sweet reward, but it is arguable that these men are all more interested in putting the WSOP Europe bracelet on their wrists as a High Roller champion.
