MARTIN KABRHEL BAGS DAY 1 CHIP LEAD IN 2018 GCC

Day 1 of the Global Casino Championship saw 53 of the 127 entries survive. Day 2 is set to get underway Wednesday at 2 p.m. 

August 7, 2018 (Cherokee, N.C.) - Day 1 of the 2018 Global Casino Championship is complete after ten one-hour levels. Play got underway in the Harrah’s Cherokee tournament room shortly after 2 p.m. with about 60 players in the field. The field grew steadily through the first half of the day. Warren Sheaves was the final player to enter the tournament on Day 1 when he sat down near the end of Level 7. Sheaves (121,400) turned his late entry into an above average chip stack. Sheave’s entry brought the total field number to 127 players, but registration is still open. Qualified players that have still not entered will have the opportunity to register until the start of play on Day 2. Day 2 is scheduled to begin Wednesday at 2 p.m.

At the end of the day the field had been reduced to 53 players. Sitting as the overnight chip leader is Martin Kabrhel from the Czech Republic. He qualified for the tournament by winning the Casino Championship at second stop of the season at King’s Casino in Rozvadov.

Joining Kabrhel at the top of the counts is Switzerland’s Armin Stocker (307,200), Stephen Bierman (306,000), Arkadiy Tsinis (263,000) and Ari Engel (246,800).

The only other player to finish with stack over 200,000 other than the five top stacks listed above was Joseph Cheong (201,800). Cheong won his seat to this tournament by finishing 24th in the 2017/2018 Circuit season standings. Joining Cheong on Day 2 is 2015 National Championship winner Loni Harwood (119,600), TK Miles (174,300), Josh Turner (114,100), Dylan Wilkerson (29,900) and Maurice Hawkins (29,700).

Of Tuesday’s 127 entries, 122 were seat winners. They won their seat through either winning a Circuit Main Event, Circuit Casino Championship, or were one of the top 50 point earners for the entire 2017/2018 Circuit season. The remaining five players in Tuesday’s field paid the $10,000 buy-in to participate. These players were invited to the tournament for being a top 100 finisher in the 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year standings or winning a Circuit ring last season. Their entire buy-in was added to the prizepool meaning the prizepool currently sits at $1,050,000. Official prizepool numbers will be announced and posted Wednesday after registration closes

The five players opting to pay the $10,000 buy-in to play were Ryan Riess, Mike Leah, Caufman Talley, Roland Israelashvili, and Andrew Kelsall. All five of them were eligible to play for by finishing in the top 100 of the 2017 WSOP PoY standings. Of the five, Israelashvili (108,700) was the only player that made it the end of the day with chips.

Notable Day 1 eliminations include Robert Hankins, who lost a flip to Ari Engel late in the day. Hankins finished number one in the 2017/2018 Circuit point standings. Also falling short of bagging were Vincent Moscati, Josh Reichard, Neil Scott, Valentin Vornicu and Jeff Trudeau.

About one-fifth of the field was made up of International Circuit qualifiers. Joining Kabrhel and Stocker as international qualifiers to bag include France’s Darko Stojanovic (145,700), Germany’s Hossein Ensan (101,000), and Ukraine’s Maksym Lavrov (75,800). Some of the international qualifiers to fall short on Day 1 include Casino Campione’s Main Event winner Salvatore Scrivo, Star Sydney Casino Champion Timothy Ulmer and King’s Casino stop number one Casino Championship winner Jan Timo Jobmann.

The remaining 53 players, along with any Day 2 entrants, will start play in Level 11 with blinds of 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Complete Day 2 Chip Counts