Josef Gulas Bags 216,300 to Take Chip Lead in Day 1b of the Main Event

By Lisa Yiasemides

Today 82 hopefuls took to the felt in order to start their WPT Germany Main Event campaign here at King’s Resort and of those, 37 progress to Day 2 on Friday.

The action was steadier in the €3,300 event than the pace witnessed during Day 1a yesterday. That didn’t mean there wasn’t excitement though, just that much of it came during the second half of the day.

That wasn’t true of Josef Gulas’ (pictured) journey though. The Czech’s ascent was consistent after he built a stack early on and continued to add to it throughout the rest of the day. Unfortunately, his son, Josef Gulas Jr, doesn’t join his father among the survivors.

Though Gulas was the only player to finish upwards of the 200k-mark, there were other notable stacks. Marian Dumitrache (188,000) took second place, Daniil Kiselev (153,800) third, and Tiziano Di Romualdo (134,000) and Maxim Panyak (127,900) finished in fourth and fifth places respectively.

Kiselev joined the upper ranks in the last 20 minutes of the day, after getting it all in against Sirzat Hissou postflop, with a set versus flush draw postflop all in. Kiselev turned quads and Hissou hit the rail.

Likewise, Panyak chipped up after he clashed with Morten Mortensen in the last level of the night, in a hand that didn’t make it to showdown.

There were two WPT Champions in the field today. Omar Lakhdari, who won €94,000 just last week after taking down the WPTDS Brussels Main Event finished on a promising 111,000 and was challenging for the chip lead at various points in the night.

It was a different story for Champions Club member Aleksey Badulin though, who hit the rail in the middle of the day. It remains to be seen whether the reigning WPT Russia Champion decides to fire again tomorrow.

Gulas’ performance is worthy of second place in the overall chip counts, with only Laszlo Papai (246,900) ahead of him as the moment. That could all change tomorrow though when Day 1c gets underway. The third and final starting flight kicks off at 12 pm and will replicate today’s structure in every way.

It’s goodnight from the live updates team until then.

WPT Germany photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.