Laszlo Papai Tops Day 1a of the WPT Germany Main Event

The opening starting day of the €1,500,000 guaranteed €3,300 World Poker Tour Germany Main Event drew a field of 72 entries, of whom 33 navigated to the next stage. The first eight levels of play saw Hungarian player Laszlo Papai emerge as the chip leader here at the King’s Resort. Papai reported a stack of 246,900 tonight.

Papai flew under the radar for the majority of the day, steadily adding to his piles. He took over the chip lead in the final level, pulling ahead of Farukh Tach (211,100) and Peter Jaksland (197,100).

While Papai is yet to notch his first WPT result, Jaksland has already experienced a deep run in the Main Tour event. Last year, he took home €17,500 for a 29th place in a 1,227-runner field at WPT Barcelona.

Tom Hall, arguably one of the most accomplished players in the Day 1a field, also pulled off a strong start to the event. Hall took his seat after busting the high roller event, and he immediately started building a big stack. He possessed one of the largest stacks —if not the outright leading — on dinner break. While Hall dropped some of his chips in the latter half of today’s slate, he’s still well above the average line with 142,700.

Other players who reported to have made a promising first step on their journey featured Adam Krol (166,400), Ricardo Vymeris (133,900), and Jonas Lauck (103,100).

The same cannot be said about top-earning Czech players Vojtech Ruzicka and Martin Kabrhel who failed to make it through. Ruzicka was an early casualty but Kabrhel approached the 100,000-mark late in the day. Two encounters with Sasha Liu and Grzegorz Wyraz send him on a nub, however, and he lost his remaining chips shortly afterwards.

With a single re-entry allowed per flight, there is still plenty of opportunities for those who are yet to find a bag. Day 1b is coming up on Wednesday, February 19, at 12 p.m. local time and Day 1c follows on Thursday. Come back for more action as the live reporting continues all the way through to the winner’s ceremony.

WPT Germany photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.