After a well-deserved break through most of the summer, the World Poker Tour surged back into action with its Merit Cyprus Classic yesterday. Held at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus, poker pros from around the world have descended on the Mediterranean island looking to take down the first championship of the Season XI schedule.
With the chance to take in some sun along with some great poker, the crème of the poker world didn’t fail to show up for Day 1A (the $4000 buy in tournament will be a re-entry event, with players eliminated on Day 1A allowed to get back into the fray for today’s Day 1B). Defending WPT World Champion Marvin Rettenmaier, Tommy Vedes, Chris Moorman and Daniel Cates were on hand for the Day 1A festivities, joined by others who have just come off of a tremendous run in Las Vegas this summer.
One of those players was France’s Gaelle Baumann, who made an outstanding run during the World Series of Poker Championship Event before finally succumbing to the field in tenth place. Baumann parlayed that payout into a trip to Cyprus for the WPT tournament and got off to a nice start, taking down a decent sized pot in early action that moved her above her starting stack. That early success would be negated, however, after Baumann mixed it up with former WPT champion Vedes. On a K-3-3 flop, Baumann would coming her final chips to the center with A-K, only to see Vedes turn up a measly 3-2 to have outflopped her.
Vedes, who was among the leaders at that point, wouldn’t fare much better following that. He entered into a raising battle with Iwan Postel and would put all his chips to the center with only a K-Q. Postel had the goods in this fight, turning up Big Slick and, once the board came without a Queen, Vedes found himself on the rail for the remainder of the day. Soon to follow Vedes out the door were former EPT champion Nicolas Chouity and WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche.
As the evening wore on in Cyprus, the action heated up before the Day 1A play was completed. Maxim Panyak was the beneficiary of a late night surge, knocking off Andreas Krause in a classic big pair (pocket Queens)/Big Slick showdown that went Panyak’s way in stunning fashion. The flop came K♥ 8♦ 6♥ to give Krause the lead, but a 2♥ on the turn opened up the door for a flush draw with Panyak’s Q♥. That flush draw came home with a J♥ on the river to cruelly vanquish Krause and catapult Panyak to the lead.
On one of the final hands of the night, Panyak once again was causing a commotion as he raised from the cutoff, only to get three bet by Ozgur Arda in the small blind. Panyak called to see an innocuous 8-7-3 flop, where Panyak called an Arda bet. An Ace on the turn opened the floodgates after Arda check-raised Panyak all in and was met with an immediate call from Panyak. When the cards turned up, Panyak’s A-8 for Aces up vastly outpaced Arda’s A-K and would hold up when a ten came on the river to earn Panyak another knockout.
At the end of the Day 1A action, 165 players had been knocked down to only 67 runners remaining, with Panyak atop the leaderboard:
1. Maxim Panyak, 255,800
2. Atzlan Gil, 207,100
3. Oleksandr Kozyr, 163,200
4. Aram Vartevanyan, 151,400
5. Oleksil Kovalchuk, 144,300
6. Kiryl Radzavonau, 137,000
7. Stuart Hyson, 129,900
8. Adham Beaniy, 127,000
9. Marvin Rettenmaier, 122,200
10. Senol Sener, 117,200
The 67 survivors from Saturday’s play will have the opportunity to bask in the glow of the Mediterranean sun as Day 1B takes up action on Sunday. It is unknown how many of the eliminated players from the Day 1A flight will fire a second bullet at this event (or how many players will enter before the end of late registration), but it is known that the Mizrachi clan (Michael, Robert and Eric) will be in attendance for Day 1B after some travel difficulties delayed their arrival in Cyprus. It should prove to be another exciting day on the felt as the World Poker Tour’s Season XI schedule kicks off with a bang.
