Pais Amongst Big Stacks After Day 1a of partypoker MILLIONS UK
Day 1a of the partypoker MILLIONS UK Main Event in the Dusk Till Dawn got underway at noon today with a total of 170 players entering.
After eight levels of play, some massive stacks emerged with Mauricio Ferreira Pais seemingly collecting the most. He battled it out all day with the likes of Steven van Zadelhoff, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Joep Raemaekers at his table. Pais came out on top with a stack of over 5.5 million, no small feat considering everyone started with a million in chips. Pais will return on Day 2 with almost 184 big blinds.
Jiushuang Wang too had a great day, turning his million starting stack into 4.5 million, knocking out players left and right along the way. The biggest scalp came in a pot against partypoker PRO Roberto Romanello. While Romanello is, amongst other things, known for folding a full house in the WSOP Main Event a decade ago to the amazement of Mike Matusow, he wasn’t willing to repeat that feat here in Nottingham. He called with queens full of jacks, only to see Wang turn over queens full of kings on the river.
Wang is by no means the only one to multiply his stack. Such big names as Marvin Rettenmaier (3.8 million), Sam Grafton (2 million), November Niner Bryan Piccioli (3.1 million), and partypoker’s Joao Simao (3.5 million) all did well too.
Oliver Price was the first to head the tournament. Price’s surgence came at the expense of bracelet winner Max Silver who suffered a bad beat with top-pair and top-kicker all in against Price’s flush draw on the turn. A heart on the river sealed Silver’s faith and catapulted Price to the role of chipleader. Price didn’t stay up top and lost a fair bit of chips back throughout the rest of the day, ending the eight level with just over starting stack.
Day 2 sees the players return to action with blinds at 15,000 and 30,000. But before the 87 Day 1a survivors continue their quest for gold, first Day 1b will be played out on Thursday, January 9th. Players that busted on Day 1a today have another shot by handing over another $10,300 in exchange for a fresh 1,000,000 starting stack.
End-of-Day Chip Counts
With the clock down to zero, 87 players from a field of 170 players survived Day 1a’s eight levels. Below are the official chip counts.
| Player | Chips | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Philipp Zukernik | 5,875,000 |
4,875,000  |
| Anton Suarez | 5,525,000 |
4,525,000 |
| Mauricio Ferreira Pais | 5,510,000 |
2,144,997 |
| Jiushuang Wang | 4,510,000 |
-90,000  |
| Santiago Plante | 3,895,000 |
2,695,000 |
| Marvin Rettenmaier | 3,805,000 |
1,505,000 |
| Fredrik Andersson | 3,755,000 |
855,000 |
| Joao Simao | 3,515,000 |
2,515,000 |
| Robert Heidorn | 3,510,000 |
2,850,000 |
| Michael Sklenicka | 3,505,000 |
2,505,000 |
| Ryan Mandara | 3,355,000 |
2,355,000 |
| Nathan John Watson | 3,240,000 |
2,240,000 |
| Ondrej Drozd | 3,230,000 |
2,230,000 |
| Jakob Miegel | 3,205,000 |
2,205,000 |
| Bryan Piccioli | 3,145,000 |
1,445,000 |
| Marco Di Persio | 3,005,000 |
2,005,000 |
| George Demetriou | 2,945,000 |
1,945,000 |
| Javier Gomez Zapatero | 2,915,000 |
15,000 |
| Per Anton Siden | 2,905,000 |
1,905,000 |
| Daniel Wilson | 2,770,000 |
1,770,000 |
| Yiannis Liperis | 2,715,000 |
1,715,000 |
| Felix Bleiker | 2,690,000 |
1,690,000 |
| Nicholas Romanello | 2,410,000 |
1,410,000 |
| Francisco Carreira | 2,395,000 |
1,395,000 |
| Emile Hijman | 2,385,000 |
1,385,000 |
| Tom Kunze | 2,370,000 |
1,370,000 |
| Niall Farrell | 2,230,000 |
430,000 |
| Daniel Ondejka | 2,160,000 |
1,160,000 |
| Adrian Mateos | 2,115,000 |
1,115,000 |
