Hugues Mazerolle Nabs Chip Lead at the Last as Day 1a of the Main Event Concludes

By Lisa Yiasemides

The action heated up early doors in the first starting flight of the Main Event. In total, 134 entries (including re-entries) were logged at Grand Casino Brussels Viage, and by the end, almost 100 of those had fallen. When the dust had settled, there were 41 survivors still in contention and of those, Hugues Mazerolle (pictured) had the most productive day, taking through 248,000 into Day 2 on Saturday.

It was a late spurt that saw Mazerolle take top spot in the counts and on a table of big names, perhaps that was no surprise. It was a different story for tablemate Ali Chaieb however, who had had a great run earlier on – most notably after eliminating three opponents in one hand – but by the end, his lead had been reduced and he goes through with 140,000.

Mazarolle was the only player to exceed the 200k mark, with Jozsef Szabo (193,000) taking second place, Julien Sitbon (184,000) third (pictured), Roland Rozel (178,000) fourth, and Ngoc Nguyen (169,500) completing the top five. Nguyen was another player who had been top of the counts at one point after benefitting in a monster clash with Jonathon Wong, in which both players had a full house when the chips went in.

There were also lots of big names in the field, many of which found a bag. Among them were Tomas Macnamara (who finished just outside of the top five with 155,000), Alexandre Reard (134,000), Florian Duta (128,500), Tomasz Gluszko (125,000) and Gary Hasson (100,000), all of whom finished above average stack.

Ionut Flavius Voinea (88,500), Anton Morgenstern (87,000), Niko Koop (80,000), Gilles Huet (77,000), Jonathan Abdellatif (70,000), Vladas Tamasauskas (68,000) and Gaelle Baumann (67,000) also progress, though have a little more work to do when play resumes at 2pm on Saturday, 8 February.

Still, it is better news than for some, with WPTDeepStacks Malta Champion Sandro Pitzanti, Bart Lybaert, Jean-Rene Fontaine, Eric Lescot, Vincent Gabel, Joris Ruijs and Michel Leibgorin all departing before the claxon sounded.

There are more chances to get back in the action, with the second and third starting flights kicking off tomorrow. Day 1b is an exact replica of today’s flight except that it starts at the earlier time of 2 pm. Following that is the ‘Fast Chance’ Day 1c, which begins at 10 pm and features reduced 20-minute blinds. As if that wasn’t enough, there is also a single re-entry available in both making a total of four more entries. Don’t say we don’t spoil you.

Until tomorrow, it’s good night from the WPT.com live updates team. See you back here at 2 pm when the Main Event excitement will continue.

WPT UK photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.