The S19 WPTDeepStacks Sochi Festival is off to a successful start with 364 entries in the Opener at the stunning Casino Sochi in the Krasnaya Polyana region. Some Side Events such as the Ladies Event and a Super Bounty Knockout tournament have also already concluded while the venue prepares for the highlights of the tournament schedule in the days to come. A quick glance through the list of participants reveals many regulars of Casino Sochi as the tournaments so far are dominated by mostly local players.
Sunday, August 8, will see the conclusion of the Opener, two satellites for the flagship 2021 WPTDS Sochi Main Event, and Day 1 of the High Roller. Let’s take a closer look at what has happened so far and which exciting tournaments are about to unfold in the days to come.
45 Players Advance to Day 2 in Opener
One of the bargain tournaments of the entire festival is the Opener, which comes with a price tag of ₽38,500 (∼ $528). All those that bagged and tagged in one of the three flights reached the money, which applies for 45 players out of a total field of 364 entries.
The tournament started with 80 entries on Day 1a. After nine hours of play, the field was whittled down to the final 10 players as Evgeniy Nekrasov ended up as the bubble boy.
Artur Adamyants pulled way ahead of all other contenders, having turned his 30,000 into 668,000 throughout the first starting day. That’s two times as many chips as second-placed Rustem Muratov, who advanced with 332,000. Among the notable survivors was also Aleksey Savenkov with a stack of 254,000.
Well-known casualties on Day 1a included Nikita Kuznetsov, Nikolay Fal, Arman Atshemyan, Aleksandr Rudoy, Konstantin Generalov, Mustafa Biz, and Sergey Chudapal to name all but a few.
Top 5 Chip Counts Day 1a:
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Artur Adamyants | Russia | 668,000 |
| 2 | Rustem Muratov | Russia | 332,000 |
| 3 | Nikita Konev | Russia | 295,000 |
| 4 | Aleksey Savenkov | Russia | 254,000 |
| 5 | Dimitriy Pokhabov | Russia | 191,000 |
The far strongest turnout was on Day 1b, which attracted a field of 177 entries. Of those, only 22 made it through and two new overall chip leaders were crowned. Yuriy Brechalov vaulted to a massive stack of 807,000 and Vladislav Vinogradov pulled ahead of Adamyants by a fraction of a big blind thanks to amassing 671,000.
Yigit Aksoy also made it to the top five for the night with a stack of 371,000 and Kuznetsov fared better than in the opening flight after claiming 348,000 to his name. Arutyun Saakyan, Lidiya Belyaeva, and Andrey Litvinov also advanced to Day 2, familiar faces such as Ilyaz Dosikov, Arkadiy Stekolshchikov, Ezatulla Amani, and Giorgiy Skhulukhiya came up short by a few spots.
Top 5 Chip Counts Day 1b:
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Yuriy Brechalov | Russia | 807,000 |
| 2 | Vladislav Vinogradov | Russia | 671,000 |
| 3 | Komiljon Avezov | Uzbekistan | 392,000 |
| 4 | Yigit Aksoy | Turkey | 371,000 |
| 5 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | 348,000 |
The third and final starting day reeled in 107 players of which 13 advanced. Unfortunate bubble boy to the money was WSOP bracelet winner Anatolii Zyrin, Mikhail Zavoloka bowed out just prior to also come up short of advancing to Day 2.
Aren Bezhanyan topped the Day 1c counts with a stack of 478,000 and the top five were bunched together rather closely with Daria Krashennikova (435,000) and Mark Uzdenov (426,000) not far behind. Vitaliy Pankov, Mikhail Efremov, and Nikolay Fal all secured another cash at Casino Sochi to their name as well.
Top 5 Chip Counts Day 1c:
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Aren Bezhanyan | Armenia | 478,000 |
| 2 | Daria Krashennikova | Russia | 435,000 |
| 3 | Mark Uzdenov | Russia | 426,000 |
| 4 | Ivan Tukmachev | Russia | 360,000 |
| 5 | Yuriy Suvorov | Russia | 354,000 |
Opener Stats:
Opener Day 1a: 10/80 players advanced
Opener Day 1b: 22/177 players advanced
Opener Day 1c: 13/107 players advanced
The 364-entry strong field consisted of 200 unique players and 164 re-entries to create a prize pool of ₽12,103,000(∼ $169,442). All 45 survivors will earn at least ₽57,750(∼ $809) for their efforts while the winner is slated to take home ₽2,544,500 (∼ $35,623).
Ekaterina Asmolova wins Ladies Event
The opening day of the festival featured a Ladies Event with a buy-in of ₽15,750 (∼ $215) and 17 unique players as well as 5 re-entries emerged. Only the top four finishers earned a portion of the ₽299,880 prize pool (∼ $4,198) and no deal was cut to distribute the winnings.
Daria Krashennikova bowed out two spots away from the money before subsequently earning a big stack in the Opener. Other casualties prior to the money were Oksana Abakhova, Alisa Sibgatova, and Veronika Salakhova, the latter of which was eliminated on the bubble.
It took around half an hour for the first casualty in the money, which happened to be Irina Kudrina. Yuliya Shalamova then fell in third place and the heads-up duel lasted a mere seven minutes. Russia’s Ekaterina Asmolova came out on top after defeating Kazakhstan’s Korlan Sartaeva to claim the top prize of ₽127,680 (∼$1,788).
Final Result Ladies Event:
| Position | Player | Country | Prize (in Rubles) | Prize (in USD) |
| 1 | Ekaterina Asmolova | Russia | ₽127,680 | $1,788 |
| 2 | Korlan Sartaeva | Kazakhstan | ₽90,650 | $1,269 |
| 3 | Yuliya Shalamova | Russia | ₽65,800 | $921 |
| 4 | Irina Kudrina | Russia | ₽15,750 | $221 |
Ezatulla Amani Takes Down Super Bounty Event
The third tournament on the schedule at Casino Sochi was geared towards the knockout specialists, as a large portion of the ₽28,000 buy-in in Event #3 Super Bounty was awarded in bounty prizes. There were a total of 129 players including 36 re-entries and the cash portion of the ₽865,060 prize pool was distributed among the top 10 finishers.
Well-known Casino Sochi regular Ezatulla Amani claimed all the chips eventually after cutting a heads-up deal with runner-up Vadim Gabriel. Besides all the bounties earned along the way, Amani cashed for ₽225,750 (∼$3,161).
Top Five Finishers in Event #3 Super Bounty:
| Position | Player | Country | Prize (in Rubles) | Prize (in USD) |
| 1 | Ezatulla Amani | Russia | ₽225,750 | $3,161 |
| 2 | Gabriel Vadim | Russia | ₽207,410 | $2,904 |
| 3 | Vladimir Lipnitskiy | Russia | ₽121,100 | $1,695 |
| 4 | Sergey Tatevosyan | Russia | ₽86,450 | $1,210 |
| 5 | Georgiy Klenin | Russia | ₽62,300 | $872 |
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Festival Highlights Lie Ahead
On the third day of the festival near the slopes of the former Olympic Winter games, one of the highlights on the schedule awaits. Day 1 of the ₽245,000 High Roller(∼ $3,360) is slated to kick off with levels of 60 minutes each and a starting stack of 30,000. The most expensive tournament of the entire festival will conclude within the next three days and the action on Sunday gets underway at 5 pm local time in Sochi.
High-stakes players don’t have to worry about missing their chance to compete in the pinnacle ₽119,000 Main Event (∼ $1,630) either. The High Roller concludes on Tuesday, August 10 and the same day features the second out of four possible starting days for the 2021 WPTDS Sochi Main Event. Even those that run very deep can either late register for Day 1b or have another two chances on Wednesday to enter the competition. Some of the biggest names among the local players are expected to fight for the High Roller title.
As far as the Main Event is concerned, players have the chance to win their entry for a fraction of the expense in two satellites on Sunday, which cost ₽13,650 and ₽19,250 respectively. Both qualifiers have a starting stack of 20,000 and once players accumulate 200,000, they have unlocked the seat automatically.
Four starting days in total will be available for the ₽119,000 Main Event from Monday, August 9, until Wednesday, August 11. The final starting day will be held in a turbo format with the level duration cut in half from 60 to 30 minutes. All Day 1 survivors then unite on Thursday, August 12, and play down to the money bubble with another four levels of late registration at their disposal.
Day 1A: Monday, August 9 at 16:00 UTC+3
Day 1B: Tuesday, August 10 at 12:00 UTC+3
Day 1C: Wednesday, August 11 at 12:00 UTC+3
Day 1D (Turbo): Wednesday, August 11 at 18:00 UTC+3
The WPT.com team will provide further news in the days to come and picks up the live reporting for the final two days of the 2021 WPTDS Sochi Main Event.