Hissou Ends Day 1 of €50,000 NLH Diamond High Roller in Pole Position
Sirzat Hissou is on the verge of potentially claiming his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet after an impressive showing in Event #12: €50,000 NLH Diamond High Roller at the 2024 WSOP Europe, hosted at King's Resort in Rozvadov. The German player ended Day 1 as the chip leader, seizing control in the final hands when his Big Slick sent Tom-Aksel Bedell to the rail. With 3,435,000 chips, Hissou sits in pole position ahead of Daniel Rezaei, who bagged 3,365,000 chips.
Rezaei's climb up the leaderboard was thanks to a pivotal hand against Viktor Blom. Blom four-bet jammed pocket nines into Rezaei's pocket queens, but the Austrian held firm with a clean board to eliminate Blom and become the first player to pass the three million chip mark.
Late registrant Martin Kabrhel secured a top-three spot with 2,155,000 chips, but he trails the leaders by 30 big blinds.
€50,000 NLH Diamond High Roller Chip Counts
Astedt Among Those to Fall on Day 1
As expected, the €50,000 buy-in attracted poker’s elite and VIPs eager to capture WSOP glory and a slice of the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. After 12 levels of play, 13 of the 19 entries advanced to Day 2, which resumes at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, October 4.
Notable names returning for the finale of the €50,000 NLH Diamond High Roller include several accomplished bracelet winners. Among them are British poker phenom Stephen Chidwick, Canadian high roller Daniel Dvoress, and the formidable husband-and-wife duo, Alex Foxen and Kristen Foxen. Also returning is Turkish high-stakes regular and 2022 champion of this event, Orpen Kisacikoglu.
A. Foxen has already come close to victory this series, but was denied his second WSOP bracelet by Alessandro Pichierri in Event #8: €25,000 NLH GGMillion€. Foxen made an impressive comeback from the short stack in that event, securing a €223,900 payday on Tuesday. He will be looking to recreate that comeback magic and claim victory this time around.
K. Foxen was the only player to fire a second bullet into the Diamond High Roller after Kisacikoglu caught her speeding in the early stages. This left her on fumes and Hissou collected the rest of K. Foxen's stack to mark her as the day's first casualty. On her second bite of the cherry, she bagged slightly north of the 1 million chip starting stack, ending the first stage with 1,065,000.
Niklas Astedt, the 2024 WSOP Main Event third-place finisher, was next to bust. The Swedish online poker legend found himself in a brutal cooler, running ace-king into Hissou's pocket aces in a five-bet preflop pot.
Boris Angelov, who finished two spots below Astedt in Poker's World Championship, was next to depart. Blom was vanquished next ahead of Salih Atac eliminating Roman Hrabec during the night’s final level. The last player to bow out was Bedell, though Enrico Camosci barely avoided joining him after surviving two all-ins late in the night.
Along with the eliminated players, new players can also hop into the action, as late registration remains open until the end of Level 14, the second level of Day 2. With the stakes high and a coveted WSOP bracelet on the line, there’s still time for fresh faces or returning players to etch their name in poker's history books.
As always, stay tuned and follow all the action on PokerNews to see which player becomes poker's latest champion.