Blaz Zerjav Leads $10M Gtd WPTWOC Main Event After Day 1A

Day 1A of the $10 million guaranteed WPT Main Event Championship is done and dusted and there’s a familiar name at the top of the chip counts.

Some 521-players bought into the $10,300 buy-in Main Event on the first of two starting flights and only 80 managed to make it through to Day 2 at the first time of asking.

Slovenia’s Blaz Zerjav finished the night with a massive stack of 4,400,082 chips, over 1.5 million more chips than anyone else in the field! Zerjav has previous in partypoker’s biggest tournaments. Last year, Zerjav won his 2019 MILLIONS Online seat via a $22 buy-in satellite before going on to finish third for $1,370,850. He’ll be hoping for a similar result this time around.

There’s still a long way to go in this event and some of the world’s best poker players joined Zerjav in punching their tickets for Day 2.

Dominik Panka has done his chances of glory no harm at all by accumulating 2,834,144 chips. The Polish star has more than $3.1 million in live poker tournaments and plenty more from his online exploits.

Shaun Deeb is another superstar to look out for on Day 2 on September 14. Deeb ended Day 1A with a very healthy stack of 2,744,492, which is good for third-place on the current leaderboard.

The likes of Upeshka Da Silva (2,687,929) and Artur Martirosian (2,397,438) also bagged up top 10 stacks.

WPT #08 Main Event Championship Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1	Blaz Zerjav	Slovenia	4,400,082
2	Dominik Panka	Poland	2,834,144
3	Shaun Deeb	Mexico	2,744,492
4	Antonio Pedro	Netherlands	2,715,316
5	Upeshka Da Silva	Mexico	2,687,929
6	Artur Martirosian	Russia	2,397,438
7	Pieter Aerts	Belgium	2,372,345
8	Laszlo Molnar	Hungary	2,145,274
9	Vincas Tamasauskas	Lithuania	2,024,782
10	Viktor Kudinov	Russia	2,021,673

Plenty of established pros navigated their way through the shark-infested Day 1A field.

Dylan Linde (1,953,957), Fabian Gumz (1,903,686), Sami Kelopuro (1,728,723), Ole Schemion (1,705,519), Gianluca Speranza (1,644,158), Jack Sinclair (1,223,441), Steve O’Dwyer (1,095,392), Kahle Burns (947,872), Ryan Riess (400,344) and Jon Van Fleet (254,606) were among those making it through Day 1A.

Two members of Team partypoker, Philipp Gruissem (1,280,141), and Dzmitry Urbanovich (755,512) progressed at the first attempt. Joni Jouhkimainen crashed out towards the end of the flight, finishing in 84th place.

Day 1B shuffles up and deals at 20:05 CEST on September 13. There are a raft of satellites feeding into this gigantic event, plus out WPTWOC edition SPINS that make it possible to turn $10 into a $10,300 Main Event seat.