Frenchman Killian Desnos is the 2021 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North Cyprus Main Event chip leader after the completion of two of the four scheduled flights. Some 486 players have bought in across Day 1A and Day 1B, and 214 of those are safely through to Day 2.

Desnos dominated proceedings on Day 1A, bagging up 796,500 chips, the equivalent of 266 big blinds for Day 2. It is quite a remarkable stack considering Desnos started with 100,000 chips only nine 60-minute levels earlier. He soared to the top of the chip counts after busting Turkey’s Zorlu Er during the sixth level. All the chips went in on the river of the 8♥ 8♣ 3♠ 2♠ A♥ board, Er holding A♠ K♦ but Desnos turning over K♥ 8♦ for trips.

Stoyan Madanzhiev, winner of the 2020 WSOP Online International Main Event, finished Day 1A with 535,500 chips in his stack, which proved enough for third place on the opening flight’s leaderboard. Madanzhiev is one to watch in this event.

John Duthie busted on Day 1A but progressed from 1B

Two partypoker orange diamonds were among the 281 Day 1A entrants, but only one progressed to Day 2 at the first attempt. John Duthie made an ill-timed bluff on the J♠ J♣ 6♥ K♥ 5♦ river with 10♣ 9♣ only for Murad Cakir to roll over K♦ J♥ for a full house.

Teammate Jeff Gross punched his Day 2 ticket. He returns with 113,500 chips.

Others who made it through include Yiannis Liperis (305,000), Marton Czuczor (302,500), Jakub Michalak (299,000), Boris Kolev (276,000), James Romero (275,000), Paul Newey (187,500), and Toni Judet (41,500).

Top 10 Chip Counts From Day 1A

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1	Killian Desnos	France	796,500
2	Tamer Abdelzaher	Egypt	542,000
3	Stoyan Madanzhiev	Bulgaria	535,500
4	Mihai Niste	Romania	505,000
5	Philippe Jibeili Acosta	Lebanon	479,000
6	Sergio Fernandez Bernal	Spain	478,500
7	Andrii Andrieiev	Ukraine	460,500
8	Algirdas Saveikis	Lithuania	447,500
9	Dan Semenescu	Romania	445,000
10	Dejan Kaladurdjevic	Montenegro	436,500

Shaerzadeh Stacks Them High On Day 1B

Day 1B of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North Cyprus Main Event saw 86 of the 205 starters punch their Day 2 tickets, and nobody accumulated more chips than Ali Shaerzadeh. The Iranian grinder turned his 100,000 starting stack into 699,500, earning him the title of Day 1B chip leader and placing him second overall.

Two other Day 1B players ended the evening with more than 600,000 chips. Harout Ghazarian crammed 659,500 chips into his overnight bag, while fellow Canadian Harpreet Gill finished with 621,000 chips.

Gill won a mammoth-sized pot when he found himself on the right side of an aces versus kings confrontation. Gill five-bet shoved with A♠ A♦ and Mario Mosboeck called with K♦ K♣. A jack-high board pushed Gill towards 600,000 chips, and Mosboeck dropped to less than 10,000.

Plenty of big names progressed from Day 1B. Fahredin Mustafov, who finished second in the $2,200 Warm-Up and fourth in the $10,500 High Roller, bagged up 377,000 chips. Others who navigated their way through the shark-infested waters included Daniel Rezaei (353,000), Sergio Aido (349,500), Vlad Darie (282,000), Nicolas Chouity (187,500), Dominik Panka (182,500), Tobias Duthweiler (143,000), Sofia Lovgren (117,000), our very own John Duthie (95,000), and Jeff Hakim (50,000).

Top 10 Chip Counts From Day 1B

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1	Ali Shaerzadeh	Iran	699,500
2	Harout Ghazarian	Canada	659,500
3	Harpreet Gill	Canada	621,000
4	Nikolay Blinov	Russia	557,500
5	Ali Reza Fatehi	Iran	556,000
6	Vytautas Semaska	Lithuania	551,500
7	Sina Alamzad	Iran	510,500
8	Garik Tamasian	Russia	453,500
9	Amir Pahlwani Sarughieh	Germany	409,500
10	Job Greben	Netherlands	400,500

Two Main Event flights remain on the schedule, and both have a reduced clock. Day 1C runs with a 45-minute clock instead of 60-minutes, while the Day 1D turbo has 25-minute blinds. Both take place on September 24.