Zona de Azar U.K. – PokerStars Festival: Lars Bonding, High Roller Overnight Chip Leader

U.K London.- January 25, www.zonadeazar.com The £2,200 High Roller began today at PokerStars LIVE at The Hippodrome Casino, attracting 164 entries (22 of them re-entries). The £318,160 total prize pool will be awarded to the top 23 finishers, with tomorrow’s champion set to take home £73,990 plus a Platinum Pass to the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship worth $30,000.

Click for: Full schedule // High Roller Entrants List // Day 2 Players and Chip Counts // High Roller Prize Pool

Taking advantage of the High Roller’s extended late registration period were Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, online superstars Chris Moorman and Christopher Brammer, Luke Schwartz and prior UKIPT champions Duncan McLellan and Christopher Yong. Hippodrome ambassadors Kelly Saxby and Chris Gordon also played, each firing one of two possible bullets, but of this whole selection of well-known players, only Schwartz progressed to Day 2 (with 110,000 chips).

Lars Bonding, an internationally seasoned tournament player with nearly $2 million in live cashes, finished the day as chip leader, with 318,500 chips – more than ten times his starting stack. Unusually, he was nearly matched by another huge stack: Jonathan Wong, who bagged 315,600 chips. In all, 47 players progress to Day 2 at 14:00 tomorrow; click here for the seating redraw.

SAM HO WINS EVENT #1: SUPER DEEP STACK
The £170 Super Deep Stack event, which needed two starting flights to accommodate yesterday’s 430 players, awarded its top prizes today, with Sam Ho (pictured below) scooping the first trophy of the Festival and £8,925 after a four-way deal which left £1,500 to play for. Click here for full payout information. A total of 65 players started their week auspiciously at PokerStars LIVE, banking a cash in the Deep Stack. Many took the opportunity, after busting out, to jump into this afternoon’s £170 cash qualifier to the High Roller. This 112-runner satellite awarded nine prizes of £2,200 (translated directly into seats, for most of the winners) with £1,879 for tenth.

£500,000 GUARANTEED MAIN EVENT
Tomorrow, the £500,000 guaranteed £990 Main Event begins with Day 1a at noon – the first of four starting flights. Busted players have the option of a single re-entry, which must be used in a subsequent flight. There are still two chances to qualify live for this huge event at The Hippodrome Casino, with one £990 Cash Qualifier with £170 buy-in starting tomorrow at 19:00, and another at 19:00 on Thursday 25th January.

Live reporting on the action in both the High Roller Final Day and the Main Event can be found on the PokerStars Blog from 12:00 when Day 1a begins (the High Roller recommences at 14:00).

POKERSTARS FESIVAL LONDON HIGHLIGHTS
• Super Deep Stack: January, 22-24, 2018 – £170
• PokerStars Festival High Roller: January, 23-24, 2018 – £2,200
• PokerStars Festival Main Event £500,000 guaranteed: January 24-28, 2018 – £990
• London Cup: January, 27-28, 2018 – £330
• PL Omaha Double Chance: January 28, 2018 – £220
These events include Platinum Passes for the winners.

Full schedule details for PokerStars Festival London 2018 can be found on pokerstarslive.com.

POKERSTARS FESTIVAL LONDON MEDIA EVENT
Stars of the UK poker scene will compete with media and celebrities on Thursday, January 25. PokerStars Festival London will welcome former England International and Gloucester Rugby player James Simpson Daniel and Sky Sports Rugby presenter Alex Payne to the tables, where they will take on the likes of Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody. Cody was eliminated from the High Roller on Day 1, freeing him up for the Media Event, in which he has a history of pulling no punches.

Warmed up from the Media Event, Daniel will join former England International and Premiership Rugby player Andy Goode (who is also a regular rugby analyst for BT Sport and Sky Sports) in the Main Event on Day 1c, Friday January 26. Keep an eye on the PokerStars Blog for features on these friends of PokerStars.

THREE PLATINUM PASSES TO BE AWARDED AT POKERSTARS FESTIVAL LONDON
Each Platinum Pass package (awarded to the winners of the High Roller, Main Event, and London Cup) is worth around $30,000, including the $25,000 tournament buy-in, accommodation at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino Resort, and $2,000 in cash towards travel costs. Throughout the year, PokerStars will be giving away more than 300 Platinum Passes (worth an estimated $8 million) at live tours around the world, online in tournaments, cash games, promotions, and via the Stars Rewards loyalty program, plus contributing an additional $1 million to the Players Championship’s first prize.

At least one Platinum Pass will be given away at each EPT, LAPT and APPT stop, as well as at each PokerStars Festival and PokerStars MEGASTACK event. PokerStars Festival events are mainly tailored for recreational players and take place in destination cities around the world, while PokerStars MEGASTACK events offer deep-structured tournaments at a low, accessible price in cities around Europe and the United States.

UPCOMING POKERSTARS LIVE 2018 STOPS
New PokerStars Live events have been added to 2018 PokerStarsLive calendar:

PokerStars Festival London – January 22 – 28, 2018
• Macau Poker Cup 28 – January 26 – February 11, 2018
• PokerStars MEGASTACK London – February 23 – 25, 2018 (New Addition)
• LAPT Chile – March 8 – 13, 2018
• PokerStars MEGASTACK Sanremo – March 12 – 18, 2018 (New Addition)
• APPT Macau – March 14 – 25, 2018
• EPT Sochi – March 20 – 29, 2018
• APPT Korea – April 6 – 15, 2018 (New Addition)
• PokerStars And Monte-Carlo© Casino EPT – April 24 – May 4, 2018
• Manila Megastack – April 27 – May 6, 2018 (New Addition)

POKERSTARS FESTIVAL 2017 MAIN EVENT RESULTS
• PokerStars Festival London: 944 entries, £824,112 prize pool, Rehman Kassam for £89,320
• PokerStars Festival Rozvadov: 1,126 entries, €1,089,310 prize pool, Petr Svoboda for €124,346
• PokerStars Festival Chile: 329 entries, $500,000 prize pool, Christopher Franco for $97,360
• PokerStars Festival Marbella: 949 entries, €911,040 prize pool, Ignacio De Maturana for €168,700
• PokerStars Festival Lille: 800 entries, €768,000 prize pool, Philippe Le Touche for €143,000
• PokerStars Festival Korea: 285 entries, KRW 414,675,000 prize pool, Taehoon Han for KRW 83,130,000
• PokerStars Festival Manila: 594 entries, ₱28,809,000 prize pool, Uday Bansal for ₱4,676,000
• PokerStars Festival Bucharest: 736 entries, €706,560 prize pool, Sam Grafton for €117,707
• PokerStars Festival Uruguay: 169 entries, $379,755 prize pool, Julio Belluscio for $66,748
• PokerStars Festival Dublin: 544 entries, €679,000 prize pool, Gary McGinty for €91,808
• PokerStars Festival Sochi: 544 entries, ₽40,681,800 prize pool, Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy for ₽7,700,000
• PokerStars Festival Hamburg: 567 entries, €549,990 prize pool, Ulrich Pauls for €105,850