PartyPoker Championship Winter Main Event Kicks Off; Hula Leads

The first of six PartyPoker Championship (PPC) Winter Main Event flights is in the bag, and it was Ukraine's Ihor Hula who was the fastest out of the blocks. Hula shone brightly on Day 1A of the $530 buy-in $500,000 guaranteed tournament and has done his chances of glory no harm at all. Indeed, his colossal stack makes him one of the favorites to go deep in the PPC Winter Main Event even at this early stage.

Day 1A was the starting flight of choice for 175 PartyPoker players, but only 26 of them progressed to Day 2 on January 16. Tomas Fara, Team PartyPoker's Patrick Leonard, Jerry Odeen, Diego Cuellar, Kenny Hallaert, and Tomi Brouk were a handful of players who busted before Day 1A concluded.

The aforementioned Hula saw his 500,000 chip starting stack swell to an incredible 11,248,789 by the time the curtain came down on proceedings. Hula has almost 2.5 million chips more than any other player in the field, with the average stack weighing in at 3.37 million.

Dominykas Joskas (8,838,498) bagged up enough chips for second place, with Samuel Vousden (5,968,294), Daniel Custodio (5,599,770), and Gabriel Schroeder (5,466,328) rounding out the top five.

Day 1A was a great flight for satellite winners, with no less than 11 of the 26 progressing players winning their $530 seat via PartyPoker's weekly satellites. Patrik Kucera (5,034,617) and Anthony Weldon (4,340,064) finished with enough chips for a spot in the Day 1A top ten.

Other stars to look out for as this tournament progresses include Blaz Zerjav (4,952,326), Antoine Saout (4,325,095), Alexandre Raymond (2,427,381), and Alexandros Theologis (2,018,216).

PPC Winter #01 Main Event Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts

Truschkowski Bags Big in the PPC Winter Mini Main Event

The $55 buy-in $100,000 guaranteed PPC Winter Mini Main Event ran alongside its bigger brother and saw 243 entrants whittled to a more manageable 36. Just like in the Main Event, this tournament has a runaway chip leader after the first of six flights, Germany's Mark Truschkowski, who bagged up a tournament-leading stack of 13,323,996 chips.

Austria's Elvis Arzic (9,214,834) has a successful opening flight, as did the likes of Jonas Mortensen (8,652,802), Joao Baumgarten (3,083,602), Mathias Siljander (1,836,087), and Eliot Hudon (1,494,194), albeit with varying degrees. Hudon also made it through the opening Main Event flight.

PPC Winter #01 Main Event Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts

Remaining PPC Winter Main and Mini Main Event Schedule

New Year's Day is when you can next get involved in the PPC Winter Main and Mini Main Events at PartyPoker. Cards are in the air from 7:05 p.m. GMT on January 1, and the Day 1B door slams shut when only 15% of the field remains.

You can play in as many Day 1s as you wish or as your bankroll allows, but only your largest stack goes forward should you progress to Day 2 more than once.

Main Event satellites, starting at $0.01, are in the PartyPoker lobby. They all feed into the weekly Sunday final, which has no direct buy-in, at 5:05 p.m. and has 15x $530 seats guaranteed.

PPC Winter Edition SPINS

PPC Winter Edition SPINS are a great way to try and win your way into the various tournaments taking place between now and January 17. They cost $10 to enter and pay their winner either $20 cash or PPC Winter tickets worth between $33 and $530.