Boris Kolev Leads Ahead of WPT500 Knockout Day 2 on partypoker

The World Poker Tour has returned to partypoker with the WPT500 festival. The festival features 25 numbered events from March 7-25.

Two of the events boast tasty $1 million guarantees for a buy-in of $530 including the WPT #01: WPT500 on March 7-16 and the WPT #13: WPT500 Knockout on March 15-23.

Last week, Dylan Rowe bested a field of 2,420 entrants in the WPT #01: WPT500 to win the $181,545 top prize.

The other $1 million guaranteed event is currently underway. Last night, Boris Kolev narrowly unseeded Day 1a chip leader Diego Ventura to snag the overall chip lead in the WPT #13: WPT500 Knockout after virtually bagging a huge stack of 10,252,232 during last night's Day 1g.

Boris Kolev Leads the partypoker WPT500

The WPT500 Knockout has already eclipsed its lofty $1 million guarantee with 2,162 entrants coming into action during the first seven opening flights to generate a $1,081,000 prize pool.

The prize pool will continue to grow with an eight and final opening flight taking place on Monday, March 22 at 5:05 p.m. GMT or three hours just before the start of Day 2 at 8:05 p.m. GMT. The final opening flight is a turbo-charged affair featuring six-minute blind levels instead of the usual 12-minute levels featured on all of the other opening flights. Otherwise, it features the same structure as the other Day 1s with 15 percent of the field advancing to Day 2.

A total of 324 entrants and counting have advanced to Day 2 where the structure will feature longer 16-minute blind levels starting with blinds at 35,000/70,000/8,750a. Blind levels will further increase to 24 minutes once Level 25 is reached.

The day will conclude when the field is whittled down to just a nine-player final table with that set to play out the following day on Tuesday, March 23 at 8:05 p.m. GMT.

Yesterday's Day 1g was the biggest opening thus far in the event with 810 entrants getting into the action. Bulgaria's Boris Kolev, playing at partypoker under an Austrian flag, not only led the 122 survivors after ending the day with 10,253,232 in chips but as we already mentioned in the intro also overtook Day 1a chip leader Diego Ventura (10,137,148) for the overall chip lead.

Two other players cracked the overall top ten in chip counts from yesterday's Day 1g including Damien Wain (9,598,738) and Conor Beresford (8,933,173).

Day 1e witnessed three players reach the top ten on the leaderboard including Abdullah Gonulcan (9,375,163), Jorge Abreu (9,258,930), and Paulius Vaitiekunas (9,083,206).

Also near the top of the leaderboard to start Day 2 were Day 1d chip leader Aleksandr Shepel (9,973,191), Day 1c chip leader Andre Marques (9,884,986), and Day 1f chip leader Foad Larki (9,376,859).

WPT500 Knockout Top Ten Leaderboard

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