EPT Kiev: Local Boys Lead After Day 1A

Two Ukrainian players, Mihaylo Demidenko and Oleksandr Ziv, are on top of the chip count leaderboard after Day 1A of the PokerStars EPT Kiev.

The first leg of the PokerStars European Poker Tour season six kicked off at the Kyiv Sports Palace in the Ukrainian capital. Day 1A of the event attracted a total of 129 players and after the first day of play, 93 remain.

Despite the initial turmoil of having to move venues from Moscow to Kiev, the
organizers of EPT Kiev are confident that at the end of registration in
day 1B, this tournament will eclipse the Russian Poker Tour Event
earlier this year to become the largest poker tournament ever held in
the former Soviet Republics.

Mihaylo Demidenko Leads The Way

33 PokerStars qualifiers played in Day 1A alongside John Cernuto,
Nikolay Evdakov and Team PokerStars pros Luca Pagano and Alex
Kravchenko (pictured right). Pagano was the highest profile elimination of the day while Kravchenko ended the day with 46,550 chips. Cernuto and Evdakov ended with 51,500 and 43,875 chips respectively.

At the end of day, the chip leaderboard was dominated by Ukrainian and Russian players who made up 7 of the top 10. Mihaylo Demidenko leads the 93 strong field into Day 2 with 145,125 chips, he holds almost 50% more chips than second placed fellow Ukrainian Oleksandr Ziv who has 98,275 chips.

The crucial hand for Demidenko came late in the day against Ziv. With on the board, Demidenko check-raised to 20,000 after Ziv's 10,000 bet. Ziv called the raise but both players decided to slow down and check the turn and river .

Ziv showed 9-9 for a flopped set, but he was outdone by Demidenko who made a better set on the turn with K-K. After the hand, Demidenko was up to 150,000, putting him firmly in the chip lead.

The top 10 chip stacks after Day 1A are:

EPT Kiev Day 1A Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Mihaylo Demidenko	145,125
2nd	Oleksandr Ziv	98,275
3rd	Yevgeniy Zaitsev	97,750
4th	Alexander Dovzhenko	97,150
5th	Jeffrey Sarwer	91,225
6th	David Aslanyan	88,325
7th	Alem Shah	85,675
8th	Volodymyr Pilyavskyy	84,025
9th	Umberto Vitagliano	82,625
10th	Michael Naletov	81,550