Alex Kulev Tops Day 1b as 19 Advance in Onyx Premiere
The $10,400 flight drew 125 entries at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, and Bogdan Jontulovic bubbled after ace-king ran into kings.
Alex Kulev took the lead in the Onyx High Roller Series $10,400 Premiere’s second starting flight, bagging 1,840,000 at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. The Day 1b field played down to 19 survivors, and every one of them locked up a payday and a seat in Day 2.
PokerNews reported that Day 1b drew 125 entries and kept going until the tournament hit the stone bubble. Bogdan Jontulovic became the bubble boy after moving all in for 180,000 with ace-king and running into Lars Kamphues’s pocket kings, which left Jontulovic unimproved on the board and sent the last 19 players through with cash already secured.
Kulev’s stack put him well clear of the pack, with Tommy G next at 1,680,000. Daniel Montagnolli and Ali Al-Kubasi shared the next spot on 990,000 each, while Oliver Weis finished on 870,000 and Sergio Aido on 655,000.
The rest of the notables who advanced included Aliaksandr Shylko with 510,000, Manuel Fritz with 335,000, Geoffrey Mooney with 285,000, Dietrich Fast with 240,000 and Selahaddin Bedir with 215,000. Fast also had one of the key bubble-period swings, surviving all in with a full house after Sergio Aido called him with nines.
The day was not short on rail casualties either. The report listed Ravid Garbi, Jamil Wakil and Daniel Rezaei among the players who missed out, and it noted that play paused at the stone bubble before the final elimination settled the flight.
This was the second starting flight of the event after Day 1a drew 178 entries and produced 27 Day 2 qualifiers after 16 levels. Sorel Mizzi led that opening flight with 1,720,000, while Timur Margolin and Artur Martirosian also finished among the biggest stacks.
The event is a $10,400 buy-in with a $5 million guaranteed prize pool. Players started with 100,000 chips, the opening flights used 40-minute levels, late registration stayed open until the start of Level 10 after the dinner break, and unlimited reentries are allowed across the starting flights.
Kulev also entered the day with strong recent form. He was nearing $7 million in 2026 earnings and had already collected more than $3.25 million for winning the inaugural EPT €250,000 Super High Roller in Monte-Carlo.
Two starting flights remain on the schedule. Day 1c gets underway Sunday at 1 p.m. local time, and Day 1d follows at 9 p.m. with 20-minute levels.
