Paradise Pros have the edge, but qualifiers still running hot

The Paradise pros have been bamboozling their opponents of late, but our online qualifiers are not far behind in the chip count as we enter Day One’s final straight.

Luis “Repicas” Rufas (pictured) continues to show his quality on poker’s biggest stage here in the Rio, as the Paradise professional has swelled his chips to over 60,000.

After stacking one opponent with a set of fives, Rufas has proved himself a master of the big stack, applying relentless pre-flop pressure and dominating the table.

“I have a lot of chips now so I can raise a lot and bluff a little too,” he smiled, “I’ve been the most aggressive player at the table for sure.

“I have to take advantage of having the chip lead and that means I need to raise a lot. I’m being careful with three-betting pre-flop though, as the short stacks are going to have to go all-in.”

Swedish card shark “Dusty Rat” meanwhile is confident he has his table well and truly confused, with some players accusing him of playing every hand – and others convinced he always has the nuts!

“I started playing almost every hand and the guys on the table started getting very upset, so they began raising me – but I flopped three sets in a row!” he explained.

“That was great timing but it was cancelled out by another hand when I got involved in a raised pot with 6-6, hit a set on the river only to find my opponent had slow-played a set of Queens on the flop.

“After that I’ve had to slow down because my stack isn’t that big anymore. I’m down to about 28,500 from around 60,000.”

Sitting on a 51,000 tower is Didier Erb (pictured), who made a big call with 10s despite an Ace on board to take down a sizeable pot, then culled some short stacks to further strengthen his case for a Day Two appearance.

German player Robert Heich – who is owed an apology for not appearing sooner on the Paradise blog – was feeling less happy with his luck however, having finished on the wrong side of a 50,000 coin flip with QQ vs AK.

Elsewhere in the Rio’s Pavilion room, Tom Garland, who had previously been cruising through the field, ran aground as he went card dead for two hours.

Even his attempts to manoeuvre some chips into the equation were met with stern pre-flop resistance, leaving him teetering on the edge of elimination with 15bbs.

Our Hungarian pair have struggled too, with Péter Csecsetka making his exit and Zsolt Cserhati being shorn of half his chips.