Mustafa Simsek WPT Cyprus

The World Poker Tour (WPT) $3,500 buy-in, $2 million GTD WPT Cyprus Championship continued on Thursday with the second of three starting flights. Day 1b attracted 173 runners, which, along with Day 1a’s 283, brought the current field up to 456 entries with one more starting flight to go.

Right now, the prize pool stands at $1,413,000, which is short of the $2 million guarantee. However, with Day 1c expected to be the biggest flight yet, expectations are high that it’ll cruise by that mark.

After eight one-hour levels of play, 78 players bagged with Mustafa Simsek – who, back in March, finished as the Day 1a bubble boy in the WPT Prime Cyprus – and his stack of 385,000 led the way. That is slightly ahead of Day 1a chip leader Alexsandr Pak, who bagged 379,000.

Simsek, who hails from Turkey, is well-positioned to avoid becoming a WPT Bubble Boy for a second time, though he’ll have to wait until Saturday’s Day 2 to see how things play out as the field is still far from the money.

Top 10 Day 1b Chip Counts

PlayerChips Mustafa Simsek385,000 Ersin Kadir309,500 Kurt Sahin308,000 Timothy Thorp288,000 Murat Kara270,000 Rafal Chmura253,000 Anton Herman237,000 Nicolae Jalba235,000 George Skarpis218,000 Lavrentiy Ni195,500

Others to punch their ticket to Day 2 were Matthew Davenport (168,000), 2019 WSOP Main Event champ Hossein Ensan (140,000), Ray Qartomy (98,000), Dinesh Alt (71,500), Tudor Purice (61,500), and Chadi Saba (49,500).

For Davenport, he scored an elimination in the last level of the night. With the blinds at 600/1,200/1,200, the WPT Live Reporting Team saw Rafael Wadl move all in for 40,000 from the small blind on a board of J♣7♥2♦3♠9♠ and about 50,000 in the middle.

Davenport snap-called with the J♠9♥ for a rivered two pair, which was good as Wadl’s A♠J♥ had been outdrawn to send him to the rail.

Matthew Davenport

Matthew Davenport

Of course, not everyone made it through. Among those to fall on Day 1b were Will Kassouf, WPT Global Ambassador Patrick Tardif, Junxian Du, Guo Liang Wei, Cameron Williamson, Nuri Kural, and Stefan Fabian. The good news is all of those players can try again in Friday’s Day 1c flight if they so choose.

The WPT Cyprus Championship, which runs through August 18, is the keystone event on the schedule for the $5 Million GTD Festival at the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Casino. Here’s a look at the remaining schedule:

2025 WPT Cyprus Remaining Schedule

*DateTimeEventGTDDetails*  Fri 15 Aug12:00 pm$3,200 + 300 No Limit Hold’em – WPT Championship Day 1C$2,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool50k stack, 60 min clock, 10 LVLS late reg  Fri 15 Aug4:00 pm$1,000 + 100 No Limit Hold’em – Bounty ITM$100,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool20k stack, 20 min clock, 8 LVLS late reg  Fri 15 Aug11.59 pm$750 + 75 No Limit Hold’em – Speed Up$50,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool20k stack, 10 min clock, 8 LVLS late reg  Sat 16 Aug12:00 pm$3,200 + 300 WPT Championship Day 2$2,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool60 min clock  Sat 16 – Mon 18 Aug5:00 pm$1,000 + 100 No Limit Hold’em – Mystery Bounty Event$100,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool20k stack, 20 min clock, 8 LVLS late reg  Sat 16 Aug11:00 pm$1,000 + 100 Satellite to Chamada Super High Roller5 seats GTD15k stack, 15 min clock, 6 LVLS late reg  Sun 17 Aug12:00 pmWPT Championship Day 3$2,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool60 min clock  Sun 17 – Mon 18 Aug3:00 pm$7,500 + 500 No Limit Hold’em – Chamada Super High Roller$300,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool100k stack, 30 min clock, 10 LVLS late reg  Sun 17 Aug8.00 pm$2,000 + 200 No Limit Hold’em – Last Chance$150,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool30k stack, 30 min clock, 8 LVLS late reg  Mon 18 Aug12:00 pmWPT Championship Final Table$2,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool60 min clock  Mon 18 Aug3.00 pm$7,500 + 500 Chamada Super High Roller Final Day$300,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool30 min clock  Mon 18 Aug5:00 pm$1,000 + 100 Mystery Final Table Only$75,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool20k stack, 20 min clock, 8 LVLS late reg 

Day 1c will get underway at Noon local time on Friday. Late registrations will remain open until after the first break (~2:15 p.m. local time) on Saturday’s Day 2. Players will start with 50,000 stack, playing 60-minute levels. PokerNews is on-site to offer content, social media, and interviews, so be sure to check back frequently for all the latest from the WPT Cyprus!

Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Chad Holloway

Chad Holloway

PR & Media Manager

PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.