The first round of the PocketFives #1 Number One contest is complete and while all four #1 seeds had little trouble advancing to the second round, there were five first round upsets which could change the fates of a few of the former #1-ranked players.
Hearts Bracket
Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman advanced to the second round thanks to his first round bye. The higher ranked seed in each of the seven other first round matches in the Hearts bracket also advanced. Chad ‘M8kingmoves’ Batista, who passed away in 2015, defeated Matt ‘ch0ppy’ Kay. #2 seed ‘C Darwin2’ moved past Yevgeniy ‘Jovial Gent’ Timoshenko while Patrick ‘pleno1’ Leonard eliminated Lukas ‘lukethafluke’ Berglund to move onto the second round.
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Moorman versus Batista might be the highlighted second round match up, but the other three matches all include some of online poker’s brightest stars. ‘C Darwin2’ takes on Bert ‘girafganger7’ Stephens, Chris ‘Gettin Daize’ Oliver is up against Patrick ‘pleno1’ Leonard, and #4 seed ‘eisenhower1’ battles #5 seed ‘Legenden’.
Diamonds Bracket
The #1 seed in the Diamonds bracket, Nicolas ‘PokerKaiser’ Fierro made his way to the second round by defeating James ‘P0KERPR033’ Campbell. He led the top five seeds in the bracket in advancing before Annette ‘Annette_15’ Obrestad pulled off the first upset of the competition. Obrestad, ranked #11 in the bracket, defeated #6 seed Roman ‘Romeopro’ Romanovsky. The second upset in the bracket came via #9 seed Artem ‘veeea’ Vezhenkov securing a win over #8 seed Caio ‘pessagno’ Pessagno.
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Fierro now faces Vezhenkov in the second round that features some of the most beloved PocketFivers ever going head-to-head. Griffin ‘Flush_Entity’ Benger squares off against Shaun Deeb, who had a first round bye, #4 seed Calvin ‘cal42688’ Anderson faces #5 seed Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen, and Obrestad will look for another upset, this time against the current #1-ranked player in the world, Yuri ‘Yuri Martins’ Dzivielevski.
Clubs Bracket
Everything went according to the seeding for the first seven matchups in the Clubs brackets before one of the most popular PocketFivers ever pulled off a minor upset. #9 seed Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz sent Tim ‘Tmay420′ West out in the only upset of the bracket. Top seed Sebastian ‘p0cket00’ Sikorski defeated Mike ‘StrungOut1’ Wasserman, #2 seed Fabrizio ‘SixthSenSe19’ Gonzalez beat #15 seed Doc Sands, while Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy moved onto the next round via a bye.
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Sikorski may have an uphill battle in front of him in the second round as he goes toe-to-toe with Holz. Gonzalez takes on Josephy, Steve ‘gboro780′ Gross is matched up against Conor ‘1_conor_b_1’ Beresford, and #4 seed Andreas ‘r4ndomr4gs’ Berggren goes up against #5 seed Dan ‘djk123’ Kelly.
Spades Bracket
Just like the Diamonds bracket, the Spades bracket produced a pair of upsets in the first round, including the biggest of the five total upsets. Seeded #14, Paul ‘paulgees81’ Volpe defeated #3 seed ‘Sheater‘ and will now take on #6 seed Christopher ‘NigDawG’ Brammer in the second round. Brammer defeated #11 seed and current #9-ranked player in the world, Bruno ‘bbotteon’ Botteon to advance. The other first round upset came Jordan ‘Jymaster0011’ Young, the #9 seed, pushing past #8 seed Joao ‘joaosimaobh’ Simao.
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Along with Brammer taking on Volpe, the second round Spades matchups include Young going up against #1 seed ‘lena900’, and #2 seed Alex ‘AJKHoosier1’ Kamberis battling #7 seed Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth, and Ari ‘BodogAri’ Engel, who had a first round bye, matched up against Sami ‘LarsLuzak’ Kelopuro.
Five Players Tied for Bracket Contest Lead
Out of 129 total entries in the #1 Number bracket contest, five players emerged tied after the opening round scoring. They include Michael ‘Gags30’ Gagliano, Harley Stoffmaker, Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy, Jason ‘wackyjaxon’ Glatzer, and ‘Degger, each with 300 of a possible 360 points.
Players are fighting for their share of more than $2,000 in prizes from contest sponsors Run It Once training, Run Good Gear, D&B Poker, and Faded Spade playing cards.