Jasper Meijer van Putten Leads 92 Day 1c Survivors
It took about 7,5 hours for Day 1c of the €1,100 EPT National at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague, held in the beautiful Hilton Prague, to go from a total of 615 entries to just 92 survivors. Jasper Meijer van Putten leads the field with a stack of 956,000 after winning a big three-way all-in right before the end of the day. Meijer van Putten has experienced glory before in Prague. In 2016 he managed to take down the €5,300 EPT Prague Main Event for €699,300. Meijer van Putten is in an excellent position to have another great score in the Czech capital.
The day started at 7 p.m. local time with already over 300 players registered for the final starting flight of the €1,100 EPT National. The total number of entries rose to 615 at the end of the late registration level which meant that 92 players would make the money and Day 2 of the tournament through the turbo Day 1c. Day 1a attracted 671 players and Day 1b added another 1,200 to that. The total field size is an incredible 2,486 entries. Last year’s tournament attracted 2,117 players and this year’s event smashes that number.
A couple of the players that gave it a shot in the final flight of the €1,100 EPT National, but didn’t make it through to Day 2 include Matas Cimbolas, Uri Reichenstein, Eyal Bensimhon, Michal Mrakes, and Ludovic Geilich. Team PokerStars Pro Maria Konnikova entered the tournament as well after she busted out of Day 1b. The New York Times best-selling author also didn’t manage to make Day 2 through the turbo route.
PokerStars Team Online member Jamie Staples also didn’t make it through to Day 2, despite playing a stack of over 300,000 when they were only three eliminations away from making Day 2. Disaster struck for the young Canadian as he battled it out in a huge three-way all-in against and Meijer van Putten. The first player was all-in for 94,000 and Meijer van Putten had called. Staples moved all in himself when it was on him for over 300,000 and Meijer van Putten called quickly saying: "I have it". Meijer van Putten showed pocket aces and Staples looked defeated as he turned over ace-king. Player A had pocket tens and the dealer went on to deal the flop. The board fell eight-queen-six-jack-queen an Meijer van Putten held on to the best hand.
Jan-Eric Schwippert ended the day with 666,000 after being responsible for bursting the bubble. He was using his already big stack to apply pressure on his opponents. Zoltan Szabo took Schwippert up on the challenge as he called for his tournament life with king-jack. Schwippert had ten-seven and the jack-nine-nine flop was relatively safe for Szabo. Schwippert needed an eight to make a straight or running cards to make a full house. The river was an ace and Schwippert was only drawing to an eight to make a straight and the river was an eight to end Day 1c with a bang.
Other players with big stacks include Walter Treccarichi (482,000), Preben Stokkan (463,000), Anders Bisgaard (366,000), and Jans Arends (243,000). Sergio Fernandez (152,000) and Marcel Goldenbelt (125,000) both also bagged up at the end of Day 1c but they have a little bit less to work with.
The tournament restarts on Monday, December 10, at 12 p.m. local time. PokerNews will be present to bring live coverage from start to finish. The seat draw will be posted tomorrow.