The 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour €1,100 National attracted a bumper field of 2,486 players, eclipsing the mark of 2,117 from the same time last year.
Heading into Day 2, that number has been whittled down to just 373, all of whom are in the money. The exact payouts are yet to be confirmed, but rest assured that PokerNews will bring them to you as soon as they are made available to us.
As is to be expected in such a big field at such a major poker festival, there are some big names in the field, including Day 1c chip leader Jasper Meijer Van Putten who starts today second in chips. Van Putten won the last EPT Main Event to be held in Prague back in 2016 for €699,300.
The overall chip leader is Harpreet Padda who topped Day 1b. Here are the top three chip counts from each flight.
Flight
Name
Country
Chip Count
Day 1a
Narcis-Gabriel Nedelcu
Romania
954,500
Danilo Velasevic
Serbia
745,000
Olgun Ercan
Turkey
598,000
Day 1b
Harpreet Padda
Canada
994,500
Florian Duta
Romania
887,000
Terje Alvseike
Norway
775,000
Day 1c
Jasper Meijer Van Putten
Netherlands
956,000
Per Wikstrom
Sweden
840,000
Jan-Eric Schwippert
Germany
666,000
Other big names still in contention include Czech bracelet winners Martin Kabrhel (651,000) and Lukas Zaskodny (443,000), along with fellow Czech pros Vojtech Ruzicka (396,000) and Martin Staszko (139,000).
Martin Kabrhel
There is plenty of international interest, with Jan Schwippert (666,000), Arthur Conan (580,000), Walter Treccarichi (482,000), Jean-Noel Thorel (487,000), Alexandre Reard (450,000), Sofia Lovgren (392,000), former EPT Main Event champion Sebastian Malec (381,000), Bryan Paris (304,000), William Kassouf (272,000), Antoine Labat (271,000), Martin Finger (251,000), Charlie Carrel (235,000), Ari Engel (215,500), Giuliano Bendinelli (196,500), Harry Lodge (195,500), Parker Talbot (108,000), Ivo Donev (82,000), Dimitar Danchev (69,500) and Gaelle Baumann (20,500) all having locked up a Czech flag already and are looking for more.
The action will be fast-paced when it gets underway at midday local time, so stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action here at the Hilton Prague.
With 373 players left in the EPT Prague National, there are five players who have already won Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship in the Bahamas.
They include EPT Barcelona Main Event champion Piotr Nurzynski, and Ali Grasu who won his in a Crazy Pineapple Hand Challenge at Barcelona.
Also still in is Mihai Manole, who became the first ever winner of a Platinum Pass in Prague after bubbling the Main Event in 2017.
Jasper Meijer van Putten and Bryan Paris were heads-up on the flop. There was already about 60,000 in the middle when Meijer van Putten put in a bet of 20,000 after Paris had checked to him. Paris opted to raise to 52,000 and Meijer van Putten called.
The turn was the and Paris checked to the 2016 EPT Prague Main Event champion again. This time he put in a bet of 90,000 and Paris thought about it. He eventually let go of his hand and Meijer van Putten showed .
''I thought that was a good board for me'' said Paris to Meijer van Putten and the whole table started laughing.
Jasper Meijer van Putten and Charlie Carrel just played two hands against each other and Meijer van Putten got on top at the end.
In the first hand, Meijer van Putten opened from the hijack to 40,000 and Carrel three-bet from the button to 105,000. Both players in the blinds folded and so did Meijer van Putten and the first pot the two played went to Carrel.
In the next hand, Meijer van Putten opened to 40,000 again, but this time from middle position. Carrel did exactly the same thing as the hand before when he three-bet to 105,000 from the cutoff. This time Meijer van Putten moved all in when it folded to him and Carrel didn't even need a count when he called.
Carrel had the better hand with and Meijer van Putten had to come from behind with . Mike Tokatlyan said to Meijer van Putten: ''Don't worry, you might hit your seven'' and Meijer van Putten went on to do exactly that.
The board was dealt and Meijer van Putten doubled up through Carrel.
Today there were 373 players at the start of the day, and with around half a level left until the 75-minute dinner break the tournament staff have broken a table and we are down to the last ten tables with 80 players left playing for the €382,750 first prize.
A player raised from early position and got calls from Iliya Iliev before Adrian Constantin three-bet to 425,000 from the big blind. Both players called and the flop came .
Constantin then moved all in for 1,300,000. The initial raiser folded and Iliev called.
Adrian Constantin:
Iliya Ilev:
Constantin had made a move at the wrong time to run into the top pair of Iliev. The turn and river didn't help Constantin and he was eliminated.
Charlie Carrel raised to 100,000 from under the gun and Nikita Staroverov defended his big blind.
The flop came .
"Did you see my hand?" Carrel suddenly asked.
Staroverov appeared surprised.
"Now I don't know if you are f*cking with me or not!" said Carrel. Staroverov checked and Carrel bet 100,000. "Did you see the ten?" Carrel said with a grin.
Staroverov called and the turn was the . This time Staroverov check-folded.
Le PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague 2018 bat son plein au casino Hilton depuis le week-end dernier. Premier temps fort du festival,l'EPT National à 1100€ a souri aux Français, 31 d'entres eux se sont glissés dans les 373 places payées avant de partir à l'assaut du Jour 2 de lundi.
Alors que le Jour 3 se profile mardi, ils sont encore deux à viser les 382,750€ réservés au vainqueur. Présent aux avant-postes toute la journée de lundi, Jean-Noël Thorel a terminé la journée dans le Top 3. Avec 5,9 millions de jetons, il est à la poursuite du Norvégien Preben Stokkan (7,7 millions) et du Bulgare Iliya Iliev (8,8 millions) qui était déjà en tête à l'issue des trois journées de départ qui ont généré un field de 2486 entrants et un prizepool de plus de 2,4 millions.
Ut Tam Vo
Moins connu, Ut Tam Vo (en photo) a réalisé quelques résultats dans le Sud de la France et tient sa première opportunité à l'international. Assuré d'un gain de 8,930€ comme les 30 survivants du tournoi, le tricolore va doubler ses résultats en carrière et peut rêver d'un gros coup avec 2,5 millions de jetons soit la moyenne et une 11e place au classement provisoire.
L'Américain Bryan Paris (2 millions), l'Italien Walter Treccarichi (1,5 millions) ou le Roumain Florian Duta (945 000) comptent bien jouer les trouble-fêtes à partir de midi pour cette avant dernière journée de compétition. La partie reprendra avec 53 minutes à jouer dans le niveau 30,000-60,000 (big blind ante 60,000) et PokerNews sera au plus près de l'action.
Finalement 32e (pour 7,560€), Laurence Fleury a elle raté le Jour 3 d'un rien alors qu'Arthur Conan, Ivan Deyra, Thierry Delpui et Alexandre Reard se sont glissés dans le Top 100 du tournoi. Kimmo Kurko, Atanas Kavrakov, Scott Margereson et le vainqueur de l'EPT Prague 2016 Jasper Meijer Van Putten ont aussi cru pouvoir s'offrir une grosse performance. Ils devront tous se concentrer sur les prochains tournois et notamment le High Roller EPT National à 2200€ qui débute mardi.
On to day 3 with 2.06m at 30k/60k. 31 remain, 382k first! Resumes tomorrow
— Bryan Paris (@bparispoker)
Victor Choupeaux, Giuliano Bendinelli, Jonathan Roy, Ricardo Graells, Ari Engel, Parker Talbot ou encore Gaëlle Baumann devraient en être après avoir ajouté une ligne à leur palmarès aussi sur cet EPT National...
Out 45ème. In sur un beau 2K demain !
— ValueMerguez (@ValueMerguez)
*Place
Prix (EUR)
1er
€382,750
2e
€204,200
3e
€138,400
4e
€106,600
5e
€89,000
6e
€71,800
7e
€54,800
8e
€39,700
Classement (sélection)
31 Aleksander Boski €8,930
32 Laurence Fleury FR €7,560
45 Ivan Deyra fr €6,210
49 Arthur Conan fr €6,210
53 Kimmo Kurko fi €6,210
55 Atanas Kavrakov bg €6,210
61 Scott Margereson gb €4,880
67 Thierry Delpui €4,880
68 Jasper Meijer Van Putten nl €4,880
69 Harry Lodge gb €4,880
77 Alexandre Reard fr €4,090
78 Mihai Manole ro €4,090
85 Jan-Eric Schwippert de €4,090
93 Martin Finger de €4,090
105 Christophe Devaux €3,480
111 Fouad Zouiten €3,480
114 Alain Patry FR €3,480
115 Sofia Lovgren se €3,480
123 William Kassouf gb €2,900
134 Sebastian Malec pl €2,900
160 Jacques Torbey €2,570
167 Vojtech Ruzicka cz €2,570
168 Jimmy Lefebvre FR €2,570
173 Dimitar Danchev bg €2,570
174 Pascal Sven Baumgartner €2,570
175 Martin Kabrhel cz €2,570
179 Dalle Joseph FR €2,570
184 Benjamin Chalot fr €2,300
185 Saar Wilf il €2,300
190 Matti Konttinen €2,300
200 Gael Dirig FR €2,300
211 Alexandre Viard fr €2,300
214 Parker Talbot ca €2,300
215 Krasimir Yankov bg €2,300
216 Mykhailo Gutyi ua €2,300
217 Gaelle Baumann fr €2,300
231 Jeremy Davenne FR €2,040
232 Ari Engel ca €2,040
249 Marcin Wydrowski pl €2,040
254 Mehdi Violleau FR €2,040
258 Palot Samuel FR €2,040
268 Giuliano Bendinelli it €1,820
292 Pierrick Burban fr €1,820
306 Ricardo Graells ch €1,820
309 Meddi Ferrah fr €1,820
311 Guillaume Marcellesi FR €1,820
321 Victor Choupeaux fr €1,820
323 Antoine Labat fr €1,820
328 Gauthier Brugnooge FR €1,720
331 Fournier Eric €1,720
339 Boubekeur Benhalima €1,720
340 Jean-Patrick Delorme FR €1,720
341 Simone Speranza IT €1,720
353 Jakub Michalak pl €1,720
356 Sylvain Gonon €1,720
357 Jonathan Roy ca €1,720
367 Philippe Jousseaume €1,720
373 Marcus Krzymyk DE €1,720