At noon, Day 2 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Main Event gets back underway. With 371 players turning up for Day 1a and 785 entries on Day 1b, a total of 1,156 entries have been made into the year's last EPT stop on the starting days.
127 survived Day 1a, 288 survived Day 1b, and at least three new players registered right before the start of Day 2, so a minimum of 418 players return to action today.
Day 1a chipleader John Sarailis from Greece starts out with the biggest stack of them all, 297,400 in chips. He's only slightly ahead of Day 1b's chipleader Armin Mette from Austria who'll bring 280,000 to the table when play gets back underway.
Five 90-minute levels are scheduled for the day, with a 20-minute break after each level. That makes for the following blind structure:
We got there on the river, but Bryan Paris told us the details afterward.
Paris opened from middle position for 3,500 and John Mooney called in the hijack. Paris bet 4,000 on the flop and Mooney called in position before the on the turn was checked through.
The hit the river and Paris bet 25,000, the vast majority of his chips. Mooney shoved all in and Paris called right away.
John Mooney showed for the full house, but that turned out not to be the winner as Paris tabled !
Mooney, kind of shellshocked, took a picture of the board and so did Paris. Mooney then got up from the table and headed for the exit before the players at the table called him back as he still had 15,000 left to play with.
With 1,174 entries (893 unique players and 281 reentries), the total prize pool has come to €5,693,900 ($6,427,432) here at the PokerStars EPT Prague. €1,020,000 ($1,151,404) of that is reserved for the winner who'll be crowned on Tuesday. The runner-up is set to receive €600,810, so a heads-up match for €419,190 is in the books unless the players reach a deal. A total of 175 spots are paid with a min-cash being worth €8,710 ($9,832).
Last time the EPT Prague was held, back in 2016, Jasper Meijer van Putten beat a field of 1,192 players to take home €699,300, the biggest share from a total prize pool of €5,781,200. That event, though, was a freeze-out with no reentries allowed.
In 2017, when this event ran as part of the now defunct PokerStars Championship tour, the event attracted 855 players with Kalidou Sow coming out on top to take home €675,000 from the €4,146,750 prize pool.
Here's the full payout for the 2018 PokerStars EPT Prague Main Event:
Evangelos Bechrakis opened the action with a raise to 4,500 from middle position. It folded to Muskan Sethi in the small blind who committed her last 37,000 by shoving all in. The big blind folded and Bechrakis, though not overly excited, called right away.
Muskan Sethi:
Evangelos Bechrakis:
The flop brought pairing Bechrakis twice. The on the turn brought Sethi some fresh outs but the on the river wasn't one of the cards she was looking for.
With Muskan Sethi eliminated not too long ago, Fatima Moreira de Melo was Team PokerStars Pro's last hope. Well, those hopes are now squashed as she too has hit the rail.
Moreira de Melo told us how she opened the hijack to 4,500 holding . The player in the cutoff three-bet to 15,500 and the button and both blinds gave up. Moreira de Melo shoved for around 60,000 or so and the cutoff called.
The cutoff showed and hit a queen right on the flop. Moreira de Melo received no help on the turn or river and packed her things and made her exit.
Natalie Teh raised to 6,500 from under the gun and Michal Schuh three-bet to 20,000 from the hijack. Action folded back to Teh who four-bet to 70,000 and Schuh called.
The flop came , Teh continued with a bet of 50,000 and Schuh called again.
The turn was the , Teh now checked and Schuh bet 75,000. Teh tanked for about three minutes before making the call.
The river completed the board with the , Teh shoved for her last 66,000 and Schuh snap-called. Teh tabled for the rivered set of queens which maddened Schuh so much that he crumpled his cards up. The dealer retrieved the cards which were and the floor was called over for a new deck. Schuh received a one-round penalty for his action.
Now, on the stone bubble of the Main Event, the two clashed again. This time, though, everything would be on the line for Veksler.
Veksler opened the cutoff for 9,000 and his neighbor Wozniak called. The flop of was still a somewhat reasonable affair as Veksler bet 15,000 and Wozniak just called.
The on the turn was checked by both and Veksler, with about 150,000 or so behind according to one of his tablemates after the hand, checked the river. Wozniak now shoved all in for about 2.5 times the size of the pot.
As the dealer forgot to put the all-in button out, part of the audience wasn't too sure what was going on but for the players involved, it was very clear what was at stake.
Veksler tanked for quite some time and eventually called.
Wozniak showed for the nut flush on the paired board. Veksler mucked but was eventually asked to show and tabled .
Down to 175 players now, all guaranteed €8,710. With the tournament now in the money, 30-second shot clocks are now in place with players having all received two time bank cards.
EPT Kopenhagen winner Anton Wigg has been near the chiplead all day and just added some more to his already impressive stack.
He opened the hijack for 9,000 and Krasimir Yankov called from the button. Wigg checked on and Yankov bet 10,000. Wigg check-raised to 42,000 and Yankov called.
Wigg bet 68,000 on the turn and Yankov called once more.
They both checked the river and Wigg tabled for the winning hand as Yankov mucked.
La Malaisienne Natalie Teh s'est installée en tête du Main Event PokerStars EPT Prague 2018 à 5300€ l'entrée à l'issue d'un Jour 2 de 5 niveaux de 90 minutes qui a vu les 175 derniers rescapés atteindre l'argent.
137 survivants seront sur la ligne de départ du Jour 3, samedi à partir de midi. Outre les 5 Français éliminés dans l'argent, le tournoi a aussi perdu Ognyan Dimov (146e), Yiannis Liperis (149e), Joao Vieira (150e), Marton Czuczor (162e); Salvatore Bonavena (168e), Andrey Zaichenko (174e) et Morten Klein (175e).
Natalie Teh est en lice pour le million du premier prix mais pas pour le Platinum Pass qui va avec puisqu'elle a remporté son package à 30.000$ en gagnant le quiz “Next Great Poker Brain” organisé par les Team Pro PokerStars Igor Kurganov et Liv Boeree. La malaisienne est devenue joueuse professionnelle en début d'année 2018... elle a cumulé 15 places payées sur le circuit depuis.
5⃣ Français ont sauté de l'#EPTPrague In The Money et ne seront pas au Jour 3. 1⃣0⃣ rêvent encore du million ##… https://t.co/Buo4YudvNb
— Poker News France (@PokerNewsFrance)
La joueuse a gagné un énorme pot en faisant brelan rivière avec les dans un coup contre Michal Schuh qui détenait . Il y a embouteillage en haut du classement puisque Parker Talbot (773,500) n'est pas très loin.
Le Grec Evangelos Bechrakis a lui emballé 730,000 après avoir pris la 3e place du HR 2200€ EPT National Prague il y a quelques jours pour 144 900€. Anton Wigg (708,500) et Arthur Conan sont les seuls joueurs à avoir franchi cette barrière des 700 000 jetons.
Le Jour 2 avait débuté avec 440 joueurs puisque 25 participants se sont inscrits entre la fin du Jour 1B et la première donne de vendredi. L'affluence finale de 1174 entrants (dont 281 re-entries) a généré un prizepool de 4,1 millions d'euros et un premier prix de 1 020 000€.
Les joueurs dans l'argent ont encaissé au moins 8710€ et l’écrémage a été intense en début de journée. 90 joueurs ont sauté durant les 90 premières minutes de jeu ! Ryan Riess, Kenny Hallaert, Ari Engel, Joao Barbosa, Max Silver, Daniel Dvoress, Antoine Labat ou encore l'Australien Michael Addamo n'ont pas tenu la distance.
Le tenant du titre Kalidou Sow s'est fait sortir après la première pause tout comme Niall Farrell, Sam Greenwood, Pavel Plesuv, Julian Thomas, Tom Hall, Bryan Paris, Thomas Boivin, Steven van Zadelhoff, Andras Nemeth, Florian Duta, Kacper Pyzara, Michal Mrakes, Andy Black, Marc-Andre Ladouceur et Jan Bendik[/b].
Pas de place payée non plus pour les Français Adrien Delmas et Guillaume Diaz, Olivier Ferrero, Sonny Franco, Nathan Gozlan, Antonin Teisseire, Victor Choupeaux, Antoine Labat, Corentin Ropert, Jimmy Kébé, Pierre Morin, Nicolas Dumont et Johan Guilbert
Short en début de Jour 2, Muskan Sethi et Fatima Moreira De Melo ont aussi rendu les armes avant le min-cash. La bulle s'est étalée sur 40 minutes, Mateusz Wozniak doublant d'abord sur Pavel Veksler en faisant carré (avec la meilleure main de départ, ndlr). Quelques mains plus tard, ce même Wozniak faisait sauter de joie les survivants en se chargeant de Veksler avec couleur contre deux paires dans un pot disputé post-flop.
Il restait alors une heure de jeu et près de 40 joueurs ont sauté. Les 137 survivants reviendront sur les blindes 2500 - 5000 (5000) pour tenter de se rapprocher du million. L'action sera à suivre sur PokerNews... Rabah Ait Abdelmalek (190 000), Ugo Faggioli (460 000), Souhayl Fjer (102 000), Maxime Chilaud (66 000), Eric Géraume (345 000), Sylvain Loosli, Christophe Larquemin, Pierre Chiarelli, Marius Conan et Fred Delval comptent bien aller le plus loin possible !