Who Will Make the Final Six of the EPT Main Event Here in Prague?
The penultimate day of the €5,300 EPT Main Event is here and set to start at noon local time. Paul Michaelis will be sitting down as the chip leader here in the Hilton Prague with 5,315,000 chips. Sixteen players will return today to contest each other to make it to the final six left for the final day and the amazing first-place prize of €1,020,000.
Michaelis has already surpassed his biggest EPT cash ever, which took place in 2015 when he finished in 3rd place here in Prague in the €1,100 Hyper-Turbo for €25,365, as everyone is guaranteed at least €44,920. But knowing Michaelis, he won’t be satisfied with that, he will have his eyes set on that final table and adding another title to his achievements.
Trailing Michaelis in the chip counts is high stakes cash games player Liviu Ignat with 4,550,000 which equals 114 big blinds. Ignat seems to only play EPTs when playing live tournaments as he has collected twelve cashes in total, all on the EPT circuit. Ignat’s biggest cash took place during the EPT in Malta in 2016 when he finished in 6th place in the €10,300 High Roller for €78,220.
Closing out the top three at the start of the day is Argentina’s Diego Zeiter. Zeiter will open a bag at noon containing 3,905,000 and is seated at the same table as Michaelis and Ignat. Also included on the table is the only former EPT champion left, Andrey Pateychuk. Table #2 also features Day 3 chip leader Konstantin Farber, Twitch phenomenon Parker Talbot, EPT Prague Cup winner from earlier this week Sergei Bagirov, and Evangelos Bechrakis who finished in 3rd place in the €2,200 National High Roller for €144,900 almost a week ago.
In comparison, Table #1 contains around 37% of the total amount of chips in play which could possibly cause for some friction, one way or the other. The 16 remaining players will return to finish the last five minutes of Level 25 which features a small blind of 20,000, big blind of 40,000, and a big blind ante of 40,000. They will then immediately continue with Level 26 with a small blind of 25,000, big blind of 50,000, and a big blind ante of 50,000. A 20-minute break will take place after every 90-minute level and play is expected to continue until there are six players left but this is subject to change.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here, as usual, to bring you all the action from the floor!
Day 5 Seat Draw:
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Artem Kobylynskiy | Ukraine | 1,005,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 2 | Ivan Zhechev | Bulgaria | 1,235,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 3 | Serhii Holodiuk | Ukraine | 1,545,000 | 39 |
| 1 | 4 | Carlos Branco | Portugal | 990,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 5 | Fionn MacNamara | United Kingdom | 1,790,000 | 45 |
| 1 | 6 | Ugo Faggioli | France | 3,500,000 | 88 |
| 1 | 7 | Alexandr Merzhvinskii | Russia | 1,365,000 | 34 |
| 1 | 8 | Laurynas Levinskas | Lithuania | 1,900,000 | 48 |
| 2 | 1 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russia | 705,000 | 18 |
| 2 | 2 | Liviu Ignat | Romania | 4,550,000 | 114 |
| 2 | 3 | Diego Zeiter | Argentina | 3,905,000 | 98 |
| 2 | 4 | Konstantin Farber | Germany | 1,700,000 | 43 |
| 2 | 5 | Paul Michaelis | Germany | 5,315,000 | 133 |
| 2 | 6 | Parker Talbot | Canada | 3,250,000 | 81 |
| 2 | 7 | Sergei Bagirov | Russia | 810,000 | 20 |
| 2 | 8 | Evangelos Bechrakis | Greece | 2,170,000 | 54 |
, Merzhvinskii checked and Levinskas continued with a bet of 90,000. Merzhvinskii shoved for 1,025,000 in total and Levinskas snap-called.
on the turn and the 
on the river for Merzhvinskii to improve to trip jacks to double up.
and was flipping against 
. Parker Talbot joked that he folded an eight but one appeared right away on the 
turn gave Michaelis a boat and the 
and Zeiter 
. 
, so Zeiter busted Farber with trip queens.
flop. MacNamara bet 275,000 and Merzhvinskii called to see the 
turn. That got checked through to a 
river. MacNamara needed a time bank to figure out his next move, and just as time was about to expire, he announced all in. Merzhvinskii quickly dropped in a chip to call.
, both Kobylynskyi and Holodiuk checked. Michaelis bet 80,000, Kobylynskyi called, and Holodiuk contemplated for a bit. After a bit, Holodiuk shoved for 850,000 in total and only Kobylynskyi snap-called.
for Holodiuk to be eliminated just after the break.
