€5,300 Main Event
Dia 1a Iniciado
€5,300 Main Event
Dia 1a Iniciado
Welcome back to Season 10 of the European Poker Tour. It’s been an incredible season thus far as Tom “hitthehole” Middleton and Robin Ylitalo won the EPT Barcelona and EPT London respectively, and today we’ll take the first step toward crowning a champion in Prague, which is the largest city in the Czech Republic.
This marks the seventh time the EPT has visited Prague, and it comes on the heels of the Eureka Prague Poker Festival. According to the PokerStars Blog, a record 171 tournament staff from numerous countries was brought in for the festival, which makes it the biggest ever team at a PokerStars live event (including the PCA)! EPT tournament directors Teresa Nousiainen and Thomas Lamatsch.
"I was lucky enough to work Season 1 of the EPT and it's amazing to see how much it's grown,” Nousiainen said. “In those days, we had around 300 players for the main event, and maybe just one side event a day. Now just a "normal" EPT Festival has at least 40 events and EPT Prague will have 47 - on some days, there will be up to ten events running at the same time - so we're going to be very very busy."
Indeed, the event has gotten so big that for the first time ever the tournament area has spilled out of the Hilton Prague’s Congress Hall into the attached lobby area. All told 90 poker tables, 200,000 poker chips, 10,000 player cards and 500m of electrical cabling will be used to bring the EPT Prague to life.
The EPT Prague has a rich history, which was recently highlighted in a special edition of Where Are They Now on PokerNews. Last year, the EPT9 Prague attracted 864 players and saw well-respected pro Ramzi Jelassi emerge victorious to capture the €835,000 first-place prize. Other winners include Arnaud Mattern (Season 4), Salvatore Bonavena (Season 5), Jan Skampa (Season 6), Roberto Romanello (Season 7), and Martin Finger (Season 8).
Dozens of notables are slated to play Day 1a including Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Ville Wahlbeck, Dario Minieri, Henrique Pinho, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and Mickey Petersen. In addition they will be joined by the likes of Daniel Laidlaw, Elio Fox, Simon Ravnsbaek, Ole Schemion, Steve O’Dwyer, and JC Alvarado, just to name a few.
Action will kick off at Noon local time, which is just a couple hours from now. Join us then as we bring you all the action from the floor of the Hilton Prague!
Nível: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
The EPT10 Prague Main Event is underway! Players are still filtering into Congress Hall, but it's already clear today is going to be jammed pack with action. We're headed down to the tournament floor to compile a list of notables. Stay tuned for those and any early action!
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Here, Jonny from Skrill talks about their popular Last Longer Competition that is being held at each stop on the EPT.
Excited to watch @RafaelNadal @ronaldo and @jksheva7 play poker together today at #EPTPrague. No cameras allowed though :(Follow @LauraMCornelius
The tournament room is filled up with some very familiar faces. During our first stroll through the tournament area we saw these gentlemen participating in their first orbit of hands:
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Jannick Wrang
|
30,000 | |
Ari Engel | 30,000 | |
Steven van Zadelhoff | 30,000 | |
Clyde Tjauw Foe | 30,000 | |
John Eames | 30,000 | |
Max Silver | 30,000 | |
Jonathan Little | 30,000 | |
Tobias Peters | 30,000 | |
Jeff Sarwer | 30,000 | |
Juha Helppi | 30,000 | |
Shannon Shorr | 30,000 | |
Walid Bou Habib | 30,000 | |
Mathew Frankland | 30,000 |
It’s busy busy here on Day 1a at the Hilton Prague with players still taking their seats and filling up the tables. Max Silver showed up ready to play the first hand but hasn’t seen any action yet as he has only one other player seated with him.
Matt Frankland though, a PokerStars qualifier from the UK, was involved in some early action. He is seated at Steve O’Dwyer’s table but the Irish Pro folded and the action was opened to 200 from the player to his left in seat 2. Frankland three-bet from the button to 625 and when the blinds folded Seat 2 called and they saw a flop of .
Checked to Frankland, he continued for 750 and got a call. They both checked a turn and when the river brought the , all Frankland had to do was reach for some chips and his opponent quickly mucked.
We ran into Serial Qualifier Pierre Neuville from Belgium, but he wasn't the only one we saw sitting down. EPT Champion and High Stakes player Michael Tureniec took a seat, WSOP Champion Jonathamn Duhamel is here, EPT Deauville final tablist Jeffrey Hakim just sat down and EPT Berlin side-event winner Jason Wheeler has entered Day 1A.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Pierre Neuville
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
Jason Wheeler | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Jonathan Duhamel
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
Michael Tureniec
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
Jeffrey Hakim | 30,000 | 30,000 |
To celebrate 10 years of EPTs, officials have installed an ice rink outside the tourney area in the hotel car park. Skating is totally free and there is a traditional bar serving mulled wine, vodka, sausages, etc. In addition, anyone who partakes will receive a complimentary scarf/beanie/mittens from the Eureka team.
One special winner will also be awarded free hotel upgrades on the next EPT or Eureka, free airport transfer and similar amenities. Players should sign up at the Concierge Desk.
The rink is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily until Dec. 15. Here's a look at the schedule of events:
Day 3 - Dec 12th | 4pm – 6PM | free skating |
Day 3 - Dec 12th | 6PM – 8PM | Relay Race 1 / players sign up in teams of 4, max 24 teams, plays up to the winning team |
Day 3 - Dec 12th | 8PM -10PM | skating, closing |
Day 4 - Dec 13th | 4pm – 6PM | free skating |
Day 4 - Dec 13th | 6PM – 9PM | Hockey match / players sign up in teams of 3, max 12 teams, plays up to the winning team |
Day 4 - Dec 13th | 9PM -10PM | skating, closing |
Day 5 - Dec 14th | 4pm – 6PM | free skating |
Day 5 - Dec 14th | 6PM – 9PM | Relay race 2 / players sign up in teams of 4, max 24 teams, plays up to the winning team |
Day 5 - Dec 14th | 9PM -10PM | skating, closing |
Day 6 - Dec 15th | 4pm – 6PM | free skating |
Day 6 - Dec 15th | 6PM – 9PM | Race the PRO / race against PRO’s. |
Day 6 - Dec 15th | 9PM -10PM | skating, closing |