Flying high in the Main Event is Simeon Naydenov. Remember, you can follow our coverage of the EPT10 Vienna Main Event in our other live blog. The Bulgarian has oozed confidence for much of this week, and his stack of 1.8 million is the proof. Bulgaria may not be a hotbed of poker, but it has of late produced two success stories in Dimitar Danchev and Atanas Gueorguiev. Right now Naydenov is on course to become the third, as the PokerStars Blog reports here.
Jens Lakemeir opened under the gun for 1,000 and was raised by Ihar Soika to 3,000. [Removed:119] on the button called the 3,000 and when the blinds folded Lakemeir four-bet to 9,000. Soika folded but Bensadoun made the call. The dealer put out a flop of…
Lakemeir bet 8,000 and Bensadoun raised him to 16,500. Lakemeir called. They both checked the turn and river . Lakemeir turned over his which saw him awarded the pot.
Prior to the EPT Vienna, Panka received a PokerStars sponsorship, and when he arrived in Austria he promptly made a High Roller final table appearance on the Eureka Poker Tour, ultimately finishing in eighth place for €20,150. Not only that, he won a €555 NLHE 1R&A satellite into EPT Grand Final.
Panka is in today's field looking to become the first player to win two EPT High Roller titles, and he's actually doing so on his 23rd birthday! He's been running hot already, and when you throw birthday luck on top of it, Panka may very well be unstoppable.
We recently received a press release from EPT Media Coordinator Mad Harper, and we thought we'd pass that on to you. Here's what she had to say on the EPT10 Vienna High Roller:
"At least 111 players entered the EPT10 Vienna €10,300 High Roller to compete in the most expensive tournament of the festival. Jason Lavallee and Ivan Soshnikov have already won high rollers in season 10 (London and Prague, respectively) and they are in the starting line-up here in the Hofburg Palace as well as the man who has already conquered one high roller event this week, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov, winner of the Eureka Poker Tour Vienna High Roller. The red spade is also represented by Jonathan Dumahel, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Maxim Lykov, Theo Jorgensen and PokerStars Team Online's Marc-Andre Ladouceur.
"The starting line-up also includes the PokerStars.fr-sponsored player and France Poker Series leaderboard winner Miroslav Alilovic, who busted the Main Event in 32nd place and then immediately jumped in the High Roller.
"It is hard to select just a few notable names out of the 111 players registered so far but, with regard to EPT champions, we also have David Vamplew, Steve O'Dwyer, Anton Wigg, Jannick Wrang, Davidi Kitai, Daniel Pidun, Robin Ylitalo, Toby Lewis and Sotirios Koutoupas."
€10,300 High Roller Winners in Season 10 thus far:
Dimitar Danchev opened for 1,000 from the button and got called by Zoltan Szabo in the big blind. They saw a flop of and they both checked. The turn card was the and Szabo led for 1,500. Danchev made the call.
When the river card came the , Szabo bet again for 3,000. Danchev closed his eyes and seemed a bit frustrated to see either the bet or the river card. Either way he mucked his cards.
Remember back in December when Ivan Soshnikov defeated Olivier Busquet in the EPT Prague High Roller to win €382,050? If not, you can read all about it by clicking here. Anyway, both players are in today's field, but just before the break Soshnikov took a big hit.
It happened when reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champ Adrian Mateos Diaz got his last 20,325 all in after it had been four-bet preflop. Soshnikov had him covered and at risk.
Soshnikov:
Diaz:
It was a flip, and Diaz was looking to hold. That's just what he did too after the board ran out . Ship the double to the Spaniard.
In the second-to-last-hand before the break, a preflop raising war broke out between Rhys Jones and Dmitry Yurasov that saw the former player get his stack of nearly 60,000 all in.
Rhys:
Yurasov:
It was a cooler for the man from the UK, and the look on his face was one of frustration. Even so, he sat there silently and watched the board run out . Rhys failed to find a king and was eliminated from the tournament, though he still has the option of reentering.
and river 
. Lakemeir turned over his 
which saw him awarded the pot.
and they both checked. The turn card was the 
, Szabo bet again for 3,000. Danchev closed his eyes and seemed a bit frustrated to see either the bet or the river card. Either way he mucked his cards.
. Ship the double to the Spaniard.
