Tremzin Bags Day 2 Lead; Farrell & Chartier Bag Big While Footballer [Removed:30] Falls
The start of Day 2 at the European Poker Tour Season 12 Prague Main Event brought about the close of registration, and with nine players taking advantage of late registration, the total field was driven up to 1,044 players — down just a tad from last year's 1,107, but still the second-largest EPT Prague Main Event ever!
That created a prize pool of €5,063,400 that'll be distributed to the top 151 finishers with a min-cash being worth €8,910. Meanwhile, a hefty €921,540 is reserved for the winner. After six 75-minute levels of play on Day 2, the field was whittled down to 250 with Gleb Tremzin and his stack of 610,500 leading the way.
Others to bag big were EPT12 Malta champ Niall Farrell (547,000), Simon Persson (468,300), Colin Lovelock (458,200), and start-of-the-day chip leader Sam Chartier (444,000).
Of course not everyone was so fortunate. Among the hundreds to hit the rail on Day 2 were Faraz Jaka, Stephen Chidwick, Ivan Luca, Steve O'Dwyer, and Ole Schemion.
Likewise, Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Martin Hruby, Vanessa Selbst, Natalie Hof, Theo Jorgensen, George Danzer, Andre Akkari, and Jamie Staples all hit the rail, as did frequent PokerNews reporter Marc Convey.
Convey was taking a shot in his first-ever EPT Main Event, but unfortunately for the reigning European Poker Media Person of the Year, his time ran out in Level 10 (500/1,000/100) by Sebastian Pauli.
It happened when Convey, a former EPTLive commentator, opened for 2,200 from middle position and Pauli three-bet to 5,400 from the button. The blinds both folded, and Convey thought for a few moments before four-betting all in for what looked to be 21,000. Pauli snap-called and Convey seemed to know he was in trouble.
Convey: 
Pauli: 
Indeed, Convey was dominated, and he began to get up put of his chair. The 
flop didn't do him any favors, and while the 
turn delivered him a flush draw, the 
river failed to complete it.
Another player to fall was [Removed:30], a French-born Malian footballer who is currently a free agent (he most recently spent time playing for Crystal Palace). On a 
flop, Chartier bet and Kebe raised to 22,000. Chartier responded by moving all in. Kebe called off for what looked to be 60,000 and the cards were turned up.
Kebe: 
Chartier: 
Chartier held top pair, but Kebe was drawing to hearts. The 
turn have Kebe an added gutshot, but the river proved useless. With that, the winger was sent to the rail while Chartier chipped up to just over 500K.
While hundreds fell, plenty of notables made it through to Day 3 including Sam Greenwood (365,500), Adrian Mateos (346,000), Juha Helppi (199,800), Kitty Kou (180,000), Day 1a chip leader Anton Astapau (147,700), Fabrice Soulier (57,600), and Mike "Timex" McDonald (37,400). They will be joined by several members of Team PokerStars including Matthias De Meulder (185,000), Ivan Demidov (151,800), Johnny Lodden (148,500), Chris Moneymaker (93,700), and Mickey Petersen (76,700).
Moneymaker was primed to finished the night as one of the big stacks, but two huge hands back-to-back saw him chopped down. You can read about those by clicking here.
Day 3 will kick off at Noon local time on Sunday with the plan of playing five levels, which will be upped from 75 minute to 90. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there every step of the way. Until then, here's some info on the nationality breakdown of the Main Event…
Amongst the 1,044 participants in the EPT12 Prague Main Event, Germany had the strongest representation with 82 players, nearly eight percent of the field. France and the UK were tied in second, both having 75 players (7%) and Russia ranked fourth with 74. The EPT12 Main Event attracted players from 75 different countries.
