Anton Yakuba opened to 24,000 from under the gun and Arsenii Karmatckii shoved all in for 48,000 on the button. The blinds folded and Yakuba called, wishing his opponent good luck in the process.
Anton Yakuba:
Arsenii Karmatckii:
It was a coin flip and Yakuba held on to the lead through the flop. Karmatckii picked up a straight draw to go with his two overcards but the on the turn and the on the river sent Karmatckii home in eighth place.
Orpen Kisacikoglu raised to 104,000 from the button, keeping 12,000 behind. Adrian Mateos also shoved in the small blind with the bigger stack for Bertrand Grospellier to quickly fold his big blind to let them battle it out as Kisacikoglu called for his whole stack.
Orpen Kisacikoglu:
Adrian Mateos:
The flop came for Kisacikoglu to hit top pair but for Mateos to pick up the flush draw for some extra outs.
The turn was the which didn't change things but the on the river delivered Mateos the flush indeed to send Kisacikoglu to the payout desk to collect €30,180 for finishing in seventh place.
Vladimir Troyanovskiy raised it up from the cutoff and Tsugunari Toma pushed his short stack of 170,000 into the middle from the big blind. Troyanovskiy made the call and it was a fair fight as some would say.
Vladimir Troyanovskiy:
Tsugunari Toma:
The flop of gave Troyanovskiy the lead with a pair of kings. The on the turn improved him to two pair and Toma was left drawing dead to the on the river.
Derek Ip raised to 55,000 on the button and Adrian Mateos called from the small blind. Bertrand Grospellier shipped all in for 385,000 in the big blind and Ip burned through a time extension. He eventually also pushed all in and Mateos quickly folded.
Derek Ip:
Bertrand Grospellier:
It was a wild flop with being spread across the felt. Ip flopped a full house but Grospellier picked up trip queens. The turn was the and the river was the to send Grospellier home in fifth place.
Vladimir Troyanovskiy was the short stack among the final four players and he pushed all in for 235,000 from the cutoff. Anton Yakuba re-shoved all in on the button and the blinds quickly folded.
Anton Yakuba:
Vladimir Troyanovskiy:
It was a coin flip and Yakuba actually thought a seven was coming. However, it was the flop that put Yakuba in the lead with a pair of jacks. The on the turn gave Troyanovskiy a live straight draw but it was the on the river that ended his tournament.
Adrian Mateos raised to 60,000 from the button and Derek Ip three-bet to 205,000 in the big blind. Mateos shoved and Ip called for the 480,000 he had behind.
Derek Ip:
Adrian Mateos:
The flop came to keep Ip ahead.
The turn was the to now give Mateos the higher pair.
The river completed the board with the to keep things the same as Ip was sent to the payout desk to collect €82,840 for finishing in third place.
Anton Yakuba limped in on the button and Adrian Mateos checked his option. The flop came and Mateos checked to Yakuba who bet 45,000. Mateos check-raised to 140,000 and Yakuba called.
The turn was the and Mateos announced a bet of 265,000. Yakuba still called and the completed the board. Mateos ripped all in, putting Yakuba to the test for his last 710,000 chips. Yakuba burned through a couple of time extensions before dropping in a call.
Mateos turned over for two pair which brought a "you win" out of Yakuba's mouth. Yakuba was forced to show his before they went into the muck and Mateos earned the victory. Yakuba was forced to settle for second place but will still take home over €128,000.
A full recap of the tournament will be posted shortly.
The first official event of the 2019 PokerStars EPT Prague was also the first to award the PokerStars Spade trophy at this year's festival. Adrian Mateos came out on top of a field of 61 entries in Event #1: €10,300 No-Limit Hold'em to after defeating Anton Yakuba to claim the first-place prize of €177,500.
Mateos battled with Yakuba heads-up, who held the chip lead for the better part of the day. However, Mateos started the heads-up match with a two-to-one chip lead and never relinquished it. It was a surprising and abrupt end to the match after Mateos turned two pair. Yakuba turned a flush draw with two overcards to the board and still called off the last of his chips on the river with just king-high.
It will be recorded as Mateos' sixth PokerStars EPT victory to add to an already impressive poker resume. Mateos captured the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event title back in 2015 for a seven-figure payday along with the 2017 €50,000 8-Max in Monte Carlo for over €900,000. With this win, Mateos will close in on the $20 million career earnings mark which is impressive in its own right.
As for Yakuba, this will be recorded as his best ever live tournament result. Yakuba is mostly known for playing at the online felt but has proven that he can compete with some of the best live players as well. Yakuba pocketed €128,400 for his efforts today and should be around for the rest of the week as well.
2019 EPT Prague €10,300 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize (EUR)
Prize (USD)
1
Adrian Mateos
Spain
€177,500
$196,304
2
Anton Yakuba
Russia
€128,400
$142,003
3
Derek Ip
Hong Kong
€82,840
$91,616
4
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
Russia
€62,720
$69,365
5
Bertrand Grospellier
France
€48,520
$53,660
6
Tsugunari Toma
Japan
€37,870
$41,882
7
Orpen Kisacikoglu
Turkey
€30,180
$33,377
8
Arsenii Karmatckii
Russia
€23,670
$26,178
The day kicked off with 27 players returning to their seats from Day 1 along with seven new entries before the cards went in the air. That brought the total number of entries for this event to 61, creating a prize pool of €591,000 to be spread out among eight places. There was no shortage of action in the early going with Seth Davies and Jimmy Guerrero being eliminated in the first couple of hands.
Four tables quickly turned into three, and that became just two tables moments after the first break of the day. That was when the action seemed to grind to a halt, as the average stack quickly became a lot larger. As chips were passed back and forth, this was the time when Yakuba made his first move and grabbed a hold of a healthy chip lead. After a bit of a stalemate, Kahle Burns, Michael Soyza, Quan Zhou, and Yuan Li all hit the rail in quick succession, leaving just ten players left.
Daniel Dvoress appeared to battle for the chip lead with Yakuba, but a cooler hand where both players made two pair on a dry board gave Yakuba even more chips and Dvoress was eliminated. The final nine players gathered at one table on the money bubble and it took roughly 40 minutes to burst the bubble. Matthias Eibinger called off his last 11 big blinds with ace-king and was dominating Tsugunari Toma's ace-nine. However, an ace on the flop and a nine on the turn gave Toma two pair and Eibinger was the bubble boy.
The final eight players all locked up a min-cash of at least €23,670, including the two short stacks, Arsenii Karmatckii and Orpen Kisacikoglu who both had less than ten big blinds. They would be the next two players eliminated in succession, Karmatckii losing a flip to finish in eighth place and Kisacikoglu running into the nut flush of Mateos to wind up in seventh.
Prior to the dinner break, there was a series of double-ups that occurred. Vladimir Troyanovskiy was the biggest beneficiary of those double-ups but still struggled to gather an above-average stack. When the six players returned from dinner, Toma was the first to bow out, sending his eight big blinds across the table to Troyanovskiy. Bertrand Grospellier was the new short stack but was gaining momentum after two doubles of his own at the hands of Troyanovskiy. However, he wasn't so lucky on the third attempt when Derek Ip flopped a full house with pocket jacks. Grospellier was still alive with trip queens but was unable to improve on the turn or river.
Troyanovskiy was still battling on the short stack and managed to double up once more but that was the last one he would see. He got his last ten big blinds in the middle with pocket sevens against his fellow Russian who was on the right side of all the flips. Yakuba held ace-jack and spiked a jack on the flop to take the lead and eliminate Troyanovskiy in fourth place. It didn't take long for heads-up action to take place as Ip soon got his chips in the middle with pocket jacks and was flipping against the ace-queen of Mateos. A queen on the turn gave Mateos the best hand and he dodged all of Ip's outs to take the chip lead into heads-up with Yakuba.
That wraps up the PokerNews coverage for this event but there is still plenty of action to look forward to over the next coming days.