When there is a loud scream of celebration in tournaments in Europe and the words seemingly appear to be Russian, one can be certain that the player who just won a big pot is Mikhail Korotkikh. Sure enough it was him this time around again, as he celebrated a big double through Miguel Use.
A raising war preflop saw Korotkikh at risk for 67,000 with the and Use eventually looked him up with pocket tens. The board ran out and the "dawai dawai" of Korotkikh followed. Other big stacks at his table include Kalidou Sow, Yuliyan Kolev and Carlo Savinelli.
Kees van Brugge finished 57th in the last ever EPT Prague Main Event one year ago at this very location, but he won't be taking home a portion of the prize pool this time. Down to 13,500, van Brugge got it in with and Alessio Isaia looked him up from two seats over with the dominating .
The live stream is underway and the first feature table includes PokerStars Team Pro Jake Cody, Sylvain Loosli, Ryan Riess, Markus Durnegger and Goran Mandic amongst others. You can follow the action here.
On a board, Matt Moss had enough T-5,000 chips in front of him to put Albert Daher to the test for his remaining stack of 21,000. Yesterday's €25,500 Single Day High Roller winner spent minutes agonizing over his decision, with a wide range of facial emotions appearing during his thought process.
For a split second, it appeared Daher was going to fold, then he suddenly put his stack in to call it off. Moss instantly revealed for a bricked king-high and Daher tabled for the winner.
"I was going to fold, then I changed my mind," laughed Daher to table mate Parker Talbot. "It was a last second decision."
Boris Kuzmanovic took over the role as table captain right off the bat and was involved in almost every hand. Just now he took a hit to the stack, though, after a battle of the blinds with James Akenhead went wrong. On a flop of the Brit was all in and at risk for 33,300 with the for bottom two pair and Kuzmanovic looked him up with the for top pair.
Neither the turn nor the river improved Kuzmanovic and Akenhead doubled.
Tuukka Meklin raised to 2,400 from the cutoff and was called by Steve O'Dwyer on the button. Both checked the flop before the turn paired the board. Meklin bet 2,600 and was called before making it 3,400 to go on the river. O'Dwyer was not happy about the call but tossed in the chips before mucking as soon as Meklin rolled over the for aces and sixes.
Thomas Lentrodt chipped up with quads to boost his stack, while Albert Daher was spotted leaving his chair after running out of chips. Below are further assorted counts in the first level of the day.