The EPT Prague Poker Festival was always going to be big. We knew that around about this time last year, after we checked out record-breaking numbers, listened to people already anticipating a return visit, after which watched them flood to the web satellite tables over the following 12 months.
Then this week within the Congress Room on the Hilton Hotel, the Eureka Main Event surpassed previous records and the Eureka High Roller followed suit. When Day 1A of the €5,000 buy in Main Event was finally upon us today, greater than 340 players showed up.
That puts us on course to check last year's field of 1,007 players, Day 1B fields always being far larger than the primary flight. The survivors of today's eight levels (around 225 of them) have tomorrow through which to luxuriate because the second flood of masses hit the floor.
Dmitry Ponomarev, from Russia, is the person set to enjoy his time off greater than most. He'll be capable to look back on a rare day's work today. Ponomarev bagged up 159,800 chips this evening, that's good for the narrow chip lead, although Oleksii Khoroshenin, the EPT Vienna champion, is close behind. He has 150,500.
It was also a fair day for Brian Altman, an 26-year-old professional from Long Meadow, Massachusetts, who finished with 150,300, and said, "I cope with making as many correct decisions as I WILL". He clearly made more good decisions than bad ones today, including one who turned his tournament around. "I got as little as 12,000 before calling down with trips on a wet board," he said.
Altman leads an enormous crop of PokerStars qualifiers within the field, also including Morten Christensen, whose 143,800 is another big stack. Igor Pihela Junior, whose father won a really perfect satellite to play the Super High Roller, also had a fair day. He finished with 131,500.
As ever, there have been some big names joining the fray on this monstrous event, including an excellent number wearing the Red Spade on their sleeve. The arena Series Player of the Year, George Danzer, was here, and signed for 40,100 chips on the end. So was Mickey Petersen (29,100), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (38,100) and Isaac Haxton (60,000). Johnny Lodden finished the day on an uptick, with 117,700.
Chris Moneymaker also traded the heat of Tennessee for the chilliness of Prague, but can have wished he hadn't bothered. It was a brief tournament for Moneymaker, who was back to his hotel room (or the money tables) before they'd even paused for dinner. Martin Hruby also busted before the top of the day.
Tomorrow, of course, is another day -- and it will likely be a monster. Play will commence at noon. That leaves you lots of time to appear back at coverage from the remainder of the festival, which incorporates a big win for Leonid Markin within the Super High Roller event and a rather small, but still bloody big, win for Balazs Botond within the Eureka Main Event.
Among our Main Event coverage, a talk with the fascinating Nicholas Galtos sticks out. He played roller hockey in front of thousands and poker against Stu Ungar. He's also stuffed with stories.
Enjoy your evening, and join us for more of the similar tomorrow.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com]
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