EPT Prague Main Event Day 1a | 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Prague

12-01-2009 21:00 UTC+2

Laying Down a Pair

[user66118]

First in from early position, Luca Falaschi open-shoved for about 17,000 total. Action came all the way around to the blinds where George Kapalas seemed to be toying with a tough decision. The call would represent a significant chunk of his stack, and he reluctantly folded as he showed two red fours.

Falaschi complimented the fold and showed his pocket eights as he dragged in the blinds and antes.

12-01-2009 20:58 UTC+2

Haavisto's Chips Harvested

[user46392]

The board read {5-Hearts}

; Ville Haavisto in the big blind bet out 5,000, leaving himself 12,000 behind. The gentleman on the button raised to cover him, and after a moment Haavisto shrugged and called all in - but simply mucked when his opponent turned over {7-Clubs}

for a straight.

Tags: Ville Haavisto

12-01-2009 20:50 UTC+2

Grace is Gone

[user66118]

Richard Grace just could not escape Rui Cao today. In their most recent encounter, Cao opened the pot with a raise, and the cutoff three-bet to 3,500 behind him. Over to Grace now, and he looked down at pocket queens and moved all in for just about 25,000. Cao then re-raised all in with his monstrous stack, good enough to put him heads up with a chance to knock off a dangerous player. He tabled ace-king, racing for the kill.

Grace would find the board unpleasant indeed. Cao managed to find a king to pair up, and the Brit could not climb back into the hand to stay afloat. He's been eliminated, while Cao vaults up to about 130,000, the biggest stack we can find so far.

Tags: Richard Grace Rui Cao

12-01-2009 20:45 UTC+2

Gueorguiev Trying to Mount a Charge

[user66118]

Seven players saw a cheap flop over on one of the far tables, and it came down {7-Clubs}

. The first three checked, and the aforementioned Atanas Gueorguiev fired a bet of 1,700, somewhat reluctantly. Ramez Haddad made the call in position, and the two of them went heads up to the turn.

It brought the {3-Diamonds}

and another bet from Gueorguiev. Haddad called, and he faced another 3,300-chip bet on the river {2-Diamonds}

. Haddad matched the bet quickly, and Gueorguiev tabled {Q-Hearts}

. It was the winner; Haddad mucked, and Gueorguiev moves up to about 21,000.

Tags: Atanas Gueorguiev Ramez Haddad

12-01-2009 20:30 UTC+2

Bulgarian Woe

[user46392]

We're not sure whether there was a big pot involved, or whether it's just been a slow slide - but Bulgaria's finest, Irish Open finalist Atanas Gueorguiev, is down to an unimpressive 13,000.

Tags: Atanas Gueorguiev

12-01-2009 20:27 UTC+2

May the Gorce Be With You

[user46392]

Guillaume de la Gorce is in a spot of bother - down to less than 7,000 he has very little room to manoeuvre. Last we saw of him he was open-shoving from the hijack. The small blind asked how much it was, but in the end declined to make the call. De la Gorce survives, for the moment at least.

Tags: Guillaume de la Gorce

12-01-2009 20:23 UTC+2

Big Stack Gets Bigger

[user46392]

We arrived to see a flop reading {7-Diamonds}

and a 10,000 bet in front of Rui Cao in the hijack. Cao looked extremely bored as Richard Grace in the big blind position considered his options. Eventually he folded.

Cao showed him {6-Spades}

for absolutely nothing, and is up to 110,000. Grace meanwhile is back down to 26,000.

Tags: Richard Grace Rui Cao

12-01-2009 20:22 UTC+2

Clocking Cirstea

[user66118]

We just witnessed a long, ten-minute hand in one of the center tables. On a flop of {7-Hearts}

, a raising war ensued that left Ciprian Cirstea facing an all-in decision. He had about 32,000 chips in front of him, and his opponent -- completely clad in orange from head to toe -- had pushed his covering stack into the pot.

Cirstea would tank it up for at least five minutes before Pieter de Korver finally looked up from his iPod. "Is it time?" he asked. A few players shook their heads no, and de Korver followed it up with, "Time, please." With that, Cirstea stood up from his chair, and Mr. Orange did the same, chatting it up the whole time.

The floorman was called over, and he waited a full minute before giving the ol' ten-second countdown. When he got to about one-and-a-half, Cirstea leaned forward and splashed his chips into the pot. His opponent showed up {8-Spades}

, and Cirstea pumped his fist as he turned over {J-Clubs}

. The turn and river came safe-safe for him, {K-Spades}

and

respectively, and he's notched himself a big double up.

During the entire ordeal, there was a new dealer standing behind the table waiting to push in. When the hand was over, the current dealer spread the deck and handed off the box. "Why is it that the longest hand of the day always comes right before my only break of the day?"

12-01-2009 20:19 UTC+2