We strolled past Jan Bohata's table just in time to see him drop a little pot to an unknown player in Seat 2. The board showed , and there was 4,350 in the pot. Unexcitingly, it went check-check on the only street of action we saw. At showdown, Bohata's was second-best to his opponent's , and he's slipped back under his starting stack.
Two tables over, we watched another Czech, Jan Skampa play a pot. Oleksii Khoroshenin opened to 250 from the cutoff, and Skampa three-bet him to 1,050 on the button. Khoroshenin called that amount, then check-called another 1,400 on the flop. the turn came the , and Skampa fired another 3,500 at the pot. That did the trick; Khoroshenin surrendered, and Skampa pips his way up to about 33,000.
Over on Table 10, Team PokerStars Pro Toni Judet showed up to take his seat. He had the seat card for Table 10, Seat 1, but when he arrived Scott Baumstein was already in the seat. Baumstein had been there for several hands at the start of the day, but upon further review, was actually in the wrong seat. Baumstein was supposed to be at Table 11, Seat 10.
The floor came over and the decision was to move Baumstein to his correct seat. He was allowed to take the current stack he had. From there, Judet assumed his correct seat and play went on.
We've just received the preliminary player list, and we can see that the notables are coming. Here's another group of familiar names who have either just arrived or are expected to be on the way shortly.
We're flexing our international muscles here, and we've got five Czechs on our radar so far. Apart from Staszko and Skampa, we've added these three players to our list:
We only caught up with the action on the turn as the money went all in. The board showed , and Bevand was content to get it in with for the full house. As it turned out, he was drawing dead to one out. Oleksii Khoroshenin snapped him off with the crushing , and the river was a blank.
It's set-over-set all over the place here in the early stages of EPT Prague.
Just a couple of hands into the day, one player has hit the rail. We don't know the names of either of the players involved, but we can tell you that it was set-over-set fashion that eliminated the player. The flop held both a queen and a five and it was pocket queens versus pocket fives. The queens held from there and that was about as quick as you could come and go in this event.
When we arrived at the table, David Peters was pitted in a hand against on other player on the flop with a few thousand chips in the middle. The first player checked to Peters and he bet 2,050. His opponent took some time and then called to see the turn.
Fourth street provided the and both players checked through to see the land on the river. The first player checked again. Peters tanked before betting. He slid out 3,600. His opponent asked how much, got the number and then quickly called.
Peters tabled the , but lost to his opponent's for two pair.
Here's the list of the notables we've spotted so far. Most notably among them is the newest member of the Team PokerStars Pro family, WSOP Main Event runner up Martin Staszko. He's here representing his home country, and he's got himself a table full of unknowns to start play.
The same can not be said for Team Pro Michael Keiner who has drawn the toughest table in the room. He's in the seven seat at a table that also contains Manuel Bevand and the EPT6 Prague champion Jan Skampa.
We've also spotted last year's champ Roberto Romanello, while the other two former champs are still missing in action.
The cards are in the air, and Day 1a is off and running. It looks like we've got 26 tables in play to start with more than 200 players already registered for this flight.