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EPT Prague Main Event
Day 1a Completed
2009 PokerStars.com EPT Prague
EPT Prague Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
2009 PokerStars.com EPT Prague
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€2,842,100
Total Entries
586
Level
32
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
25,000
Players Left 1 / 586
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Team PokerStars was well represented with the likes of German Pros Katja Thater, Florian Langmann, Sandra Naujoks, and Ben Kang. From Holland, we had Ruben Visser, Joep van den Bijgaart, Marcel Luske, and Pieter de Korver. Arnaud Mattern was here from France, as was Poland's Marcin Horecki.
The victim of a tough table break and a bout with tournament apathy, Shaun Deeb was one of the first players to be sent home. Deeb tried to build a big stack early, but quite the opposite proved true as he was headed back to the airport before the first break. Along the same lines, Ruben Visser tried his best to amass a stack before being eliminated midway through the day.
Other notables meeting their ends today included Almira Skripchenko, Andrew Teng, Georges Hanna, and Julian Thew. Apart from that, just about everyone worth mentioning got out of the day with chips to bag up. That's particularly true of Rui Cao, the relative unknown who mowed down the field today and managed to build a stack of close to 200,000. He slipped back just a little as the night wore on, but he still seems to be perched atop the leader board as the players trickle out of the room.
Cao appears to be the man to beat so far, but there are a few players in close contention. Oleh Okhotskyi rode an early double up to a strong finish as well, and young gun Marc Gork is right in the mix as well. It's too close to call right now; we'll wait for the official chip counts before we commit to Cao being the leader.
In any event, those who survived today's Day 1a (about 120 or so) will return on Thursday for Day 2. Tomorrow will see a fresh set of faces try their luck on the felt, and the tournament staff is optimistic for a strong showing to round out this combined field.
Thanks for joining us today, we'll see you tomorrow at noon!
, Katja Thater and Oleh Okhotskyi had built a pot of about 10,000. When the turn fell and Okhotskyi checked, Thater moved all in for a bit over 20,000. That sent Okhotskyi spiraling deep into the think tank. He would stay there long enough for a crowd to encircle the table, then be pushed back to the rail by the floor staff, then creep back in to the table. After several long minutes, the clock was called, and Okhotskyi finally released his hand, sparing Thater the showdown for now.It didn't really turn out to be too noteworthy in the end, then. Though Ms. Thater will certainly appreciate the boost to her stack.
, and Thomsen checked. Haddad fired a bet of ~4,000, and Skampa made the call. When it came back to Thomsen, he moved all in for another 24,825 on top. Haddad went into the tank for several minutes before folding, and Skampa also looked like he was debating a call. He asked for a full count before announcing that call with a hint of reluctance in his voice. No need. Thomsen tabled 
, putting Skampa's 
(two pair) in command.The turn and river were out on board just like that, and the
and 
that completed the community cards were blanks for Thomsen. After being out-flopped and out-chipped, his day is done. Skampa is up over 60,000 after that nice boost.
The Lebanese pro held
on his final hand, and he and one other player watched a flop come eight-high with two spades. Each of them checked, and Hanna checked again when the 
hit fourth street. His opponent bet at the pot, and Hanna moved in. He was called by 
, and Hanna couldn't find his ace or a spade to stay alive.
It seems that he was holding aces and had made a full house by the turn when his heftily stacked opponent decided to move all in with a flush draw. He was drawing dead, obviously, and Cao's stack is now over 200,000.
Other big stacks include Marc Gork (160,000) and Oleh Okhotskyi (150,000).
During the last break, Gloria snagged the EPT Season 5 Grand Final champion, Pieter de Korver. The Dutch Team PokerStars Pro just had a birthday pass, and he's looking to ride his Birthday luck to another deep run in an EPT. Check out what he had to say:
flop: when we arrived, there was a raise/reraise of 7,400 total in front of Paul Pires Trigo (SB), and a reraise/re-reraise of All In in front of Daniel Drescher (BB). Eventually Trigo passed, folding 
face up. Drescher showed him 
. He moves on up to the heady heights of 105,000.
Level: 8
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 75
