2009 PokerStars.com EPT Prague

EPT Prague Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info

2009 PokerStars.com EPT Prague

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
jj
Prize
€682,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€2,842,100
Entries
586
Level Info
Level
32
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
25,000

Day 1b Cometh

Day 1a Chip Leader Marc Gork
Day 1a Chip Leader Marc Gork
We're back inside the casino of the lovely Hilton Hotel to pick up the story with Day 1b of the PokerStars.com EPT Prague.

Yesterday saw a strong field of 219 kick off this event, the third go-round for the EPT here in the Czech Republic. Inaugural champion Arnaud Mattern was in the building, and he managed to build a stack of 86,000 to put himself right in the mix for another deep run. We've seen defending champ Salvatore Bonavena wandering around the corridors of the hotel, so we'll likely see him in action today as he tries to repeat his title.

Marc Gork slipped into the chip lead last night, edging out Rui Cao by just one black chip. The field will no doubt be larger today, and the chances to accumulate chips will be many.

The players have just begun to trickle into the tournament area and take their seats as we're about 15 minutes away from the starting gun. Along with Bonavena, we'll have a number of notables in the building today, including about a dozen Team PokerStars Pros.

Sit tight, we'll be back with the 'shuffle up and deal' shortly.

Ready? Set?

We're just about set to go. The players are in their seats and filling out their information sheets and the chips are being passed out. We should be underway following a few quick announcements from the esteemed Mr. Kremser.

Level: 1

Blinds: 50/100

Ante: 0

Check Out These Tables

Separated from the rest of the field, possibly to enable easy railing of their tables, or possibly to keep them from infecting the rest of the field, who knows, are these little gems:

- Darus Suharto, Bertrand "ElkY' Grospellier and stereotypical Italian Sergio Castellucio, all sharing a table

- Similarly Huck Seed, Sorel Mizzi, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Hit Squadder Chaz Chattha

- also the Euro-table that includes Noah Boeken, Tristan Clemencon and Julien Brecard

Early Sightings

Yep, the pros are in the house today. From Team PokerStars, we have Dario Minieri, Alexander Kravchenko, and Thierry van den Berg, with more of them expected to file in over the course of the first two levels.

Apart from them, we have some of the familiar EPT regulars with us as well. Jeff Sarwer is playing, and that should set his opening table quaking in their shoes. Runner up from EPT Warsaw, Oleksandr Vaserfirer is here, as is the champion from that event, Christophe Benzimra. And to round out this batch of names, we've spotted Carter Phillips, the young american pro who took down EPT Barcelona earlier this year.

More names to come. And as always, you can find the full list of players we're tracking in the Chip Counts page to the right.

More! There Are More!

Something for everyone here, I'm sure you'll agree:

Leo Margets
Mel Judah
Thomas Brolin
Boris Becker
Pascal Perrault
Soren Kongsgaard
Asa Smith
Marc Naalden
Mick McCool
Anthony Lellouche
Paul "Pab" Foltyn
Kati Jerney
Benny Spindler
Alain Roy
Alexia Portal

Honeyed Start for Demel

We caught up with well-known British circuit pro Priyan Demel as he was betting out 2,500 on the turn of a {3-Hearts} {A-Hearts} {6-Hearts} {J-Diamonds} board. The action moved over to his opponent on the button, who dwelled up for an unreasonably long time, far longer than should be acceptable in level 1. Eventually he folded, and Demel is having a pretty good start to the day.

Tags: Priyan Demel

Spindler Takes Early Lead as Opponent Blows Up

Benny Spindler in miniature
Benny Spindler in miniature
When we arrived tableside, the flop read {3-Diamonds} {Q-Hearts} {10-Hearts} and the gentleman in early position had a 650 bet across the line in front of him. Benny Spindler on the button had a raise to 1,400 in front of his stack, and the gentleman in the big blind was reraising to 5,000. Mr. Early Position passed, and it was back to Spindler, who reraised. Mr. Big Blind, who's somehow slipped to around half his starting stack already, pushed all in. Spindler called, and they were on their backs.

Spindler: a reasonable {A-Hearts} {Q-Clubs}
Mr. Big Blind: a somewhat less reasonable {10-Clubs} {6-Hearts}

Turn: {A-Clubs}

Mr. Early Position: "S**t, I had king-jack."

River: {6-Spades}

Out goes Mr. Big Blind, his tournament over almost as soon as it had begun, and Spindler is up to a nice early 46,000 or so.

Tags: Benny Spindler

Level: 2

Blinds: 75/150

Ante: 0