€5,000 EPT Kyiv Main Event
Day 1a Completed
2009 PokerStars.net EPT Kyiv
€5,000 EPT Kyiv Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
2009 PokerStars.net EPT Kyiv
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
€4,700
Prize Pool
€1,391,200
Entries
296
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
5,000
Players Left 1 / 296
Filter
Play began just about eight hours ago with 129 hopefuls taking to the felt in the Kyiv Sports Palace, a gymnasium-turned-poker-theater. The turnout was less than robust, but the staff seems satisfied with the number given the eleventh-hour move from Moscow here to Kyiv. Among those who played this first flight were a whole slew of recreational players, about 25 PokerStars online qualifiers, and a little sprinkling of big-name pros to round things out. Some of the notables who came to play were Team PokerStars Pros Luca Pagano and Alex Kravchenko, another Alex (Fitzgerald), another Russian (Nikolay Evdakov), one woman (Wendy Monosky), 2009 bracelet winner John Carsten, Dutchies Menno Mulder and Raoul Refos, along with Arnaud Mattern, Vadim Shlez, and "Miami John" Cernuto.
Out of that list, only Luca Pagano failed to make Day 2 after turning a bad two pair and losing his stack to his opponent's set about midway through the day. His name is just one on the list of 36 players who couldn't escape these first seven levels.
That leaves 93 players who still have chips to left to fight with on Day 2. Alex Fitzgerald, Nikolay Evdakov, and Alex Kravchenko managed to build up stacks of more than 40,000, while Miami John and Arnaud Mattern both crept over 50,000. Everyone's looking up at Mihaylo Demidenko though, the young Russian who charged to the top of the field during the last third of the day. His 145,125 chips puts him firmly atop the scoreboard, and there's a pretty fair gap between him and the majority of the pack.
That pack will take tomorrow off to relax under the Ukrainian sun as a fresh batch of faces will take their seats for the second flight. The staff expects a bit of a stronger number tomorrow, but they'll be thrilled if we can reach the 300 mark for total players.
That's all she wrote for Day 1a then. We hope you'll be back tomorrow for 1b at high noon. Until then, На добраніч from Ukraine! Goodnight!
With the board showing
, Demidenko accidentally led with a bet of 3,000 even though he was not first to act in the hand. His opponent considered a moment, then decided to bet more than Demidenko had, but not enough to allow Demidenko to raise. Demidenko put in the chips needed to match his opponent's bet, then showed 
for kings full of aces. His opponent mucked.As players at neighboring tables have already begun the process of bagging their chips, Demidenko looks to have more than 140,000 to count up before he begins the process.
, and the first player checked. Mattern stacked out 3,375 chips and slid them into the middle. His opponent thought it over long and hard before putting in the call.The river was the action killer, the
. Both players checked, and the first player flashed the . Mattern wanted to see both cards though, and he saw his opponent show up 
. After a long disgusted shake of the head, Mattern flung his cards into the muck, dropping down to about 51,000.
, Karpus Dmitrovich checked from the small blind, and a short-stacked Menno Mulder bet 3,000 from the cutoff. Dmitrovich then quickly announced he was all in. Mulder had just a little over 10,000 behind, and so went into the tank. He eyed Dmitrovich momentarily, then finally decided to make the call.Dmitrovich showed
for a couple of overcards, and Mulder 
. The turn brought the , giving Mulder a set but Dmitrovich a flush draw. The river was the , and Mulder survived.Mulder now has about 28,000. Dmitrovich slipped to 75,000 on that one, then subsequently lost a few more and now sits with 58,000.
During an earlier break, Glo pulled Alex "Assassinato" Fitzgerald aside for a little chat. Check out what the young pro had to say about his troublesome travel here, his table draw, and the state of poker in the Ukraine:
As always, you can head over to PokerNews TV for all of our videos from this PokerStars.net EPT Kyiv.
Level: 7
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 50
