With that, the PokerStars.net EPT Kyiv Sports Poker Championship is upon us. The wonderfully cavernous Kyiv Sports Palace is our host venue, and the staff is still hard at work tying up a few loose ends. They'll want everything to be just perfect too; everyone expects this to be the largest tournament ever held in the Ukraine.
Today's Main Event will require a buy-in of €5,000, and the field is tentatively capped at 600 runners. We expect to have a room chock full of pros with a big smattering of online qualifiers in the mix as well. At least 50 players have won their packages online, and those buying in are starting to form a line at the registration desk. Heck, there's still room to come on down if you have an extra €5,000 burning a hole in your pocket.
Play kicks off at twelve noon local time, just less than an hour from now. Sit tight, we'll be back as soon as the cards are in the air.
, and Luca Pagano led out from the blinds with a bet of 400. His lone opponent made the call, and the turn card brought the 
. Pagano checked this time, and he would eventually call a bet of 700 from his foe. On the river 
, both players check-checked it down. The player in position showed first, tabling 
. Pagano couldn't beat it, slipping his cards quietly into the muck with a nod.
, and all four checked. The turn was the 
, prompting a bet of 300 from the big blind. Only Cernuto called.
. This time the player in the big blind bet 800, and Cernuto gave him a quick look before tossing out the chips to call. Cernuto's opponent showed 
for trip deuces, and Cernuto mucked. Cernuto slips just under 29,000 here in the early going.
. Pagano reached for chips and led out into the pot with a bet of 1,200. His opponent shrugged his shoulders and made a shaky-handed raise to 3,000. Pagano capped his cards with a green chip and leaned back in his chair to consider his options. After about a minute, he uncapped those cards and used the free chip to slide them back to the dealer.
, and Pagano knocked the table. "I folded tens," he said. "Tens."
-- a second ace and third heart. The raiser paused a beat, then checked. Kravchenko, his usual stern expression partially obscured by sunglasses, took thirty seconds or so then checked behind.
