Ten is the Magic Number: EPT10 Prague €10k High Roller is Down to the Final 10
On Tuesday, the Season 10 European Poker Tour Main Event went from 22 players to the final table of eight in record time. On the other hand, the €10,000 High Roller was a long and grueling affair as 84 players looked to play down to a final table of their own. After ten levels of play, the action came to an end with ten players remaining. Leading the way with 1.404 million is Russia’s Dmitry Yurasov, though he must contend with the likes of Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, current EPT10 Player of the Year points leader Thomas Muhlocker, and EPT champ Mike “Timex” McDonald.
Thanks to seven reentries before the start of Day 2, the total number of entries jumped to 176 (137 unique players and 39 reentries), which was up considerably from Season 9 (108 unique players and five reentries). That created a prize pool of €1,724,800 that was to be distributed to the top 27 players, with a healthy €382,050 reserved for the eventual winner.
Action recommenced in Level 11 (1,000/2,000/300) and the players hit the rail in droves. Among those to fall in the early goings were Radif Sharifullin, Paul Volpe, Morten Klein, Robin Ylitalo, Roman Korenev, Dan Shak, and Team Online's Mickey Petersen and Isaac Haxton.
With 28 players remaining, the money bubble was on and it'd be another Team Pro that would earn the title of bubble boy. In Level 16 (3,000/6,000/1,000), Eugene Katchalov got his stack all in holding the and was in bad shape against Muhlocker, who held the . The sevens were in front as the board ran out an uneventful . Katchalov exited in 28th place and guaranteed the remaining players a minimum €17,250 payday.
From there the in the money eliminations began to pile up and included Shannon Shorr (27th - €17,250), Steve O'Dwyer (26th - €17,250), Martin Kahbrel (25th - €17,250), Martin Finger (24th - €17,250), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (23rd - €18,950), and Day 1 chip leader Georgios Karakousis (22nd - €18,950).
In Level 17 (4,000/8,000/1,000), 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champ Dimitar Danchev opened under the gun plus one with a min-raise to 16,000. Action folded to EPT7 Barcelona champ Kent Kundmark in the big blind. He checked his cards and pushed his short stack to the middle. Danchev called and it was a coin flip situation with Lundmark holding the against the of his Bulgarian foe. The ace-jack gained some additional outs on the turn but other than that, there really wasn't any excitement as the board ran out . Lundmark took home €18,950 for his 21st-place finish, Danchev would actually follow him out the door soon after in 20th place.
From there, Jonathan Little (19th - €20,700), Ami Barer (18th - €20,700), Akin Tuna (17th - €23,300), Bryn Kenney (16th - €23,300), Emil Ohlsson (15th - €25,850), Ariel Mantel (14th - €25,850), Joao Vieira (13th - €28,450), Andreas Eiler (12th - €28,450), and Benjamin Pollak (11th - €32,800) all hit the rail before play was concluded for the night at the end of Level 20.
The third and final day will begin at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, which is the same time the Main Event will conclude. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to cover the conclusions of both.
In the meantime, watch Sarah Grant test poker pros on their Christmas movie knowledge: