2013 PokerStars.com EPT Prague

€5,300 Main Event
Day: 5
Event Info

2013 PokerStars.com EPT Prague

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
1010
Prize
€725,700
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€4,883,950
Entries
1,007
Level Info
Level
33
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
30,000

€5,300 Main Event

Day 5 Completed

Track Leads Stacked EPT Prague Final Table that Includes Schemion, Silver & Chidwick

Level 26 : 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante
Julian Track
Julian Track

They say no one remembers who loses a football cup semi-final and in the poker world the penultimate day of the tournament is the semi-final. And what do you know, all our attention tonight is on the elite eight who have made the final table of the 1,007-runner EPT Prague Main Event.

Leading them is Julian Track. The German has 7,240,000 in chips and is in pole position to win the €889,000 first prize. When cards get in the air tomorrow the blinds will be 20,000-40,000 ante 5,000 meaning the average stack is a massive 94.4 big blinds.

Tomorrow’s cup final will almost certainly go to extra time as the descent from 22 to eight was one of the fastest ever seen on the EPT as it took less than two full levels of play to eliminate the 14 players necessary to set the final table. Interestingly, the top two stacks at the end of player were number one and two when play started today. However, their positions have been reversed and it’s Track who’ll lead the way.

The German’s ascent to the top owed everything to a huge hand he played against Ori Hasson with 13 players remaining. The two of them created a pre-flop pot of 7,605,000, Track was at risk with pocket tens, and Hasson helds two overs with the {A-Clubs}{Q-Diamonds}. The board stayed low coming {9-Diamonds}{9-Clubs}{6-Spades}{9-Spades}{6-Clubs}, and with that Hasson, who had got his hands on that stack by eliminating Lasell King, was left with just a couple of big blinds and was out in 12th soon after.

The other star of yesterday’s feature table was Max Silver, the Englishman was back on there today and picked up where he left off. He took care of Tamer Kamel (19th) and Artem Metalidi (17th) within the first hour and only relinquished the chip lead when Track won that huge pot. He played the big stack impressively applying pressure and putting other players to the test.

Silver formed a bad cop, bad cop UK partnership with Stephen Chidwick. When Silver would take a rest from sending players to the rail, Chidwick stepped into the breach. The 24-year-old, who seems like he’s been around forever, mainly because he has, eliminated no less than four players today. He claimed the scalps of Ihar Soika (18th), Dimitri Holdeew (15th), Nikita Nikolaev (14th) and Erwann Pecheux (11th). It’s likely that of Holdeew’s was the sweetest. The German won the Eureka Poker Tour Main Event on Thursday, eliminating Chidwick in third in the process. The Brit got some measure of revenge today and will start third tomorrow.

Completing the top half of the table is Georgios Sotiropoulos, the Greek player was the most active player on the outer table today, often seemingly involved in every pot. He folded to aggression in many of them but won the ones that mattered. Including the hand that ended play for the night when he eliminated Sigurd Eskeland in ninth place. Sotiropoulos flopped a set of sevens, Eskeland the nut flush draw, and it all went on in the turn when Eskeland turned a pair. Unfortunately for the Norwegian, he missed all his outs on the river. Furthermore, Sotiropoulos also denied Andrew Chen a fourth EPT Final Table when he sent the Canadian home in 13th place when his pair of eights held up against Chen’s {A-Spades}{J-Spades}.

Whilst the top four in the chip counts are the only ones with an above average stack the other four aren’t exactly short. Take Ka Kwan Lau for instance, his stack of 2,995,000 equates to almost 75 big blinds. He had a smooth day of steadily accumulating chips.

The same can’t be said of Ole Schemion, but then you wouldn’t of expected him to simply sit back and coast to the final table. Whilst he may have eliminated Romain Chauvassagne (20th) and Tapio Vihakas (16th). He also doubled up Sotiropoulos and lost a big pot to Silver. He actually finished the day with 300,000 less chips than he started. No matter, the German has 60 big blinds, a fearsome reputation and every chance of winning an EPT title tomorrow. Speaking of titles, he passed Daniel Negreanu to become the Global Poker Index’s 2013 Player of the Year.

Zdravko Duvnjak will start the final table with over 30 big blinds and has flown under the radar for large portions of the tournament. That all changed when he got moved to the feature table with 16 players left and he was under the spotlight in more ways than one with just 10 players remaining. All in and at risk with {Q-Spades}{9-Spades} he was behind to Radek Stockner’s {K-Hearts}{8-Hearts}, but a nine on the river kept him alive. Stockner, the last Czech player in the tournament, was left extremely short and was out soon afterwards in tenth.

What would an EPT final table be without some Nordic interest? Tomorrow their one representative will carry short stack status but don’t back against Jorma Nuutinen running up a stack. The Finn has shown no fear all week and a man with nothing to lose can be very dangerous indeed.

Remember tomorrow’s final table will be broadcast on pokerstars.tv and it’s a ‘cards up’ final table which means we’ll be blogging and they’ll be broadcasting on a one-hour delay. So join us, James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton from 1 p.m. local time for the final table.

In the meantime, follow the action from the €10,000 High Roller and check out Sarah Grant's Christmas Movie video:

Tags: Julian TrackMax SilverOle Schemion

The Final is Set!

Level 26 : 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante
SeatPlayerCountryChips
1Jorma NuutinenFinland975,000
2Stephen ChidwickUK4,935,000
3Ole SchemionGermany2,400,000
4Georgios SotiropoulosGreece4,320,000
5Julian TrackGermany7,240,000
6Ka Kwan LauSpain2,995,000
7Zdravko DuvnjakCroatia1,225,000
8Max SilverUK5,935,000
Player Chips Progress
Julian Track de
Julian Track
EPT 1X Winner
7,240,000 -165,000
Max Silver gb
Max Silver
5,935,000 -30,000
Stephen Chidwick gb
Stephen Chidwick
4,935,000 -10,000
Georgios Sotiropoulos gr
Georgios Sotiropoulos
4,320,000 760,000
Ka Kwan Lau es
Ka Kwan Lau
2,995,000 -10,000
Ole Schemion de
Ole Schemion
2,400,000 -10,000
Zdravko Duvnjak hr
Zdravko Duvnjak
1,225,000 -10,000
Jorma Nuutinen fi
Jorma Nuutinen
975,000 -70,000

Sigurd Eskeland Eliminated in 9th Place (€66,050)

Level 26 : 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante
Sigurd Eskeland all in
Sigurd Eskeland all in

On only the second hand of the unofficial final table, the final table was set.

From under-the-gun+2 Georgios Sotiropoulos raised to 80,000 and Sigurd Eskeland, who started the hand with 610,000, made the call. On the {J-Diamonds}{A-Spades}{7-Diamonds} flop Sotiropoulos continuation bet 75,000 and Eskeland smooth called. The {K-Hearts} fell on the turn, again Eskeland checked, Sotiropoulos bet enough to set the Norwegian all in and Eskeland called all in.

Sotiropoulos: {7-Hearts}{7-Clubs}
Eskeland: {K-Diamonds}{6-Diamonds}

Any diamond, other than the ace or king would keep Eskeland alive, but the river was the {3-Hearts}. The official final table is now set, end of day chip counts and a wrap of the day is on the way.

Player Chips Progress
Sigurd Eskeland no
Sigurd Eskeland
Busted

Tags: Georgios SotiropoulosSigurd Eskeland

The Last Nine Players

Level 26 : 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante

The final nine players will resume play in a little bit. The seating is as followed:

SeatPlayerChips
1Jorma Nuutinen1,045,000
2Sigurd Eskeland610,000
3Stephen Chidwick4,945,000
4Ole Schemion2,410,000
5Georgios Sotiropoulos3,560,000
6Julian Track7,405,000
7Ka Kwan Lau3,005,000
8Zdravko Duvnjak1,235,000
9Max Silver5,965,000
Player Chips Progress
Julian Track de
Julian Track
EPT 1X Winner
7,405,000 -195,000
Max Silver gb
Max Silver
5,965,000 903,000
Stephen Chidwick gb
Stephen Chidwick
4,945,000 -55,000
Georgios Sotiropoulos gr
Georgios Sotiropoulos
3,560,000 -240,000
Ka Kwan Lau es
Ka Kwan Lau
3,005,000 184,000
Ole Schemion de
Ole Schemion
2,410,000 -590,000
Zdravko Duvnjak hr
Zdravko Duvnjak
1,235,000 216,000
Jorma Nuutinen fi
Jorma Nuutinen
1,045,000 -201,000
Sigurd Eskeland no
Sigurd Eskeland
610,000 -190,000

The Daily EPT10 Player of the Year Update (12-17-13)

Level 26 : 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante

The European Poker Tour Season 10 Player of the Year race is on, and as you know players will be able to accumulate points in all events throughout Season 10, regardless of the buy-in level. In addition, all of the Festival Events (Estrellas, UKIPT, Eureka, FPS, IPT) that combine with an EPT tour stop will be eligible for Player of the Year points. The winner of this season’s award will walk away with €50,000 in Main Event buy-ins, good for any PokerStars or Full Tilt sponsored event.

The Global Poker Index (GPI) points formula, which will be used to determine the EPT10 POY, is a bit complicated, but you can read about all the details here.

Here are the current top ten on the EPT10 POY Leaderboard:

Thomas Muhlocker
Thomas Muhlocker

PlacePlayerPoints
1Thomas Muhlocker350.68 pts
2David Benefield321.18 pts
3Ole Schemion311.62 pts
4Jeff Rossiter258.92 pts
5Joao Barbosa257.14 pts
6Kenny Hallaert253.87 pts
7Nicolau Pacheco Villa-Lobos251.08 pts
8Jonathan Duhamel243.35 pts
9Timothy Adams222.31 pts
10Frederik Brink Jensen209.90 pts

We'll be bringing you daily updates on the Player of the Year race, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.

Tags: EPT Player of the YearEPT POYGlobal Poker IndexGPI

Break

Level 26 : 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante

The tournament organization is setting up the last table of the tournament. The final nine players will come back in a few minutes and play till one more player busts. EPT final tables are always eight handed so just one more bust out and Day 5 will be in the books. We'll be back soon with the chip counts and seating.