After roughly five and a half hours of play, the clock reads there are 394 entries in this prestigious event. This officially breaks last year's record of 393 entries, making it the largest €10,300 High Roller event in EPT history. This number is expected to grow even larger, as registration remains open throughout the rest of the day and up until the start of Day 2.
Here's a look at the history and growth of this event since its inception in 2010:
After a series of unknown raises before the flop, Farid Jattin moved all in for approximately 45,000 against Ariel Mantel. Mantel called and the hands were revealed to find that he was in a dominating position.
Mantel:
Jattin:
The community cards ran out , putting a full house on the board. Mantel's two jacks played, giving him a higher full house of fives full of jacks. Jattin made a quick exit from the tournament area while Mantel brought his stack up to 110,000.
You thought you had heard it all with the talk a few years back of an “aggressive call”. But PokerStars Blog spends some time amid the €10,000 High Rollers and watches some dramatic and highly aggressive checking.
Akin Tuna raised to 1,600 from the hijack only to have Kevin MacPhee three-bet to 4,500 from the cutoff. The button and blinds folded, putting action back on Tuna. He called to see a flop.
The dealer produced a flop of and Tuna checked to the raiser. MacPhee knocked the table back and the came out on fourth street. Two more checks occurred and the finished off the board. Tuna check-called a bet of 2,500 on the river and mucked his hand after seeing MacPhee's for a pair of aces. MacPhee won the pot and now has about 36,500 in chips.
Picking up with the action on a board of , Aaron Lim was engaged in heads up action against Mikita Badziakouski. Lim was first to act and he bet out 7,600. Badziakouski thought for a moment before calling from the button.
The river was the and Lim announced that he was all in. Badziakouski quickly called for his own tournament life of 16,075. Lim rolled over for a rivered pair of kings. Badziakouski had that beat, however, showing for a flopped set of sixes. He scooped up the pot and now sits around 58,000. Lim, on the other hand, has dropped to 26,500.
Talal Shakerchi joins Remko Rinkema to talk about competing against the best players in the world in the biggest buy-in tournaments, making $100 million trades, and much more.