2016 PokerStars EPT Season 13 Prague

Charlie Carrel finished with 1,129,000 in chips after eight one-hour levels on Day 1 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague €50,000 Super High Roller. He'll be the chip leader heading to Day 2 of the event, but he still has plenty of work to do as more than half of the players survived the day and there's still entries allowed until Day 2 kicks off.

The tournament drew 46 entries on Day 1, putting it about on par with last year's 56 runners. Of those, 32 survived the day. Others joining Carrel near the top of the leaderboard were Julian Thomas (700,000), Patrick Leonard (617,000), Konstantin Uspenskiy (517,000), and Isaac Haxton (504,000).

Carrel busted about halfway through the day and then lost about half of his second 250,000-starting stack. He recovered in a big way, though, with the entry of Leon Tsoukernik contributing greatly to his cause. Carrel picked off a couple of Tsoukernik bluffs and then busted him to stack up past 500,000.

Then, Carrel picked up aces and put Max Silver all in on a completed board of queen-ten high board. Silver thought awhile on the river but couldn't get away from his eights.

Not much later, Tsoukernik reentered and drew the same seat, two to the right of his nemesis. Carrel and Tsoukernik shared drinks from a €600 bottle of whiskey, but when it came to chips, it was still Carrel doing the taking. He bet a completed board of with ace-jack and then called a check-raise from Tsoukernik, who couldn't beat the jacks.

Carrel's big day has put him in position to try to add a third EPT high roller to his collection. He won the €25,500 event at the EPT Grand Final last year for over €1.1 million and then won the €10,200 High Roller at EPT Dublin in February for another €164,500.

Defending champ Steve O'Dwyer also booked a ticket to Day 2. He won this event last year for €746,543, among his many other high roller successes and brings 259,000 to Day 2.

Some of the players who failed to make it through, busting at least once, included [Removed:17], Jason Wheeler, Nick Petrangelo, and Dario Sammartino. Anyone who wishes to (re)enter can still fire before Day 2 gets underway at 12:30 local time on Monday.

A big pot was already done with the river showing , and Timothy Adams shoved into Paul Newey. The latter eventually called for his last 130,500 and Adams flashed . Newey had the for the better pocket pair and doubled.

Sergey Lebedev also scored a double in the last hands of the day. After a raise by Juha Helppi and a call, he shoved for 101,500 out of the small blind. Only Helppi looked him up and the cards were tabled.

Sergey Lebedev:
Juha Helppi:

The board ran out and Lebedev turned a jack to stay in, also fading the flush draw of Helppi.

With 13 minutes and 43 seconds left for the day, the clock was paused. The floor asked Viacheslav Buldygin to pick a card at random from three presented cards, and he took out the to determine there were five more hands to be played.

[Removed:17] got his last 39,500 in holding against the of Julian Thomas.

While Yan had a decent lead in the hand, Julian Thomas was already apologizing after the flop came .

"Sorry!" Thomas said while the dealer got underway burning and turning a card.

The on the turn was a blank but the on the river sure wasn't and Yan made his exit from the tournament.

With less than 20 minutes left on the clock, the tournament staff announced that the registration for tonight has closed. Just then, Sam Greenwood walked back in with a ticket in his hand after having busted 10 minutes ago, and received a fresh stack.

All players that bust during these last 20 minutes, may still re-enter tomorrow before the start of Day 2 at 12.30 p.m. local time.

A squeeze to 47,500 was in front of Isaac Haxton in the small blind and Steve O'Dwyer called out of the cutoff to see a heads-up flop of . Haxton continued for 26,000 and O'Dwyer called. After the turn, Haxton fired 85,000 and O'Dwyer eventually folded.

At almost the same time on a different table, Charlie Carrel increased his lead after shoving into Viacheslav Buldygin. Carrel had a reraise to 40,000 in front of him in the big blind and Buldygin then squeezed to 92,000 before folding to the shove of the Brit. Carrel appears to be the only player above one million thus far.

From the hijack, Julian Thomas raised to 13,000. Small blind Juha Helppi called before big blind [Removed:17] squeezed to 47,000. Thomas and Helppi both called so it was three-way to the flop.

Helppi checked and Yan bet 60,000 on . Thomas called, Helppi folded.

The hit the turn and Yan shoved all in for effectively for 194,500, the stack Thomas had behind. Thomas called instantly with his . Yan still had some outs with the but the on the river was a blank.

Yan was left with just about 40,000 while Thomas started stacking.

Konstantin Uspenskiy opened to 10,500 and Davidi Kitai took down the pot with a three-bet to 28,000 out of the big blind.

One hand later, Uspenskiy raised to 10,500 again and Kitai called in the small blind. The flop came and Kitai check-called a bet of 8,000. On the turn, the action went check, check. After the river, Kitai checked again and Uspenskiy bet 20,000.

Kitai gave it plenty of thought and called, then saw the good news as Uspenskiy only had , raking in the pot with his .