Hallaert, Brewer Among Chip Leaders After Day 1 of €10,300 EPT High Roller
After 10 levels of play from a massive star-studded field, Robert Cowen (285,100) holds the Day 1 chip lead in the €10,300 EPT High Roller with Kenny Hallaert (258,400), Adrian Mateos (254,400), and Chris Brewer (230,800) among those not far behind.
The 246 Day 1 entries have already created a prize pool of €2,386,200, which will grow further on Tuesday with late registration open until the start of Day 2. 15% of the final field will make the money.
With so many big names in the field, not every star could bring a big stack forward into Day 2. WSOP Main Event champ Koray Aldemir (22,400) and Stephen Chidwick (16,800) battled at the same table most of the day with neither being able to grab any traction, while others such as PokerStars Ambassadors and EPT Prague winners Sam Grafton and "Papo MC" Alejandro Lococo were unable to make it to the end of the night.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Cowen | United Kingdom | 285,100 |
| 2 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | 258,400 |
| 3 | Thi Nguyen | Canada | 256,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 254,400 |
| 5 | Chris Brewer | United States | 230,800 |
| 6 | Klas Lofberg | Sweden | 227,300 |
| 7 | Georgios Karakousis | Greece | 226,000 |
| 8 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | 223,000 |
| 9 | Santeri Piiroinen | Finland | 216,000 |
| 10 | Francois Pirault | France | 215,100 |
High Rollers Galore
While €25,000 High Roller I champion Teun Mulder makes a run at the EPT Main Event title, the other High Roller champions from this year’s festival that entered Monday’s field had limited success. €2,200 Eureka High Roller champ Jose Manuel Gonzalez was eliminated midway through the day, €25,000 EPT High Roller II champ Andras Nemeth busted later in the day, while €25,000 EPT High Roller IV champ Rodrigo Selouan was also eliminated after being victimized by a stubborn pair of nines held by Alexander Glogar.
€50,000 Super High Roller winner Timothy Adams (55,600) however survived the day with a bit more than starting stack.
Day 1 Highlights
In one of the wilder hands of the day, William Kassouf found himself on the right end of a two pair versus two pair all-in battle, only for his opponent to fill up on the river.
Earlier in the day, while stacks were still very deep, Nemeth and Merijn Van Rooij each put in nearly a full starting stack preflop in a massive pot that resulted in an early double up for van Rooij, who final tabled the €1,100 Eureka Main Event earlier in the festival.
Day 2 Tuesday
Play will resume at 12:30 pm CET at the King’s Casino at the Hilton Prague, with action starting at Level 11 with blinds of 800 / 1,600 with a 1,600 big blind ante.
Day 2 is scheduled to play to down to a final table, but with 122 players remaining and some more sure to max late-reg, that could potentially be in flux.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the latest from this and every major event at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague.