Lukas Hafner raised, Duco ten Haven three-bet to 5,000 and Hafner four-bet to 15,500. Ten Haven moved all in for 65,800 and Hafner called with slightly more chips.
Duco ten Haven: Q♥Q♦
Lukas Hafner: A♦K♠
The board ran out 5♥4♣5♠7♠5♦. Ten Haven held with his pocket queens to win the pot and gain a huge double-up that brought his stack up to around 135,000. Hafner was left with just 1,500 chips.
There were 22,000 chips on the board when Luigi D'Alterio checked from the small blind on a completed board of 3♦4♣10♦K♠A♥. Grzegorz Grochulski then made a bet of 10,500 from the cutoff, after which D'Alterio raised all in to 41,600.
Grochulski was agonized by his decision, but eventually put in the call. D'Alterio showed 3♠3♥ for bottom set, and Grochulski was forced to show his A♦J♠ for a pair of aces.
D'Alterio raked in a full double-up while Grochulski was left with less than 13 big blinds.
In a pot worth 35,500 chips, Ryan Plant made a bet of 14,100 on the 3♦A♠10♣2♣ board from the small blind. Eros Calderone then jammed all in from the button, covering Plant's stack of 38,100. Plant let out a big sigh, but stuck in the call to put his Main Event at risk.
Ryan Plant: A♥2♥
Eros Calderone: 9♥8♥
Calderone got it in with pure air and had no outs left to hit to beat the two pair of Plant. The river fell the inconsequential 4♠ and Plant raked in a big double up.
"Lucky turn," Calderone repeated to Plant a couple of times, to which Plant could only shrug his shoulders.
Juan Pardo raised to 2,500 from under the gun and picked up two callers before Vitezslav Cech three-bet to 12,500 from the big blind. Pardo moved all in for 20,000 and only Cech made the call, putting Pardo at risk as the players flipped their cards.
Juan Pardo: 8♣8♥
Vitezslav Cech: A♦Q♦
The board ran out 5♥4♣J♣7♥9♠. Pardo held with his pocket eights to win the pot and bring his stack up to around 50,000.
Daniel Koloszar raised to 2,500, Peter Tordai called, and Artur Palaj called in the big blind.
The flop came Q♠4♠9♣. Action checked to Tordai, who bet 4,500. Palaj called, then Koloszar check-raised to 17,000. Tordai called and Palaj folded.
The turn was the 9♠. Koloszar bet 32,000 and Tordai called. The river came the 6♦. Koloszar moved all for around 80,000 effective, applying maximum pressure to his opponent.
Tordai made the fold and Koloszar showed A♠5♠ for the nut flush, raking in a huge pot that brought his stack up to around 225,000.
As the final hands of the night were being played, tensions were already high at Table 12 from the previous hand where Michele Nizzardelli won a pot after a controversial check on the river.
Nizzardelli was covering the short stack of Ghattas Kortas, who was all in and at risk. Nizzardelli three-bet with A♠K♣ and was called by Kortas, who turned over 10♠10♥.
Nizzardelli hit a pair immediately on the K♦4♥7♥ flop, holding through the Q♣J♠ runout to earn a second straight pot. Kortas was eliminated but was visibly angry at the situation. He walked behind Nizzardelli, removed the Italian's hat and began to walk away.
Nizzardelli reacted by pushing Kortas in the back. Kortas stumbled forward, turned around and walked back towards Nizzardelli, who put his hands up as if to challenge Kortas.
The two were then standing face to face when Nizzardelli threw a headbutt that caught Kortas on the bridge of the nose and knocked him to the floor. Kortas was startled and began asking other players if his face was alright. Security was called, escorting Nizzardelli out of the tournament room.
His stack was immediately removed from the table and Nizzardelli was disqualified. Both Nizzardelli and Kortas were further disciplined by PokerStars.
After a rare incident which led to a player's disqualification caught the entire room's attention during the final hands of the night, 297 players managed to find a bag at the end of Day 1b of the €5,300 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Main Event at the Hilton Prague.
They are the survivors of a field of 838 entrants on Day 1b. In total, 1,250 entrants were recorded on both Day 1s, which is just seventeen entrants shy of last year's 1,267 entries. However, late registration remains open until the start of Day 2, so this 2023 EPT Prague Main Event will probably be the largest ever.
Three players bagged up more than 300,000 chips on Day 1a, but only Daniel Koloszar did it on Day 1b. Thanks to his 304,500 chip-stack, he ended the day as the chip leader. France's Mercedes Osti takes second place with 285,000 chips, even though she had a tough table in the last levels, with PokerStars ambassador Alejandro Lococo (131,000) to her right, and recent WSOP Europe Main Event champion Max Neugebauer (58,000) to her left. Both of them will also be back on Day 2.
Jon Kyte didn't have the easiest table either with Niklas Astedt (193,000) seated next to him. But with 245,500 in the bag, he finished Day 1b in third place.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Counts
Big Blinds
1
Daniel Koloszar
Hungary
304,500
254
2
Mercedes Osti
France
285,000
238
3
Jon Kyte
Norway
245,500
205
4
Omar Eljach
Sweden
244,500
204
5
Niall Farrell
United Kingdom
243,500
203
6
Davis Mihelsons
Latvia
240,000
200
7
Dario Sammartino
Italy
236,000
197
8
Wouter Beltz
Netherlands
235,000
196
9
Cesar Garcia
Spain
230,500
192
10
Mehdi Senhaji
Morocco
216,000
180
Omar Eljach (244,500), Niall Farrell (243,500), and Dario Sammartino (236,000) also managed to reach the Top 10, along with Cesar Garcia (230,500), who was in the front row of tonight's incident.
The incident didn't disturb Jason Wheeler who filled his bag with 206,000 chips. Tamas Adamszki will also be returning with a healthy stack (157,500) and he will be looking to collect his third trophy of the festival, as he already secured two victories last week by taking down the €10,200 NL Hold'Em event and the €50,000 EPT Super High Roller.
Furthermore, at least seven former EPT winners are progressing to Day 2, including Lucien Cohen (178,000), Robin Ylitalo (174,000), Dimitar Danchev (144,500), Simon Wiciak (76,500), Grzegorz Glowny (52,500), and Piotr Nurzynski (43,000).
PokerNews will also be keeping an eye on some familiar faces, such as Jules Dickerson (136,500), Marle Spragg (109,500), Luca Moschitta (100,000) Thomas Eychenne (99,000), Julien Sitbon (75,000), Maria Lampropulos (64,000) and Leo Margets (41,500).
Maria Lampropulus
All Day 1 survivors, plus the new entrants before the end of late registration, will return to their seats at noon local time on Wednesday, December 13. As from then, all levels will last 90 minutes, commencing with Level 11, which features 1,000/1,500 blinds with a 1,500 big-blind ante. Day 2 is expected to conclude after five levels or when the bubble bursts, depending on which takes longer.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide all the action. The live stream feature table action also commences on Day 2 with cards-up coverage and commentary on a security delay of 30 minutes on the PokerStars social media channels.
