It was a quiet start in the €10,200 Mystery Bounty event, just nine players seated at the start of the event. That field steadily grew to 36 entries made up of the usual suspects, experienced high rollers taking their first shot in the 2024 edition of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague, running at the Hilton Hotel.
After ten 30-minute levels of play, only 19 of those players remained. Andras Nemeth of Hungary sits at the top of the pack after making a huge run up during the last few levels of play.
By the end of the second break, Nemath was in fifth place with a touch over 200,000. He went on to near-triple his stack and bag in first place with 616,000.
As it stands, his closest competitor is Niklas Astedt, a player who needs no introduction. He finished the day in second place with 323,000 in chips.
Maksim Vaskresenski, in third place, is the only other player to bag with over 300,000, while Lander Lijo and Thomas Santerne in third and fourth, respectively, finished with a little under that benchmark.
It may seem like Nemath is running away with it, but there's only a single double up between him and his nearest rivals, all of who are very capable players. There's all to play for on Day 2, that's for sure.
Top Ten End of Day 1 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | 616,000 | 123 |
| 2 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 323,000 | 65 |
| 3 | Maksim Vaskresenski | Belarus | 302,000 | 60 |
| 4 | Lander Lijo | Spain | 288,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Thomas Santerne | France | 279,000 | 56 |
| 6 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | 248,000 | 50 |
| 7 | Ilia Pavlov | Russia | 245,000 | 49 |
| 8 | Simone Andrian | Italy | 217,000 | 43 |
| 9 | Espen Jorstad | Norway | 212,000 | 42 |
| 10 | Michail Manolakis | Greece | 193,000 | 39 |
After a delayed start, players trickled in during the first few levels of play. Lander Lijo took an early lead when he got his kings in good against Ryan Mandara's queens.
Teun Mulder, Claas Segebrecht and Paul Lagan were among the early bustouts, the latter running into pocket aces. Mulder fired his second bullet, but it wasn't his day and he ran into Astedt's aces during Level 5 to hit the rail.
By the end of the second break, with just three short levels left to play, Elias Suhonen took the chip lead, while Astedt was left with less than a starting stack after his bluff was called by Roman Hrabec.
Astedt ran hot during the last few levels and he bagged in second. Not as hot as Nemeth, however, who managed to triple his stack following the final break of the day to bag up in first place, ready to return as the Day 2 chip leader.
Day 2 will resume at noon local time with blinds on 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. With late registration still open until the start of the day, it's expected that quite a few more players will join the field, further inflating the prize pool, which currently stands at €168,840 plus bounties.
The full prize pool, payouts and bounty prizes will all be announced tomorrow, with bounties coming into play at the start of Level 13.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates straight from the tournament floor as the event plays down to a winner.
