The biggest buy-in event of the European Poker Tour Prague festival is underway, with 18 entries in the €50,000 Super High Roller.
Some familiar faces, including €25k SHR Warm-Up champion Espen Jorstad, PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton and Swedish phenom Niklas "Lena900" Astedt jumped in on Day 1 in what was a star-studded Super High Roller field.
By the end of the day, just 11 players remained from a starting field of 18, led by Nikita Kuznetsov, who doubled with kings against the pocket jacks of Ilya Nikiforov in the last level of the day to inherit the chip lead, and moved further ahead with the late elimination of Artsiom Lasouski.
Late registration is open until the start of Day 2, with play back underway at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, December 9.
EPT Prague €50,000 Super High Roller End of Day 1 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | 889,000 | 148 |
| 2 | Markkos Ladev | Estonia | 763,000 | 127 |
| 3 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | 572,000 | 95 |
| 4 | Sergey Lebedev | United Kingdom | 370,000 | 62 |
| 5 | Sam Grafton | United Kingdom | 347,000 | 58 |
| 6 | Maksim Vaskresenski | Poland | 344,000 | 57 |
| 7 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | 343,000 | 57 |
| 8 | Viacheslav Buldygin | Russia | 308,000 | 51 |
| 9 | Paulius Plausinaitis | Lithuania | 240,000 | 40 |
| 10 | Ilya Nikiforov | Estonia | 207,000 | 35 |
| 11 | Igor Yaroshevskyy | Ukraine | 118,000 | 51 |
Day 1 Action
There were two tables from the start of the Super High Roller as action got underway promptly at 12:30 p.m. and it wasn't long before the first bustout, as Viacheslav Buldygin bluffed into Sergey Lebedev.
Another early casualty was €12,300 Cuatro Knockout winner Yauheni Tsiareshchanka, whose bluff into Markkos Ladev was sniffed out, and the Belarussian exited shortly thereafter.
Jorstad had a tough day, eventually falling at the hands of Maksim Vaskresenski, and although Niklas Astedt had secured a vital double, he was also sent to the rail by Vaskresenski.
A 30-minute cameo from the loquacious-as-ever Martin Kabrhel followed, doubling up Teun Mulder before doubling twice himself before finally falling at the hands of the Dutchman. Meanwhile, Buldygin recovered from his early elimination to send Pavel Plesuv to the rail, turning a flush to eliminate the Moldovan shortly before the last level of the day.
Nikiforov still lead after a sensational double midway through the day through Vaskresenski. Blind on blind, and in a four-bet pot, both players turned straights, with Nikiforov's six-high straight besting the wheel of his opponent to double into the chip lead.
However, the last level wasn't kind to Nikiforov. Not only did he double up Kuznetsov for the chip lead, he gave another double to Paulius Plausinaitis to fall further down the counts.
Kuznetsov retained the chip lead over the closing exchanges and will return with 889,000 from his starting stack of 250,000, ahead of Ladev (763,000) and Mulder (572,000). With late registration open until the start of Day 2, there are plenty of other names who will undoubtedly join the field and grow the prize pool further still.
