Day 2 of the 2025 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Main Event was a busy one, with 379 players returning from one of two starting flights. They were joined by 62 players registering at the last possible moment just before Day 2 began, bringing the total field size to 1,224 and prize pool to €5,936,400. Players found out exactly what they're playing for soon after, a staggering €1,019,300 top prize.
Leading the 163 players who advanced from Day 2 is Paawan Bansal, who ended the night with 850,000. Bansal soared to the top of the counts after being on the right side of a massive kings versus queens cooler on the stone bubble, eliminating Slobodan Ruzicic in a pot worth over 400,000. Ruzicic didn't walk away empty handed, as two more players were eliminated in the same hand of hand-for-hand play, with the three bubble boys each taking home €5,565.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paawan Bansal | India | 850,000 | 170 |
| 2 | Terry Jordon | United Kingdom | 845,000 | 169 |
| 3 | Jeffrey Sarwer | Canada | 816,000 | 163 |
| 4 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | 789,000 | 158 |
| 5 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 728,000 | 146 |
| 6 | Ryan Mandara | United Kingdom | 694,000 | 139 |
| 7 | Matan Krakow | Israel | 673,000 | 135 |
| 8 | Jaromir Hanel | Czechia | 654,000 | 131 |
| 9 | Ghattas Kortas | Sweden | 618,000 | 124 |
| 10 | Grzegorz Kozieja | Poland | 614,000 | 123 |
Just behind Bansal in second place is Terry Jordon, who finished with 845,000. Jordon was leading the field for most of the last two levels after first making a flush to eliminate Ben Stubberfield, before Jerry Odeen fell victim to Jordon a few hands later, getting it in with pocket eights against Jordon's pocket jacks.
Other big stacks at the end of the night include Ole Schemion (728,000), and Fahredin Mustafov (520,000). Uri Gilboa (456,000), Anton Wigg (223,000), Dimitar Danchev (215,000), Davidi Kitai (74,000), and Tomasz Brzezinski are the five remaining EPT champions still in the hunt. Other notables to advance from Day 2 include Maria Lampropulos(363,000), Quan Zhou (229,000), Enrico Camosci (154,000), and Juha Helppi (99,000).
Notable players who made it to Day 2 but fell before the money include Simone Andrian, EPT Champions Nicolas Chouity, Ognyan Dimov, Padraig O'Neill, Oliver Weis, and Jan Bendik, as well as PokerStars ambassador Sebastian Huber. 2025 EPT Monte Carlo champion Aleksandr Shevliakov managed to squeeze into the money with a short stack, but was eliminated in one of the final hands of the night.
The action resumes at noon local time tomorrow, picking up on Level 16 with the blinds at 2,000/5,000 (5,000). From there, the plan is to play five more 90-minute levels. Shot clocks will be implemented, with each player receiving six time bank cards worth 30 seconds each at the start of Day 3.
All remaining players have secured themselves an €8,350 min-cash, and will be chasing the big prizes and ultimately the trophy when they return tomorrow.
Stay tuned as PokerNews will be back following all the action and providing live updates as the EPT Prague Main Event field continues to whittle down toward a champion.
