Zinno, Alvarado, Cody Bag Big on Day 1 of the PokerStars Championship Prague €10,300 High Roller
Chips were flying everywhere and chairs were squeaking left and right as the best of the best battled it out on the first day of the last-ever PokerStars Championship Prague €10,300 High Roller. 191 players showed up at the glamorous Hilton Hotel Prague, with each of them putting up a hefty €10,300 to play. 56 of them reached even deeper in their pockets to fire a second bullet, creating a total field of 247 entries. After ten hours of play, 103 of them survived the first day of this three-day event.
In the end, several players were jockeying for pole position and it turned out to be a very close affair. It was Russia's Roman Emelyanov who eventually eeked out the tiniest of margins to claim the Day 1 chipleader badge. Emelyanov, who finished 11th in the High Roller in Prague three years ago, bagged 285,700, just one big blind more than Guillaume Davy (283,400) and not even two big blinds over accomplished pro Anthony Zinno (282,000). JC Alvarado, fresh off last night's second place in the €25,500 Single-Day High Roller, finished in fourth place with 272,200, just six big blinds shy of the chip lead.
Others that made it to Day 2 include Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, who had a strong showing with 201,400. Cody was joined by Ryan Riess (199,900), Sam Greenwood (168,900), Antoine Saout (168,600), Kenny Hallaert (159,100) and David Peters (80,400). These names are just the tip of the iceberg, though, as the stacked field contains so many familiar names still in contention dozens more could be named here.
Ben Heath is one of them and sits strong after Day 1 with 243,600 in chips. In one of the biggest hands of the day, Britain's poker prodigy found himself on the right end of a setup against Italy's icon Mustapha Kanit. Kanit six-bet shoved ace-king into Heath's aces and wasn't able to survive, ending the exuberant Italian's run just like that. Frenchman Davy had the same luck on his side: his aces held up against Tibor Nagygyorgy's ace-king to end up in the aforementioned second place.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Home Country | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Emelyanov | Russia | 285,700 |
| 2 | Guillaume Davy | France | 283,400 |
| 3 | Anthony Zinno | USA | 282,000 |
| 4 | JC Alvarado | Mexico | 272,200 |
| 5 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 250,000 |
| 6 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | 243,600 |
| 7 | Artan Dedusha | United Kingdom | 232,000 |
| 8 | Bernhard Haider | Austria | 213,000 |
| 9 | Boris Kolev | Russia | 208,700 |
| 10 | Benjamin Chalot | France | 205,000 |
Last year, this event was billed as the last ever EPT High Roller. However, with PokerStars bringing the much-loved EPT-brand back in 2018, instead, this year's event will mark the end of the PokerStars Championship era. Right off the bat, around 40 players took their seats, and their numbers quickly rose up as a slew of well-known high rollers entered the poker arena. Many of them weren't shy to reach in their pockets to fire a second bullet worth €10k, but for Steve O'Dwyer, Akin Tuna, Ludovic Geilich, David Laka, Timothy Adams and Stefan Schillhabel neither the first nor second attempt proved successful. Jasper Meijer van Putten, who won both last year's EPT Main Event in Prague as well as this year's opening €10,300 High Roller, fired two bullets as well but to no avail.
Defending champion Will Kassouf won this event in 2016 after a deal that fell under some scrunity from the poker community. Billed by some as "buying the title", Kassouf struck a deal heads-up which handed him the trophy and the official win, despite being a at big chip disadvantage. The outspoken Brit was back this year to defend his title but joined the ranks of familiar faces that failed to advance to Day 2 after busting out late at night.
In total, 102 out of 247 players survived Day 1 of this three-day event. Day 2 will commence at 12:30 p.m. local time and blinds will resume at 1,000/2,000 with a running ante of 300. Late registration is still open until cards are in the air and those who jump in at the latest possible time will get 25 big blinds to work with. The total prize pool and payout information will be announced as soon as late registration has closed. As always, PokerNews will be on hand to provide all the live coverage of this exciting event.
