The 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour €1,100 National attracted a bumper field of 2,486 players, eclipsing the mark of 2,117 from the same time last year.
Heading into Day 2, that number has been whittled down to just 373, all of whom are in the money. The exact payouts are yet to be confirmed, but rest assured that PokerNews will bring them to you as soon as they are made available to us.
As is to be expected in such a big field at such a major poker festival, there are some big names in the field, including Day 1c chip leader Jasper Meijer Van Putten who starts today second in chips. Van Putten won the last EPT Main Event to be held in Prague back in 2016 for €699,300.
The overall chip leader is Harpreet Padda who topped Day 1b. Here are the top three chip counts from each flight.
Flight
Name
Country
Chip Count
Day 1a
Narcis-Gabriel Nedelcu
Romania
954,500
Danilo Velasevic
Serbia
745,000
Olgun Ercan
Turkey
598,000
Day 1b
Harpreet Padda
Canada
994,500
Florian Duta
Romania
887,000
Terje Alvseike
Norway
775,000
Day 1c
Jasper Meijer Van Putten
Netherlands
956,000
Per Wikstrom
Sweden
840,000
Jan-Eric Schwippert
Germany
666,000
Other big names still in contention include Czech bracelet winners Martin Kabrhel (651,000) and Lukas Zaskodny (443,000), along with fellow Czech pros Vojtech Ruzicka (396,000) and Martin Staszko (139,000).
There is plenty of international interest, with Jan Schwippert (666,000), Arthur Conan (580,000), Walter Treccarichi (482,000), Jean-Noel Thorel (487,000), Alexandre Reard (450,000), Sofia Lovgren (392,000), former EPT Main Event champion Sebastian Malec (381,000), Bryan Paris (304,000), William Kassouf (272,000), Antoine Labat (271,000), Martin Finger (251,000), Charlie Carrel (235,000), Ari Engel (215,500), Giuliano Bendinelli (196,500), Harry Lodge (195,500), Parker Talbot (108,000), Ivo Donev (82,000), Dimitar Danchev (69,500) and Gaelle Baumann (20,500) all having locked up a Czech flag already and are looking for more.
The action will be fast-paced when it gets underway at midday local time, so stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action here at the Hilton Prague.
With 373 players left in the EPT Prague National, there are five players who have already won Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship in the Bahamas.
They include EPT Barcelona Main Event champion Piotr Nurzynski, and Ali Grasu who won his in a Crazy Pineapple Hand Challenge at Barcelona.
Also still in is Mihai Manole, who became the first ever winner of a Platinum Pass in Prague after bubbling the Main Event in 2017.
Jasper Meijer van Putten and Bryan Paris were heads-up on the flop. There was already about 60,000 in the middle when Meijer van Putten put in a bet of 20,000 after Paris had checked to him. Paris opted to raise to 52,000 and Meijer van Putten called.
The turn was the and Paris checked to the 2016 EPT Prague Main Event champion again. This time he put in a bet of 90,000 and Paris thought about it. He eventually let go of his hand and Meijer van Putten showed .
''I thought that was a good board for me'' said Paris to Meijer van Putten and the whole table started laughing.
Jasper Meijer van Putten and Charlie Carrel just played two hands against each other and Meijer van Putten got on top at the end.
In the first hand, Meijer van Putten opened from the hijack to 40,000 and Carrel three-bet from the button to 105,000. Both players in the blinds folded and so did Meijer van Putten and the first pot the two played went to Carrel.
In the next hand, Meijer van Putten opened to 40,000 again, but this time from middle position. Carrel did exactly the same thing as the hand before when he three-bet to 105,000 from the cutoff. This time Meijer van Putten moved all in when it folded to him and Carrel didn't even need a count when he called.
Carrel had the better hand with and Meijer van Putten had to come from behind with . Mike Tokatlyan said to Meijer van Putten: ''Don't worry, you might hit your seven'' and Meijer van Putten went on to do exactly that.
The board was dealt and Meijer van Putten doubled up through Carrel.
Today there were 373 players at the start of the day, and with around half a level left until the 75-minute dinner break the tournament staff have broken a table and we are down to the last ten tables with 80 players left playing for the €382,750 first prize.
A player raised from early position and got calls from Iliya Iliev before Adrian Constantin three-bet to 425,000 from the big blind. Both players called and the flop came .
Constantin then moved all in for 1,300,000. The initial raiser folded and Iliev called.
Adrian Constantin:
Iliya Ilev:
Constantin had made a move at the wrong time to run into the top pair of Iliev. The turn and river didn't help Constantin and he was eliminated.
Charlie Carrel raised to 100,000 from under the gun and Nikita Staroverov defended his big blind.
The flop came .
"Did you see my hand?" Carrel suddenly asked.
Staroverov appeared surprised.
"Now I don't know if you are f*cking with me or not!" said Carrel. Staroverov checked and Carrel bet 100,000. "Did you see the ten?" Carrel said with a grin.
Staroverov called and the turn was the . This time Staroverov check-folded.
Day 3 of the €1,100 EPT National at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague held at the beautiful Hilton Prague is in the books. Iliya Iliev from Bulgaria has the chip lead with 8,820,000. He's closely followed by Preben Stokkan with 7,700,000 and Jean-Noel Thorel with 5,900,000. The day started with 373 players left out of the 2,486 that entered the tournament. After a little over nine one-hour levels of play, there were only 30 players left to advance to Day 3 to battle it out for the first-place prize of €382,750.
The day started at 12 p.m. local time with 373 players and plenty of eliminations. They played 16 minutes in level 17 (3,000-6,000, big blind ante 6,000) before advancing to level 18 (4,000/8,000, big blind ante 8,000). After only 1,5 hours of play, there were already over 150 players that exited the tournament. A couple of the first players to exit the tournament in the first level include Boubekeur Benhalima (339th - €1,720), Antoine Labat (323rd - €1,820), Kees van Brugge (300th - €1,820), and Ari Engel (232nd - €2,040). The tournament didn't seem to slow down at any point and the eliminations kept on coming. Parker Talbot (214th - €2,300) was one of the next players to exit the tournament. Talbot lost a big pot and he was left with just six big blinds. He lost those with queen-ten against pocket aces after the board ran out ten-king-jack-deuce-seven.
Plenty of others didn't make it to the dinner break. Martin Kabrhel (175th - €2,570), Dimitar Danchev (172nd - €2,570), Vojtech Ruzicka (166th - €2,570), Sebastian Malec (134th - €2,900), Sofia Lovgren (115th - €3,480), Martin Finger (93rd, €4,090), Jan-Eric Schwippert (85th - €4,090), and Platinum Pass winner Mihai Manole (78th - €4,090) all busted out before the 75-minute dinner break after level 23.
The day was supposed to end after ten one-hour levels but the players were busting at an incredible rate. The tournament staff announced that they would play down to the end of level 27 or until there were 32 players left in the tournament. In what seemed like the last hand of the tournament it was Harpreet Padda who eliminated two players. He saw Andreas Vlachos move all in and then he saw Laurence Fleury rejam all in. Padda had pocket nines and he called. Vlachos was playing ace-eight and Fleury had pocket sevens. Padda was in an excellent position to send two players home and he did just that after a clean board was dealt. On another table, there was another elimination as Aleksander Da Silva Boski was eliminated. That means that Day 3 will start with just 30 players instead of 32.
Chip leader Iliev had a nice rush in the levels after the dinner break. ''I'm very tired'', said Iliev when asked about his day. ''For two days I didn't see a single pocket pair. Then today there were three big pots. I had aces in back-to-back hands and then in the next two hands queens - twice!''. Iliev will start in pole position on Day 3. Stokkan is in second place and he has been grinding steadily for the entire Day 2. Thorel closes the top 3 and he had a great last level of the day as well. They will battle it out for the first-place prize of €382,750 while they are all guaranteed to take home at least €8,930.
Day 3 will start at 12 p.m. local time on Tuesday, December 11. There are still 53 minutes and 24 seconds left in level 27 (30,000-60,000, big blind ante 60,000) when they kick off the tournament. PokerNews will be present from start to finish to provide live coverage.