Antonius in Top Five After Day 1a of Main Event
A long Day 1a wrapped up at 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague with about 170 of 371 entries making it through, and a poker legend is among those at the top of the counts.
Finnish high-stakes veteran Patrik Antonius bagged up 209,600, good for an unofficial top-five stack, at the conclusion of 10 levels of play.
Antonius has made a triumphant return to tournament poker this year with nearly $5 million in cashes after several years of minimal tournament results. The EPT in particular has been good to him as he has two cashes in EPT Main Events already, including a sixth-place finish at EPT Monte Carlo for €139,050.
The chip lead, meanwhile, belongs to John Sarailis. The Greek player held a big lead over the final couple of levels and it only got bigger at the end when he was dealt pocket kings and busted an unfortunate opponent who grinded through the long day only to run his ace-king into the cowboys. That late hand pushed Sarailis to 297,400.
Other notables finished with big stacks included Xixiang Luo (241,900), Niall Farrell (200,300), Parker Talbot (191,900) and Andras Nemeth (159,900).
Nemeth came over midway through the day after busting in second to Matthias Eibinger in the €50,000 Super High Roller. He experienced some huge swings late but finished on a high note when he made a flush with pocket queens in a sizable pot to recoup some losses from when he ran into queens himself with pocket nines.
Players running dry on chips included Niklas Astedt, Jean-Noel Thorel and Charlie Carrel. Provided they've only fired once, they'll still be able to take a crack at this prize pool with Day 1b or Day 2 registration, as the tournament permits two entries total per player.
Day 1b gets rolling at noon local time here at Hilton Prague once again, and a big field is expected after a solid Day 1a turnout. Tune in to PokerNews for all of your live coverage needs.
and Niklas Astedt made it 13,500 in the hijack. Branco called and they took in the 
turn. Branco check-called 18,500 this time, and the river was the 
. Branco checked and Astedt moved in for 31,300.
when Astedt indicated it was a bluff. The dealer turned over Astedt's 
.
that hit the felt. However, the 
, Charlie Carrel checked in the small blind and faced a bet of 4,400 into about 11,000. He opted to shove all in for 27,000 effective and his opponent paused a beat then called.
and was surprised to see 
based on the pause.
and Carrel missed his draw and had to ship a double.
.
