For the third consecutive year, the European Poker Tour Prague Main Event has reached new heights, with a record-breaking 1,458 entrants converging at the Hilton Prague to chase EPT glory. Of those, just 191 remain in contention for the title of Main Event Champion and the €1,146,500 first-place prize — the largest share of the €7,071,300 prize pool.
Leading the pack is Yauheni Tsiareshchanka, who managed to bag up 955,000 by the time the last hand was dealt. Tsiareshchanka, who entered the Main Event fresh off a victory in the Cuatro Knockout event, received a huge boost to his stack after turning a set of aces against Gianfranco Iaculli flopped set of fives to double up. Tsiareshchanka was able to steadily increase his stack from that point onwards and was the only player to breach the 900k chip mark.
Hot on Tsiareshchanka's heels is Sylwia Studniarz, who managed to end with an impressive 842,000. Studniarz only has two recorded live cashes on the Hendon Mob; however, one of them is a win from an EPT Ladies Event in Barcelona last year for €10,670.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chip Count | Day 3 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yauheni Tsiareshchanka | Belarus | 955,000 | 191 |
| 2 | Sylwia Studniarz | Poland | 842,000 | 168 |
| 3 | Anton Bergstrom | Sweden | 715,000 | 143 |
| 4 | Pierre Calamusa | France | 700,000 | 140 |
| 5 | Luke Porter | United Kingdom | 696,000 | 139 |
| 6 | Jacob Amsellem | France | 695,000 | 139 |
| 7 | Marian Virlanuta | Romania | 586,000 | 117 |
| 8 | Cesar Garcia | Spain | 585,000 | 117 |
| 9 | Konstantinos Nanos | Greece | 555,000 | 111 |
| 10 | Alexander Ivarsson | Sweden | 539,000 | 108 |
Action of the Day
Day 2 began with 69 new entrants joining the 464 returning players from both starting flights with hopes of quickly running up a stack. While most fizzled out early, including Thomas Santerne, Juha Helppi, Fabrice Bigot, and Parker Talbot, PokerStars ambassador Fintan Hand got off to a hot start after eliminating Alessandro Siena early on.
Meanwhile, fellow PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton spent a good part of the day on the feature table and even managed to flop quads to bust Thomas Swensen. It was a bumpy road for Grafton, however, as he only mananged to bag a below-average stack worth 93,000. Grafton shared a few words on his EPT Prague experience thus far and poker in general at the end of the day:
"It's a deluxe tournament, so it takes a lot, being on the feature table with a lot of really good players. I'm used to playing tournaments where if you make Day 3 you're either down to the last three or four players or you've won it! So this is really a long haul, but I'm just excited for a deep run," Grafton explained.
"There's a huge appetite for live poker and I think that people want two things: good tournaments with good structures. Plus reasonable rake, good dealers and then a great location to go to — and Prague has all of that. It sounds simple, but it's hard to get those."
While Grafton was able to earn a Day-3 berth, many other notables were no so fortunate. Among those who were present in Day 2 but fell short of the money include Vanessa Kade, Kenny Hallaert, Robin Ylitalo, and William Kassouf — who ran jacks into aces in the second level of the day.
The money bubble didn't take long, as two players busted at two separate tables just a few rounds into hand-for-hand play. Bogdan Munteanu was the first player to bust in particularly brutal fashion after getting all in with kings against Luke Porter's aces. Munteanu flopped a set of kings to take the lead, but Porter turned a set of aces to end Munteanu's run. At another table, Adi Rajkovic suffered a milder beat after getting all in with ace-jack and getting outflopped by Anton Kraous' king-ten. The simultaneous elimination meant that both players split a min-cash for €4,275 each.
A handful of other notables were awarded a min-cash of €8,550 after getting eliminated in the half hour between the bubble bursting and Day 2 ending, including Merijn Van Rooij, Morten Klein, Duco ten Haven, and Hand, who suffered a bad beat on the river against Scott Hall with just a few hands remaining.
Other notables to watch out for in Day 3 include Jerry Odeen (495,000), Max Neugebauer (363,000), Leo Margets (227,000), EPT Main Event champions Davidi Kitai (194,000) and Padraig O'Neill (134,000), and WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad (124,000).
Day 3 will get underway tomorrow at noon local time on Level 16, which features 2,000/5,000 blinds with a 5,000 big-blind ante. A 30-second shot clock will be implemented from Day 3 onwards, with each player receiving six time bank cards to use at their discretion.
Everyone remaining has already locked up a cash of at least €8,550, but with a seven-figure payday awaiting the eventual winner, the action is sure to be fierce as players continue to navigate their way to the final table.
Be sure to get all the latest updates from PokerNews as we continue to cover the action right up until the latest EPT Main Event champion is crowned!
