Yesterday, the main room of the Hilton Hotel Prague convention center was filled with high rollers all waging €10,000 to battle it out.
191 unique players and 56 reentries made for 247 entries total so far, but registration remains open until the start of play today, so that number might even just grow a little.
103 out of 247 players survived Day 1 of this three-day event. Day 2 will commence today at 12:30 p.m. local time and blinds will resume at 1,000/2,000 with a running ante of 300.
Since late registration remains open until cards are in the air, the total prize pool and payout information will be announced as soon as Day 2 gets underway. The same goes for the table draw, to not give late entrants an unfair advantage, that draw won't be available till right before the event gets underway again.
As always, PokerNews will be on hand to provide all the live coverage of this exciting event.
From middle position, Ivan Luca opened for 4,500 and David Peters called from the cutoff. On the button, Viktor Ustimov started tanking. When the clock struck zero, he used a time bank to get another half minute. With just 1 second to go, he moved in for 47,000.
The blinds folded right away and Luca asked for a count. He needed a lot of time but eventually folded.
Peters needed even more time, using a time bank card before eventually calling.
David Peters:
Viktor Ustimov:
"It's always aces," Orpen Kisacikoglu said about Ustimov tanking and then shipping.
"So obvious!" Parker Talbot added.
The flop came helping Peters in front. The on the turn made things even better for him and Ustimov got up and never even saw the on the river.
"That felt very premeditated," Talbot continued as Ustimov was already out the door.
From early position, Kfir Ivgi opened for 6,000. Kenny Hallaert three-bet to what appeared to be 20,000 from the hijack. Ping Lin in the cutoff used a time bank card to make up his mind but eventually folded.
When the action got back to Ivgi, he casually made it 46,000 to go. Hallaert asked for a count and eventually moved in for about 250,000. Ivgi snap-called.
Kfir Ivgi:
Kenny Hallaert:
The board ran out which made Hallaert drawing dead on the turn.
We missed the pre-flop action but Felipe Ramos told us later that Nick Petrangelo had opened under the gun and Danut Chisu had three-bet to 21,000 from the cutoff. Petrangelo called.
Petrangelo checked on and called the 25,000 bet that followed from Chisu.
Both players checked on the turn and the completed the board. Petrangelo checked again and Chisu bet 70,000. Petrangelo moved in for 116,000 total, 46,000 more to Chisu.
Chisu tanked for quite a bit, using two time bank cards in the process to get two minutes of extra time.
"This would be a sick slowroll!" Petrangelo said to his neighbor who nodded in agreement.
Eventually, with just a few seconds left to act, Chisu called.
Petrangelo showed for the flopped full house, Chisu mucked but his hand was shown to be .
Felipe Ramos was one of the seven players buying in at the start of the day, but he's now just been eliminated.
According to Ramos, the hijack opened in a hand where the big blind was missing. Ramos shoved for 60,500 from the cutoff. The blinds folded, the initial raiser called with while Ramos tabled offsuit.
Ramos outflopped his opponent as it came . The on the turn was still save too, but the on the river definitely wasn't for Ramos.
We found Christopher Kruk all in for 160,000 effective. The board had run out and the pot looked to contain at least 300,000. Artan Dedusha was in the tank a couple of seats over, apparently having already used two time extensions. He then engaged in a heated discussion with the dealer about his third, with the dealer contending he'd already used it up. Ultimately, Dedusha was given 30 more seconds.
"Well, guys..." he said before calling off.
"Aces," Kruk said, showing .
"Ahhhh," Dedusha replied, pitching his cards into the muck. The dealer showed for a backdoor flush.
Fahredin Mustafov cleared up how it all went down with a couple of questions to his fellow players.
"This was a four-bet pot, yeah?" asked he asked. "And then three-barrel?"
Someone answered in the affirmative to both queries.
Hossein Ensan checked from the big blind on an flop and Jake Cody bet 20,000 into 31,000 on his left. Ensan called and the turn brought the . Ensan came out betting with 20,000 and Cody called. The river was the and Ensan bet 30,000. Cody moved all in and Ensan called right away.
Cody revealed for top boat but Ensan had turned quads with .
it folded to Bernhard Haider in the cutoff and he opened for 12,000. The button folded but small blind Sergio Aido had bigger plans and raised to 47,500. The big blind gave up and the decision was back on Haider. He shoved for what appeared to be around 280,000. Aido called instantly.
Bernhard Haider:
Sergio Aido:
The board ran out and Haider hit the rail while Aido neared the 1 million mark.