Bubble Bursts on EPT Prague Main Event Day 2; Shibaldin Wins Platinum Pass

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Dec 13, 2019 3 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

An exciting day of poker at the Hilton Prague has concluded as Day 2 of the 2019 PokerStars EPT Prague €5,300 EPT Main Event has come to an end after five levels of 90 minutes. Another 19 players entered with a fresh stack of 30,000 to boost the field size of the flagship event in the Czech capital to 1,154 entries, and the third-biggest EPT Prague Main Event in 13 years has subsequently created a prize pool of €5,596,900.

Before the cards got in the air, there was excitement in the tournament area as the PokerStars online qualifiers who made it to Day 2 took part in a Crazy Pineapple Flipout for a Platinum Pass. Russia's Evgenii Shibaldin, who has just one live cash for fewer than $2,000 to his name, was the fortunate winner but didn't fare as well in the Main Event after and busted well before the money.

Several hours later in the last level of the night, it was a different kind of excitement as the bubble burst and more than two dozen hopefuls headed to the payout desk while 141 survivors have made it one step closer to becoming the next EPT Main Event champion.

Roman Herold was a big stack throughout the day and bagged up 769,000 to his name, a single chip ahead of Xiaqing Ji (768,000) as the duo pulled ahead of Bryn Kenney (656,000) at the very end. Other notables with big stacks include 2019 EPT Open Sochi runner-up Giorgiy Skhulukhiya (634,000), Luke Marsh (626,000), Giuseppe Carbone (611,000), start-of-day chip leader Pierre Calamusa (601,000) and Teun Mulder (573,000).

Top 10 Stacks After Day 2

Several Former EPT Champions Remain in the Field

Several former EPT champions had a strong showing on Day 2 such as Dominik Panka (497,000), Ognyan Dimov (313,000), Aliaksei Boika (220,000), Hossein Ensan (180,000), Mikalai Pobal (162,000), Sebastian Sorensson (148,000) Martin Finger (118,000), Steve O'Dwyer (101,000), Davidi Kitai (93,000), and PokerStars ambassador Kalidou Sow (70,000) kept their hopes of a second EPT Main Event title alive.

Among the big names that didn't make it through and bowed out before the money were former champions Jan Bendik, Arsenii Karmatckii, Sebastian Malec, Maria Lampropulos, Bertrand Grospellier, and former EPT finalists such as Parker Talbot, Per Linde, David Boyaciyan and Gleb Tremzin to name just a few.

Money Bubble Bursts

The money bubble burst in the last level of the night and it was Sami Shokry that became the last player to leave empty-handed without anything to show for when he flopped top pair with jack-six suited in three-way action. Yehuda Cohen had the best of it with pocket aces and that secured all remaining 167 players a min-cash of €8,960.

Two former EPT champions were among those to settle for exactly that amount as Simon Brandstrom and Adrian Mateos were among the casualties before bagging and tagging. Mateos was primed for a double up with ace-king against the ace-queen suited of Tomas Paiva but a queen on the flop spelt the end for Spaniard, who had already won a High Roller event during the festival.

Ultimately, only 141 players bagged up for the night and will return to their seats at 12 p.m. noon local time for Day 3, which will recommence with blinds of 2,000-5,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000. Another five levels of 90 minutes each are expected to be played to whittle the field down further.

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