Simon Lofberg Bags Day 2 Chip Lead in EPT Prague €10,300 EPT High Roller
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Day 2 of the 2019 PokerStars EPT Prague €10,300 EPT High Roller has seen 10 one-hour levels played to their completion and a field including many of the world’s best turned up with their sights set on advancing to the final day of one of the most prestigious events on the European Poker Tour.
Late registration was open until the start of play this afternoon, and 10 players showed up to add their names to the Day 2 roster of 117 that advanced from the 245 entries that were logged on the opening day of the tournament. That number was whittled down to 17, with Simon Lofberg (2,205,000) leading the way.
EPT Prague €10,300 High Roller Seating Draw
| Seat | Table 1 | Chip Count | Table 2 | Chip Count | Table 3 | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Greenwood | 110,000 | Rainer Kempe | 505,000 | Tsugunari Toma | 410,000 |
| 2 | Bhavin Khatri | 425,000 | Daniel Dvoress | 185,000 | Simon Pedersen | 505,000 |
| 3 | Masato Yokosawa | 1,685,000 | ||||
| 4 | Gianluca Speranza | 720,000 | George Wolff | 1,115,000 | ||
| 5 | Simon Lofberg | 2,205,000 | Kemal Aslan | 850,000 | ||
| 6 | Ludovic Geilich | 675,000 | Matthias Eibinger | 605,000 | ||
| 7 | Yunye Lu | 1,085,000 | Fahredin Mustafov | 460,000 | ||
| 8 | Thi Nguyen | 595,000 | Arsenii Karmatckii | 665,000 |
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Payout (EUR) | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €523,120 | $583,054 |
| 2 | €352,230 | $392,585 |
| 3 | €248,340 | $276,792 |
| 4 | €201,340 | $224,408 |
| 5 | €159,290 | $177,540 |
| 6 | €120,950 | $134,807 |
| 7 | €88,300 | $98,417 |
| 8 | €64,560 | $71,957 |
| 9 | €53,430 | $59,551 |
| 10-11 | €45,270 | $50,457 |
| 12-13 | €40,320 | $44,939 |
| 14-15 | €36,610 | $40,804 |
| 16-17 | €32,900 | $36,669 |
Other Big Stacks
Following in the counts are Masato Yokosawa (1,685,000), George Wolff (1,115,000), and Yunye Lu (1,085,000). Those four are the only ones above 1 million in chips, but they are far from the only familiar names set to return for Day 3.
The Day 3 lineup is loaded from top to bottom, even for a tournament of this stature. Ludovic Geilich (675,000), Matthias Eibinger (605,000), and Rainer Kempe (505,000) are a few more of the players to have bagged come the end of Day 2.
Tsugunari Toma (410,000), Daniel Dvoress (185,000), and Sam Greenwood also had chips in play when Day 2 ended, with the trio set to enter Day 3 as the bottom three on the leader board.
Day 2 Action
Players like Ryan Riess, Nick Marchington, Ognyan Dimov, and Jorryt van Hoof were among the Day 2 registrants, coming into the day just 25 big blinds. All of them found their ways to the rail before too long, bowing out with others like Jan-Eric Schwippert, Jose Quintas, and Adrian Mateos during the first few levels of play on the day.
Day 1 chip leader Omar Lakhdari was another player unable to get anything going, starting the day by doubling Michael Soyza and then losing a huge coin flip to Gianluca Speranzawhen his pocket tens were unable to hold against Speranza’s ace-queen to find himself down to 65,000. In total, his day lasted for less than three levels of play before finding the rail long before the tournament got into the money.
Meanwhile, Soyza, Sam Grafton, Jimmy Guerrero, and Uri Reichenstein built stacks to put them near the top of the counts. Arsenii Karmatckii joined the crowd moments later and would stay there as the rest would all find their ways to zero before the money was reached.
Big Stacks and Bubble Bursts
Ludovic Geilich and Matthias Eibinger were a couple of the reasons for big stacks falling, as Geilich doubled through Reichenstein in a hand where both players got stacks in with a flush. Geilich faded the one out Reichenstein had to a straight flush and sent him to the rail. Geilich remained a fixture near the top of the counts for the rest of the night, while Eibinger was able to tread water as the number of players left in the field continued to drop.
The bubble was reached near the end of Level 17, an hour after the dinner break, and it lasted only one hand as Ghattas Kortas got the last of his chips in with ace-queen suited and ran into Ashkan Fattahi’s pocket kings. Fattahi would subsequently later be eliminated in 18th place, just a handful of minutes before play ended for the evening.
Defending Champion Hecklen Bows Out
Anatoly Filatov and Viktor Katzenberger were also among the largest stacks in the room at different points in the day, and both players got into the money before stalling out.
Defending champion Henrik Hecklen’s run at defending his title ended when he finished the tournament in 28th place. Dvoress, on the other hand, started the day with a stack of 50,000. and rode a roller coaster that got him as high as 190,000 and back down to 60,000 before the second break of the day.
When the tournament reached the money, he was near the bottom of the counts with just 275,000 during Level 19 (6,000/12,000/12,000).
Field of Stars
Dvoress was among the company of EPT Prague High Roller champions Sam Greenwood and Tsugunari Toma when the redraw occurred. And they were not the only ones to have experienced success in earlier events: Eibinger, George Wolff, and Yake Wu were also present in the final 24.
Less than two full levels of play remained when the final three tables were reached, but the action didn’t stop. Katzenberger and Wu were just a couple of the eliminations over the final chunk of play in the evening, with Wu falling from grace after one point holding the chip lead with 1.3 million.
There was still time for a miraculous Greenwood revival, but he will still start the final day with just five big blinds.
Play will resume at 12:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday for Day 3 and is set to continue until a winner has been determined. Be sure to come back to PokerNews for continuing coverage of all the action along the road to victory as this tournament and the entire 2019 PokerStars EPT Prague festival looks to come to a close.
