William Thorson raised from under the gun to 200 before action folded to Vladimir Mihailov in middle position. He reraised and made it 1,000 to go. In the very next seat was Jeff Sarwer. The once chess prodigy flat-called the three-bet and then play folded back around to Thorson. He, too, called and the three players went to the flop.
The flop came down and Thorson was first t act. The Swede checked, which prompted a bet of 1,500 from Mihailov. Sarwer called the bet, as did Thorson.
Fourth street produced the and Thorson checked to Mihailov again. Mihailov didn't bet this time, but instead passed the action to Sarwer. Sarwer fired 3,600. After a short pause, Thorson raised to 10,000 even. Mihailov got out of the way before Sarwer began to tank. He counted his own stack while thinking things through, but eventually tossed his hand into the muck and allowed Thorson to win the contest.
Slovakia's Team PokerStars Pro Dag Palovic is here, and we hope we can be forgiven for missing him the first time around. Palovic has shown up today in a long blond wig, a black dress, black frilly gloves, and he's got a gold purse on the table next to his chips.
Apparently there's been a prop bet that we're lacking the details of, so we'll try to go get those (and a photo, of course) in a moment.
With this tournament right in their backyards, the Czechs and the Slovaks have turned up in full force this week. Here's who we've spotted from the neighborhood so far.
We've already entered a whole slew of notables to our chip count page, so be sure to check that out and see who's here. Here's some more names we've spotted in the room.
Welcome back to the 2011 PokerStars.comEuropean Poker Tour Prague Main Event. Yesterday saw the event kick off with Day 1a and 234 runners come out to action. At the end of the first eight levels, Vedzizhev Beslan held the chip lead with 133 players remaining. Today's field should grow much larger with the eyes set on an overall field size of more than 600.
The World Poker Tour Prague event the wrapped up yesterday set the record for largest European WPT field in history, putting promising goals in store for this event. As it stands right now, there's already over 360 players registered for Day 1b.
A handful of Team PokerStars Pros played yesterday, but there will be another hefty batch of them today. Some of those expected to be in action representing the red spade are Eugene Katchalov, Lex Veldhuis, Juan Manuel Pastor, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Sandra Naujoks. We'll also be graced with the presence of reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champion and Team Pro Pius Heinz.
Play is set to kick off shortly at noon local time and another eight levels are on the slate. There will be a 15-minute break every two levels and no dinner break. Be sure to stay tuned right here to PokerNews for all of the action.