Toma Takes First Chip Lead in the €10,300 NLHE at EPT Prague
The first chip leader of the 2019 European Poker Tour Prague is Tsugunari Toma from Japan with 219,000 in chips in the €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em event in Hilton Prague. The first event of a whopping 47 on offer over almost two weeks attracted 54 entries which easily surpassed the 38 entries it collected in 2018 and the 49 in 2017. Out of those 54 entries, 27 players bagged chips for Day 2 which will start at 1 p.m. local time on Saturday, December 7.
Toma joined the field in the third level of the day and steadily kept building up his stack throughout the day. Toma is a regular at the PokerStars events and collected his biggest cash ever when he finished in 5th place in the €100,000 Super High Roller in EPT Barcelona a few months ago for €496,740. His second-biggest cash was worth €191,840 when he finished as the runner-up in the 25,000 Single-Day right here in Prague last year behind Corentin Ropert.
Toma is followed in the chip counts by Orpen Kisacikoglu. Kisacikoglu’s first bullet was stopped by Jorryt van Hoof who flew into Prague fresh from a high roller win in Amsterdam. But Kisacikoglu’s second bullet went way more successful as he collected 162,000 in chips for Day 2 which will be worth 65 big blinds at the start of the day.
Closing out the podium are two players with the same exact stack of 160,500: Anton Yakuba and Michael Soyza. Yakuba earned a double-up through Yake Wu at some point during the day and kept adding on chips while Soyza made a splash during the later levels of the day. Thomas Boivin, Daniel Dvoress, and Davidi Kitai all cashed in this event last year and bagged chips for Day 2 to try and repeat or better their previous results.
€10,300 No-Limit Hold'em Top 5 Chip Counts after Day 1
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsugunari Toma | Japan | 219,000 | 88 |
| 2 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | 162,000 | 65 |
| 3 | Michael Soyza | Malaysia | 160,500 | 64 |
| 4 | Anton Yakuba | Russia | 160,500 | 64 |
| 5 | Kahle Burns | Australia | 151,500 | 61 |
The defending champion Akin Tuna fired two bullets today and both missed their targets. He first lost all his chips to Toma and then got his last entry busted by Van Hoof. More players who fired twice today and won’t be back are Wu, Sam Grafton and Ben Heath. Players like Sam Greenwood, Stephen Chidwick, and Sergio Aido busted once today but registration is still open until the start of Day 2, so they could still return to the felt to try again.
High Roller regulars like Matthias Eibinger, Jean-Noel Thorel, and Adrian Mateos are also still in. Seth Davies busted in one of the last hands of the night but reentered just to bag up his chips for Day 2. Steve O’Dywer also bought in at the end of the day and bagged his chips immediately for Day 2 instead of playing.
As mentioned before, Day 2 will start at 1 p.m. local time in the Chez Louis salon on the mezzanine level of the hotel. The day will commence with Level 11 which features a small blind of 1,000, big blind of 2,500, and a big blind ante of 2,500. The players bagged up their remaining 30-second time bank cards from today and another three will be added at the start of play. Another three will be handed out to them when they reach the final table. A 15-minute break has been scheduled after every three levels and play will continue until the first winner in Prague can be crowned.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the moment the first bag gets opened until the final card has been dealt, so make sure to return for all the action!