Silviu Baltateanu bet the turn and then called all-in following the raise by Andreas Boelling. The Romanian tabled the and had the check mark already as Boelling only held , which made the river a formality.
Baltateanu then also knocked out Kenny Hallaert to chip up further.
Hossein Madani got a fairly large stack in preflop during the final hands of the night and found his dominated. Georgi Sandev had the superior and remained ahead throughout the board to eliminate Madani.
Fabian Spielmann three-bet jammed his last 16,400 on a neighbouring table a few moments later and was looked up by Jordan Westmorland.
Fabian Spielmann:
Jordan Westmorland:
The two overcards were alive on the flop and turn but the river kept Spielmann in contention.
The first of two starting days for the crown jewel of the rescheduled 2021 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague festival has concluded in the Czech capital. It was a very promising start for the €5,300 EPT Main Event in the King's Casino at the Hilton Hotel Prague as 377 unique players and 41 reentries created a field of 418 total entries.
It surpassed the 391 entries the very same tournament attracted during the last live edition back in 2019 and showcases a strong turnout across all events so far during the return to live poker for PokerStars' flagship series. After ten levels of 60 minutes each, only 134 players advanced and a familiar name appeared at the top of the leaderboard. The 2018 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Jack Sinclair sailed through the day and accumulated a stack of 317,900. He was very closely followed by Sharon Sade (312,200) while Ezequiel Waigel (258,800) occupies the final spot on the overnight podium.
EPT Prague €5,300 Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Counts
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds for Day 2
1
Jack Sinclair
United Kingdom
317,900
199
2
Sharon Sade
Israel
312,200
195
3
Ezequiel Waigel
Argentina
258,800
162
4
Daniel Dvoress
Canada
237,200
148
5
Boaz Madhala
Israel
227,700
142
6
Manuel Fischer
Germany
211,600
132
7
Shai Arbel
Israel
209,400
131
8
Gergely Kulcsar
Hungary
183,300
115
9
Duco ten Haven
Netherlands
177,200
111
10
Daniele Lunario
Italy
175,600
110
Notables with above average stacks include Daniel Dvoress (237,200), Manuel Fischer (211,600), Karolis Sereika (169,000), Manuel Fritz (157,700), Pablo Brito Silva (126,700), Teun Mulder (115,800), Conor Beresford (114,800), Martin Pineiro (111,100), and Jordan Westmorland (109,600) to name all but a few familiar faces of the live poker circuit.
The PokerStars ambassadors Ramon Colillas (147,000) and Alejandro "Papo MC" Lococo (139,200) also had a productive day at the poker tables and advanced with very healthy stacks. For Lococo, it was a stellar finish to a remarkable day as he won the €1,100 Eureka Main Event earlier on before late-regging the marquee event. Steve Enriquez will join them for Day 2 with 53,300 while Sam Grafton and Parker Talbot were both eliminated.
Former EPT Main Event champions to bow out included Kalidou Sow, Davidi Kitai, Jasper Meijer Van Putten, Piotr Nurzynski, Simon Brandström, Ognyan Dimov, and Hossein Ensan. More fortunate were Uri Gilboa (80,000), Remi Castaignon (77,500), Dominik Panka (66,800), and Dimitar Danchev (64,700), as they all retained the chance to become the third two-time champion in EPT history.
The rise of Waigel started very early on as he dominated the first half of the day and quickly amassed a massive stack, soaring past seven times what he started with prior to the dinner break. Sinclair followed on his heels after winning several larger showdown pots and eventually rose to the top in the final level, beating Sade by a few big blinds only.
The High Roller regulars Thomas Muehloecker and Tom Vogelsang were just two of numerous notable casualties throughout Day 1a. Muehloecker was on the wrong end of a cooler when he improved on each street to a full house with ace-seven suited only to run into the aces full of Santiago Plante. For Vogelsang, the end came with a dominated pocket pair as fours couldn't beat the kings of Ranno Sootla. Other casualties in the first of two flights were Norbert Szecsi, Johan Guilbert, Christian Rudolph, Andras Nemeth, Vojtech Ruzicka, Mustapha Kanit, Nikita Luther, Kenny Hallaert, Alexandros Kolonias, Alexandros Theologis, and Vivian Saliba.
With nearly two thirds of the contenders already gone, all those that bowed out just once can take advantage of the single re-entry option for the flagship tournament. A significantly bigger field is expected for Day 1b, which will get underway at noon local time on Friday, March 11, 2022. The late registration remains open until the start of Day 2 and that's also when the live stream on the PokerStars Twitch and YouTube channels will kick off as well.
As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor from start to finish to provide as many of the key hands as possible en route to crowning the next EPT Main Event champion.