Massive Field, Huge Stacks, and a Wild Bubble Highlight Eureka Main Event Day 1c
A massive Day 1c field of 1,433 entries filled the King’s Casino Prague to create record-breaking numbers for the EPT Prague €1,100 Eureka Main Event.
The 1,433 unique entries were the most ever in a single flight for a Eureka / EPT Prague National Main Event, and before Day 1d had even begun, the record for total entries in the entire event had already been broken.
That news was just the beginning of the evening’s excitement as with such a huge field, nearly two extra levels of play were needed to reach the final 15% (215 players), who would advance to Day 2.
Once the dust finally settled, massive stacks had been created with Maxime Costas bringing 736,000 into Tuesday’s play. Not far behind him were Adam Polek (735,000) and Emmanuel Kahan (719,000), who will join Costas with the biggest stacks in the room to start Day 2.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxime Costas | France | 736,000 |
| 2 | Adam Polek | Czech Republic | 735,000 |
| 3 | Emmanuel Kahan | France | 719,000 |
| 4 | Mathias Siljander | Finland | 706,000 |
| 5 | Tal Herzog | Israel | 693,000 |
| 6 | Tomas Pleticha | Costa Rica | 691,000 |
| 7 | Mark Metsla | Estonia | 661,000 |
| 8 | Akseli Paalanen | Finland | 636,000 |
| 9 | Meir Avigal | Israel | 632,000 |
| 10 | Roman Blaha | Czech Republic | 606,000 |
Other notables to advance to Day 2 with healthy stacks include 2016 EPT Barcelona Main Event champion Sebastian Malec (390,000), 2016 WCOOP Main Event champion Jonas Lauck (284,000), and former EPT Prague champions Salvatore Bonavena (284,000) and Jasper Meijer Van Putten (175,000)
Big Names on the Bubble
Those extra two levels saw a lengthy ‘soft-bubble’, with among others, Vivian Saliba, David Lappin, and Julien Martini eliminated near the end of the night. Martini in fact was eliminated in 217th place, just two away from the bubble when his opponent flopped quad threes against Martini’s ace-king.
Dara O’Kearney was very short most of the late part of the evening, getting his final 50,000 in just three away from the money. His opponent chose to fold, and O’Kearney showed him pocket aces. The author and podcast host would squeeze that short stack over the finish line to advance to Day 2 with 97,000 chips.
Highlights of the Day
With so much action throughout the day, some wild hands occurred, including the classic aces versus kings cooler ending in a shocking way, and a player’s lapse in attention costing him his entire tournament.
Next Up, Day 2!
The final 214 players from this flight will now join the survivors of the three other flights for Day 2 at noon local time.
PokerNews will have you covered for all the rest of the action from this record-breaking event, and every event from EPT Prague.