On the very first hand, Pascal Lefrancois opened to 2,500 from under the gun and Adrian Mateos three-bet to 8,000 in the cutoff. Lefrancois called and they went heads-up to a flop of .
Lefrancois checked to Mateos who continued with a bet of 6,000. Lefrancois check-raised to 18,000 and Mateos just called. The peeled off on the turn and Lefrancois checked again. Mateos tossed in a bet of 20,000 and Lefrancois called.
The river was the and Lefrancois checked for the third time. Mateos jammed all in for 54,000 and Lefrancois opted to lay his hand down. With a couple of time banks being used already, the first alone took seven minutes to complete.
The 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague festival is winding down and will see €25,000 NL Hold'em III kicking off this evening at 6 p.m. local time.
The third €25,000 high roller of the series, the two-day event is expected to draw a small field of the world's most accomplished poker players, including Mike Watson, Adrian Mateos, Fedor Holz, Sam Greenwood and Steve O'Dwyer, all of whom have been active this stop.
Should he take a seat today, British pro Ben Heath will be after his third high roller title of the series after taking down the earlier €25,000 events back-to-back for €227,130 and €273,710. He isn't the only grinder looking for a third title this stop as Rodrigo Seiji took down €10,200 Mystery Bounty at the start of the trip and went on to win the €50,000 EPT Super High Roller.
Players will begin the tournament with a starting stack of 100,000 chips and blinds of 500/1,000/,1000 with levels lasting 30 minutes in duration and 15-minute breaks at various intervals. The event features a shot clock from the start and each new entry will receive four time bank cards.
Late registration in the single reentry event will remain open until tomorrow, at which point the prize pool and payouts will be determined. Approximately 15% of the field will be paid and the event will play down to a winner on Day 2 on Dec. 18.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here at Hilton Prague to bring you updates on the high roller action. Check out the EPT Prague reporting hub in the meantime.