Sam Grafton Leads the Way After Day 1 of the €10,300 EPT Prague High Roller
Day 1 of the €10,300 EPT Prague High Roller has come to an end and PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton sits atop the leaderboard after ten levels of play. The surviving field of 103 players will return tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. local time for Day 2 of this three-day event.
The tournament drew 253 entries on Day 1 to generate a prize pool of €2,454,100, and more are expected to jump in before registration closes at the start of Day 2.
Grafton holds the chip lead with the top stack of 389,000. Kannapong Thanarattrakul follows behind in second with 348,500 and Luis Faria finished up in third with 321,000. Kubanychbek Abakirov and Sam Greenwood round out the top five with 320,000 and 292,000, respectively.
€10,300 EPT Prague High Roller Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Grafton | United Kingdom | 389,000 | 259 |
| 2 | Kannapong Thanarattrakul | Thailand | 348,500 | 232 |
| 3 | Luis Pinho De Faria | Portugal | 321,000 | 214 |
| 4 | Kubanychbek Abakirov | Kyrgyzstan | 320,000 | 213 |
| 5 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 292,000 | 195 |
| 6 | Marius Kudzmanas | Lithuania | 263,000 | 175 |
| 7 | Mehdi Chaoui | Morocco | 231,500 | 154 |
| 8 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 213,500 | 142 |
| 9 | [Removed:431] | Germany | 213,000 | 142 |
| 10 | Nuri Hadioglu | Turkey | 213,000 | 142 |
Day 1 Action
The day got started with 32 players in their seats as the cards went in the air, and the field grew steadily throughout the afternoon. Some of the early runners included Ben Heath, Adrian Mateos, and Orpen Kisacikoglu. Heath and Kisacikoglu kept the run alive all day and they will return for Day 2, while Mateos bowed out before the end of the night.
Grafton chipped up early with a river bet against Norbert Szecsi, but the lion’s share of his stack came when his ace-king improved against the pocket tens of Mike Takayama to knock him out of the tournament and take the chip lead.
Other notable names stopped by, including past WSOP Main Event champions Hossein Ensan and Koray Aldemir. Ensan survived the day just outside the top 20 with 182,000, while Aldemir bowed out near the end of the night when he couldn’t improve against Besim Hot.
Additionally, players like PokerStars Ambassador Alejandro Lococo, Motoyoshi Okamura, Julien Martini, and Jack Sinclair will return for Day 2, along with Juha Helppi, Davidi Kitai, and Daniel Dvoress.
A few runners that took their shot but did not bag on Day 1 include Renat Bohdanov, Leonard Maue, Juan Pardo, Samuel Ju, and Giuliano Bendinelli, who was left with crumbs by Alex Kulev and knocked out by Teun Mulder just moments later. Kulev did not make it to Day 2, but Mulder will return with 165,500.
Play will continue on Day 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time in Level 11 with blinds at 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante. The plan is to play another ten 60-minute levels before returning on Day 3 for the finale.
Be sure to keep it here with the PokerNews team on Saturday for live coverage of the €10,300 High Roller at EPT Prague.