Action folded to Emil Bise who opened to 2,900 from the cutoff, the button folded, Sanjarbek Sabyrkulov called in the small blind and the big blind let his hand go.
On a flop of , Sabyrkulov checked, Bise bet 3,500 and Sabyrkulov called. The turn paired the board and Sabyrkulov checked again. This time Bise bet 2,000 and Sabyrkulov called.
The dealer peeled the on the river and now Sabyrkulov, who was first to act, bet 2,000 and Bise raised to 13,000. Sabyrkulov snapped called and Bise tabled for a king-high bluff and Sabyrkulov took down the pot with for top pair.
Andrea Ricci raised to 2,400 from early position before Gregoire Auzoux three-bet to 8,500 from the cutoff. Action folded back to Ricci who quickly four-bet to 18,000. Auzoux called.
The flop came and Ricci continued for 13,000. Auzoux called.
Action went check check on the turn.
The river was the and Ricci checked. Auzoux bet 35,000 which frustrated Ricci who rechecked his cards before folding.
Day 1 of the €10,300 EPT Prague High Roller has come to an end and PokerStars AmbassadorSam 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 AmbassadorAlejandro 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.