Mircea Flutur Leads Final 45 in Day 1a of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event
After 15 levels of play and a few minutes into Level 16, 45 players have made it through to Day 2 of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event here at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague which takes place in the beautifully decorated Hilton Prague. Day 1a attracted a total of 304 players to the first of four starting flights with Mircea Flutur grabbing the chip lead with a total of 772,000.
Flutur used his aggressive style to continuously build his stack including nearing the end of the night when he check-raised a multi-way flop and blasted all in to put Berthold Winz to the test.
Day 1b also got underway, reaching a total of 122 entries. Two more flights are on the schedule as Day 1c begins at 12:00 p.m. and Day 1d starts at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 7th.
Eureka Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mircea Flutur | Romania | 772,000 | 154 |
| 2 | Christian Ly | France | 571,000 | 114 |
| 3 | Komil Khamidov | Poland | 493,000 | 99 |
| 4 | João Mestre Ferreira | Mexico | 481,000 | 96 |
| 5 | Joonas Helin | Finland | 411,000 | 82 |
| 6 | Tomas Chmela | Slovakia | 363,000 | 73 |
| 7 | Alejandro Vazquez | Spain | 344,000 | 69 |
| 8 | Adrian Ibanescu | Romania | 316,000 | 63 |
| 9 | Spiridon Apartoglou | Greece | 305,000 | 61 |
| 10 | Roberto Corbelli | Switzerland | 295,000 | 59 |
Numerous notables have already found a bag to enter Day 2, including Conor Beresford (257,000), Daniel Budin (254,000), along with PokerStars Ambassadors Talbot Parker (194,000) and Alejandro Lococo (155,000).
A host of poker's top names turned out for Day 1a, but were unable to make it into the final 15% of the field. The likes of
Jason Wheeler, Benjamin Spragg, Marle Spragg, Felix Schneiders, Joao Sydenstricker and Daisuke Ogita all fell short of navigating the first hurdle.
Following Flutur at the end of the night was Christian Ly, bagging second in chips with 571,000. Ly continuously grew his stack throughout the day, including when his pocket queens sent Miguel Fluxa to the rail.
The bubble burst quickly, as two players were eliminated at the same time, advancing the remaining players to Day 2 without the hand-for-hand period. The 45 Day 1a advancers have all locked up the min-cash which will be determined when the rest of the Day 1s play out.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site and will be back tomorrow for continued coverage of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event.