Sebastian Mortensen Dominates Day 1b of EPT Prague €2,200 Eureka High Roller
With eight all-in and call situations on the bubble, it seemed like Day 1b of the €2,200 Eureka High Roller of the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour was never-ending, compared to the quick bubble of Day 1a which occurred at the same time. But here at the Hilton Prague, it finally burst with 62 players out of 416 entrants advancing to Day 2 and reaching the money.
In total, this event attracted 1,478 entries, which almost tied last year's 1,534 entrants, and generated a prize pool of €2,837,760.
But waiting for the payouts to be revealed, Sebastian Mortensen is probably dreaming of the big prizes as he ended up as the chip leader of 1b with 794,000 chips. "Did PokerNews write about me today?" he asked during the last hands. "Yes, when you had aces," answered our team. "Which one?" he immediately responded, laughing. At least, maybe his most important hand with aces was when he doubled through Niklas Astedt, winning a 340,000 chip pot.
However, he wasn't the only player to have a good run today, as Harun Ertural finished in second place not far behind, with 712,000 chips. He even missed the chip lead because of Michael Dwyer, who doubled through him (101,000) on the bubble.
Top Ten Day 1b Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Mortensen | Denmark | 794,000 | 66 |
| 2 | Harun Ertural | Germany | 712,000 | 59 |
| 3 | Jens-Florian Mueller | Germany | 560,000 | 47 |
| 4 | Giorgio Donzelli | Italy | 524,000 | 44 |
| 5 | Khazret Nebezhev | Russia | 500,000 | 42 |
| 6 | Yevgeneiy Golenko | Kazakhstan | 493,000 | 41 |
| 7 | Elias Fisz | Netherlands | 464,000 | 39 |
| 8 | Adrian Kyiak | Ukraine | 459,000 | 38 |
| 9 | Pablo Silva | Brazil | 443,000 | 37 |
| 10 | Peter Dorogi | Hungary | 419,000 | 35 |
Thanks to a big pot won just a few hands before the bubble, Pablo Silva is in the Top 10 of the day with 443,000 chips. Mario Trattou (336,000) and Damian Rapanowicz (305,000), who both doubled up on the bubble, are not far behind, along with Bruno Volkmann (256,000), Jorge Ufano (252,000) or Boris Angelov (227,000).
Roelof Pepping (187,000) bagged a bit less than the average stack, as did 2022 EPT Barcelona champion Giuliano Bendinelli (138,000), Julie Klein (125,000) and Ran Shahar, who started the day in the best possible way by doubling up in the first level.
However, from 60,000, he only managed to reach 104,000 chips by the end of the day, which is still more than seven times Maria Lampropulos' stack. With only half a blind, the 2018 PCA Main Event winner was forced to go all in from the big blind on the bubble. Fortunately, the coin landed on her side, and she ended the day with 14,000 chips. Only Umberto Ruggeri has fewer chips than her, with a single blind left (12,000).
With the 159 players who qualified through Day 1a, a total of 221 players will be back on Day 2 tomorrow, Monday, December 11 at noon local time. Play should resume on the shortest level played on a Day 1, so Level 17, which features 3,000/6,000 blinds with a 6,000 big-blind ante. Then it will continue until a winner is crowned.
Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action leading to the next Eureka High Roller champion!