PokerStars' Fintan Hand Bags Second-Biggest on Day 1b of $2,200 Eureka High Roller
PokerStars Ambassador Fintan Hand was one of the final of the 408 entries on Day 1b of the $2,200 Eureka High Roller at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus. He registered just after an unsuccessful bullet in Day 1a, right before the registration for Day 1b would close.
Like any of the late registrants, he was sat down with 30,000 chips, worth 20 big blinds at that point. However, Hand spun up his stack to an enormous mountain of 644,000 by the end of the day, worth 129 big blinds when play resumes on Day 2 and the second biggest of the 61 players who got in the money and progressed.
Hand steadily grinded his stack throughout the day, until he got on a late-night heater. First, he eliminated Brandon Sheils when Hand four-bet bluffed ace-three into Sheil's ace-queen. Hand hit a three to win the big pot, after which he held with aces against Ryan Mandara's nines only a few hands later.
Hand maintained his big stack throughout the bubble phase, only narrowly beaten by Mateusz Szymanski at the end of play. Szymanski bagged 684,000 on the hunt for his first PokerStars trophy, netting him a third position overall when Day 1a and 1b combine tomorrow. Other big stacks who progressed on Day 1b include Diogo Coelho, who busted Sergi Reixach during hand-for-hand play to gain a significant portion of his stack, and "Ratman" Lucien Cohen.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mateusz Szymanski | Poland | 684,000 | 137 |
| 2 | Fintan Hand | Ireland | 644,000 | 129 |
| 3 | Hassan Nashar | Gambia | 642,000 | 128 |
| 4 | Alessandro Pichierri | Italy | 562,000 | 112 |
| 5 | Mukhtor Nasiradinov | Russian Federation | 532,000 | 106 |
| 6 | Diogo Coelho | Portugal | 476,000 | 95 |
| 7 | Lucien Cohen | France | 378,000 | 76 |
| 8 | Grzegorz Popiolek | Poland | 367,000 | 73 |
| 9 | Alessandro Siena | Italy | 306,000 | 61 |
| 10 | Mahdi Mehraba | Cyprus | 299,000 | 60 |
Hand's fellow Team Pro Kenny Hallaert also survived Day 1b with a stack of 107,000. Other notables include EPT Main Event champions Arsenii Karmatckii (142,000) and Sebastian Malec (79,000), EPT Paris runner-up David Kaufmann (80,000), recent $10,200 Mystery Bounty winner Marcelo Manfredini (156,000) and European regulars like Krasimir Yankov (266,000), Simeon Spasov (152,000), and Antoine Labat (145,000).
Those who will have to wait until EPT Prague to be crowned Eureka High Roller champions include Stephen Song, Ren Lin, Mustapha Kanit, Samuel Ju, Jessica Teusl, Andrey Pateychuk, Boris Angelov, Nicolas Chouity, and Jon Kyte, all of whom fired one or more bullets on Day 1b but did not manage to make the money.
The 61 who did will reconvene at 12:30 p.m. local time at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa tomorrow, October 14, with the 145 survivors of Day 1a. Blinds will recommence in Level 16: 2,000/5,000 with a big blind ante of 5,000. The tournament is set to crown a winner tomorrow, so a marathon session might be in the cards for the returning players.
All 206 returning players are in the money, but exactly how the $2,610,600 prize pool which the 1,374 total entries created will be distributed remains unknown for now.
Check back in with PokerNews tomorrow to find out what exactly will be up for grabs for the $2,200 Eureka High Roller Champion and who will conquer the long road to that victory.