Flight 1b, the second and final flight of the PokerStars European Poker Tour €2,200 Eureka High Roller, saw Christopher Brammer bag the biggest stack of the 475 strong field. He ascended to the top of the flights chip counts after 19 levels of play and has 603,000 chips heading into Day 2. He will be joined by 71 players from this flight returning tomorrow afternoon at 12.30 p.m local time at the stunning Hilton Prague.
This flight took the total amount of entries to 1,652, eclipsing the 1,468 seen at last years Prague stop. The 1,652 total entrants have generated a prize pool of €3,171,840.
It was only a few weeks ago since Brammer secured a score of £90,000 at the UKIPT Nottingham. He finished in 3rd place and is looking to add another big score to his $2,610,763 in total live tournament earnings.
He is pursued by Tomas Geleziunas who bagged a stack of 561,000. The Lithuanian is guaranteed his first EPT cash here in Prague but will be looking to continue to run deep during Day 2. His total lifetime live tournament earnings currently stand at $363,299.
Omar Del Pino laid claim to the final podium position in this flight, bagging 519,000. Del Pino has cashed in five different EPT events this year alone, with his cashes coming in Paris and Cyprus. The biggest of those cashes came in the €2,200 FPS High Roller in Paris. He finished fourth for €183,590 and will be looking to add a big score in the Eureka equivalent of the FPS event. .
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chips | Big Blind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christopher Brammer | United Kingdom | 608,000 | 76 |
| 2 | Tomas Geleziunas | Lithuania | 561,000 | 70 |
| 3 | Omar Del Pino | Spain | 519,000 | 64 |
| 4 | Maksym Filipovskyi | Ukraine | 517,000 | 64 |
| 5 | Markus Vogel | Germany | 506,000 | 63 |
| 6 | Benjamin Philipps | United Kingdom | 499,000 | 62 |
| 7 | enya Gavrilovich | Belarus | 455,000 | 56 |
| 8 | Iakovos Aletras | Greece | 425,000 | 53 |
| 9 | Parker Talbot | Canada | 405,000 | 50 |
| 10 | Sebastien Compte | France | 402,000 | 50 |
Outside of the top ten, some notable names that will be returning for Day 2 Ryan Mandara (271,000), EPT winners Robin Ylitalo (199,000) and Martin Finger (157,000), Juha Helppi (174,000) and Arthur Thiriart (106,000).
Notable absentees include, but are not limited to: PokerStars Ambassadors Fintan Hand and Marle Spragg, Andrew Hulme, Samuel Ju, David Docherty, Mathieu Di Meglio and Niklas Astedt.
Flight 1b Play
Hand made a strong start and was able to score an early double up by winning the classic race.
Vasileios Tsaknis and Martin Stausholm took turns on winning with the first hand preflop early in the day. Tsaknis had his kings cracked by Stausholm. Tskanis then got revenge as he cracked Stausholm's kings with jacks.
Despite joining the tournament late, PokerStars Ambassador Parker Talbot chipped up right from the start. He coolered Ruslan Zainullin to double up. Later on in the evening he had Pawel Krol pipped and was able to add to his growing stack.
Bubble Play
Due to the 20-minute levels, the eliminations came thick and fast en route to the bubble as the blinds increased, with multiple eliminations happening simultaneously across the tournament floor. Marcin Kreft won a three-way all in with aces. Ben Hershkovich also had a similar fate and lost with jacks to the aces of Iakovos Aletras.
The unfortunate victim of the bubble was Mercedes Osti. Her remaining 50,000 chips fell into the stack of Mandara after she moved all in from the big blind. Mandara called and flopped a flush leaving Osti drawing practically dead. She took the beat well and departed the tournament area calmly.
Play resumes at 12.30p.m. local time with the field in the money. Blinds at 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 at Level 18, due to Flight 1a finishing within that period. Levels last 40 minutes and the tournament will be played to its conclusion tomorrow, with the winner taking home a coveted Shard trophy and the lion's share of the prize pool.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of all the action from here in Czechia’s beautiful capital city.
