Hello and welcome to the fifth PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague!
Roberto Romanello will attempt defend his title at the Prague Hilton hotel over the next five days. Last year he beat a field of 563 to take home a first prize of €640,000!
So far a number of Team PokerStars pros have confirmed that they will be playing in the event including 2011 WSOP Main Event champion Pius Heinz.
If you're playing the event then tell us about it here!
Hey PokerStrategy.com, and welcome to the live ticker for World Poker Tour Prague!
After having covered the WPT Prague for the last few days, it is now time to shift our attention to the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour instead, and their events in the Hilton Hotel Prague.
I will do my best to make sure that you get all the details from all the PokerStrategists that are playing in the events, as well as other interesting players. There will of course as well be some pictures posted during the week!
The event his held at Hilton Hotel in Prague, and last year 563 players turned up for the event creating a nice first prize of €630,000. This is the fifth time EPT is held in Prague.
How many players we will see pay the buy in of €5,300 this year remains to be seen.
The event is played in the Hilton Hotel, and the Main Event we will see two starting days, Day 1A and Day 1B, and the final table will be played on Saturday the 10th of December.
We are starting the first day today at 13:00 GMT. The starting stack is 30k, with the blinds being 50/100 during the first level of play, and the blind levels being 60 minutes long.
So far PokerNoob and VojtaR has confirmed that they will be playing, but I have no information on what day they will be playing. Supposedly some of the other players that have been playing the WPT earlier will also turn up at the tables.
Are you playing yourself, or of you know of any members playing, please don't hesitate to drop a line in the thread and I'll do my best to find the players!
Also, should you have any questions to any of the players, please let me know and I'll do my best to try to find an answer for you!
Thats it for now, I will be back in a little while as soon as the tournament started off, with the first updates of the event.
Regards,
//Grindithard
So far 214 players registered for Day 1A, and amongst them is the PokerStrategist maddyhh.
Also Martins Adeniya is here.
A few pictures from the first walk around the tournament area
maddyhh
Stephen O'Dwyer and Martin Staszko right next to each other
Defending champion Roberto Romanello
November Niner Eoghan O'Dea sporting a colorful outfit
Team PokerStars Sports Star Fatima de Melo
Player number up to 225, and I have spotted a couple of more PokerStrategists at the table, like philgruissem and FA_Morgoth.
Other players spotted is Marvin Rettenmaier and Steve O'dwyer.
Spoke quickly to FA_Morgoth who was a little annoyed that even though not even half of the tables were in use, they where playing 9-handed. He was already getting bored.
After some hassle I have finally managed to get ahold of a "Very early Day 1A players list", which I'm gonna browse through right now to see if I can catch some more names that would be interesting to follow through out the day.
I'm sorry for the long time between the posts in these early stages, but as usual there is a lot of stuff to sort out, and the arrangements are not as smooth as you would expect and wishes them to be.
I have got some chip counts for you, and it's good news:
philgruissem: 46k
FA_Morgoth: 45k
maddyhh and Schmette are both at startingstack of 30k.
One thing, which surprised me a little was that Gus Hansen just showed up! He was seated on the same table as FA_Morgoth. Morgoth in seat #8, and Hansen in seat #2.
The third level of the day just started, with blinds 100/200. The number of players are now up to 243.
Originally posted by Grindithard
The third level of the day just started, with blinds 100/200. The number of players are now up to 243.
It actually starts just now, there was just a break that I was not aware of.
Just a few more pictures of the most notable players...
Gus Hansen is here and bought in!
Daniel 'jungleman12' Cates tries his luck, too
Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgensen
philgruissem
FA_Morgoth aka Florian Langmann
Schmette
Gus Hansen just lost some of his chips, when his opponent bet 6,600 on the board of KT3-2 and Gus had to fold.
Another Dane found in the field is Theo Jorgensen.
Also, Suppenkasper has been spotted at the tables, so we are now up to 5 PokerStrategists.
FA_Morgoth is down to 24k, after losing with A-Q vs J-K in a 4-bet pot, and the board came JJQ - x - x.
Kent Lundmark is up to 48k
Gus Hansen is down below 20k
I got to table #4 where both maddyhh, Schmette and James Akenhead are seated, just in time to see 5 players limp in to the pot, giving maddyh a free flop from the BB.
Flop was 4:d 6:s 7:d, and SB checked to maddyh who bet out 600. One player called before it was back to SB who also made the call, so three players to the turn: K:h.
SB checked again, and maddyhh now made it 1,300, and both players called again.
River J:s, and it was checked around.
maddyhh turned over K:d 9:d for a missed flushdraw but the top pair, which was good enough to take down the pot. He is now up to over 40k
Schmette has 32k
Suppenkasper is down to 15,5k
James Akenhead was sitting with a healthy stack of 46k
Here is a little overview of the playing area:
Overview by PokerStrategy.com, on Flickr
Right now I will attend a press conference with Pius Heinz, so the next update might be in a little while, but I'll be back as soon as the press conference is over.
Players are now on a short break, and level 5 - 150/300/25 will start in a few minutes.
A recap of the press conference will be posted shortly!
PLEASE NOTE: This is not an interview made by me, but a collection of some of the questions that were asked during the press conference today.
Pius Heinz during the press conference:
Pius Heinz in press conference by PokerStrategy.com, on Flickr
Pius came in to the conference looking very relaxed and in a good mood, and at first it seemed like the press only wanted photos, but as time went by the questions started kicking off, here are a few of them:
What are you going to do with the money you won:
- Invest them wisely and conservative, not gamble or put in money in unsecure investments.
Whats your favourite sports?
- Basketball, Football and Cycling.
How many EPTs have you played?
- Two with this one, the other one was Barcelona this year where I did not cash, but won a €500 side event.
Do you have any idols in poker?
- No, not proper idols, but of course there are players who I look up to and like a little extra, like Phil Galfond.
How did you start to play poker?
- I watched the Main Event on TV and liked what I saw, so in the beginning me and some friends started having home games once a week playing like €1/2 games, and then it has continued from there.
How much value and status would you put in to winning another bracelet, compared to winning other tournaments?
- Of course it would be sweet to win another bracelet, and I have also always liked mixed games, and since it is easier to win or at least final table a tournament like the Stud Hi/Lo during the WSOP, because of the smaller starting fields, I will definitely focus on that and do my best to win one of those kind of tournaments.
What about travelling, where will you focus on playing in the future?
- I have never been to the caribbean, so it will be cool to go there in January for the PCA, but I will focus on playing in Europe since I don't like too long flights, and there are definitely enough value in the tournaments here in Europe.
For how long do you think you will be playing poker?
- I think I will always be playing poker in some way, but not for more than 2-3 years as a proper professional player. After those years I will probably look at going back to some kind of studies, while at the same time playing some events now and then.
So, that was what I managed to pick up during the press conference, and now it's back to the tables to see what has been going on during the last level that was played before the break.
Schmette is out, I was told that it was kind of a bad beat with A-A vs T-T, and a T on the board.
Some chipcounts:
PokerStrategists:
FA_Morgoth: 9,5k
philgruissem: 25k
maddyhh: 33k
Suppenkasper: 14k
Other:
Theo Jorgensen: 36k
Gus Hansen: 39k
James Akenhead: 70-75k
Michael Keiner: 70k+
philgruissem is out!
His opponent in MP raised preflop, and phil 3-bet from CO and got called.
Flop 994, check-bet-call
Turn Q, same story again
River 3 that completes a flushdraw, and this time phil ships his last chips to represent it, gets called, and mucks his 67s bluff. Opponent shows a Q.
Kent Lundmark wins a nice pot and keeps on building his stack.
I get to the table on the flop A:d 6:d 7:c, when Lundmark bets 1k, and gets called by his opponent who had first checked
Turn 6:s, check from his opponent, bet 2,3k from Lundmark, and call again.
River K:c, and same thing again, only this time Lundmark bets 9k and gets called.
Lundmark has A-T to take down the pot.
We are on a new blindlevel - 200/400/50.
There are 193 players left, and the number of players starting the day have been corrected to 234. Average stack is 36,373.
