With the holiday season fast approaching, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for poker’s best to make that big score to cover the presents being given. Thus, the European Poker Tour’s stop in Prague, the Czech Republic at the Hilton Prague Hotel is a welcome sight for the crème of European poker as the battle it out for the final EPT championship of 2015.
After the two-Day Ones for the World Poker Tour drew in 255 total entries last week, there was some concern over the potential for the EPT event (the different buy-ins, €3000 for the WPT and €5000 for the EPT, also brought reason for concern). Those concerns would prove to be for naught, however, as the tables around the Hilton Prague were stocked with players from around the world. Neil Blumenfield, the third place finisher at this year’s World Series of Poker Championship Event, was on the felt from the start, enjoying his time beside the Danube.
Blumenfield wasn’t the only notable name who would find his way to the tables on Day 1A. Donnacha O’Dea, Craig McCorkell, Jani Sointula, Dominik Nitsche, Martin Finger, Anton Wigg, Morten Mortensen, Pierre Neuville (who oddly was seated with his fellow “November Niner” Blumenfield once he got his chips), Rhys Jones and Mike Watson all came to the baize eventually as the tournament worked through the late registration period. By the time it was cut off, Juha Helppi, Jason Mercier, Ole Schemion, Dario Sammartino, Alex Kravchenko and Mike McDonald would add their names to a growing list of contenders.
You can’t win the tournament on the first day of the event, but it is also true that you cannot win a poker tournament if you’re no longer in said event. That was the unfortunate end for both Blumenfield and Neuville, who were out of the tournament before the dinner break came. They were joined in a long dinner by such players as reigning WSOP Europe Main Event champion Kevin MacPhee and Mustapha Kanit as the evening unfolded.
Back from the dinner break, there were several players to watch in the upper echelons of the leaderboard. 2013 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Adrian Mateos was comfortably ensconced in the Top Ten with his 112,000 and former WPT champion Andy Hwang sat a little further back with his 92K in chips, but Ghattas Kortas was at the helm with a stack of 160,000 chips (or more than five times the starting chips of 30K). Kortas would stay in the upper reaches of the leaderboard, but he would be unable to hold that lead as new contenders emerged from the pack.
Hwang, who was responsible for the elimination of Neuville from this tournament, was the first to make a charge, moving up to 140K in taking a pot off of Mikal Blomlie. Hwang wouldn’t be able to maintain the run, though, as he dropped back under the 100K line by the end of the night. Raine Kempe, who finished third in the WPT’s trip to the Playground Poker Club in Montreal in November, made a run at the top, but he would come up a bit short with his 137,400. Even Mateos’ great day was overshadowed by the man who will sleep very well after Day 1A, Anton Astapau.
1. Anton Astapau, 190,600
2. Ghattas Kortas, 151,200
3. Adrian Mateos, 150,200
4. Raine Kempe, 137,400
5. Sonny Franco, 129,900
6. Charlie Carrel, 120,500
7. Preben Stokkan, 116,000
8. Andy Hwang,99,200
9. Anton Wigg, 90,000
10. Ilkin Amirov, 85,000
Day 1B will be set to take off in Prague at noon local time (6AM Eastern Time) and will feature a whole new cast of characters. While it might not hit the mark set by the 2014 version of this tournament (where a whopping 1107 players trekked to the felt), it is still lining up to be a very large field for the overall event. The tournament will have Day 2 play begin on Saturday and the champion of the EPT Prague will be determined on Wednesday.