The World Poker Tour has its engines in full throat, with two tournaments in action in the United States and the Czech Republic. For the European version of the WPT’s “two-step,” Day Two has come to a close in Prague with Marco Lang at the helm of the field.
Three Day Ones built a formidable field of 567 players, one of the largest events for the WPT on European soil, with Mikhail Mazunin taking the honor of chip leader for the three days of action. He was faced with a host of notable contenders as the 287 survivors came together for the first time, with such international players as Pasi Heinanen, Rinat Bodganov, Juha Helppi and Morten Christensen joining U. S. pro Shannon Shorr and Canada’s Mike McDonald and former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel looking to make their move as Day Two leapt into action.
The early play in the Kings Casino at the Corinthia Hotel in Prague was naturally punctuated with departures as the short stacks looked to get back into the fight. Spain’s Ana Marquez was one of those early eliminations when her pocket Jacks lost a race on the river to Brian Lemke’s Big Slick. France’s Gaelle Baumann also faced her tournament demise when she was bounced from the event by Todd Terry.
In an odd turn of events, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier had pretty much the shortest stay of any player at the WPT Prague. Late registering on Day 1C, he limped into Day Two with a short stack that was almost immediately in jeopardy. He pushed the remainder of his stack in with just a K-2 and, when chip leader Mazunin woke up with A-Q and made the call, he found himself wandering from the Kings Casino with not even a story to tell about his stay.
Perhaps one of the best things about the WPT Prague was the appearance from the legendary Thor Hansen on the tables. Diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, Hansen eked through his Day One fight to face off against Shorr around the midpoint of Thursday’s play. Shorr’s pocket fives held up against Hansen’s A♦ 7♦ to send the Scandinavian “Godfather of Poker” home, but not without the respect of the gathering in Prague.
This isn’t to say that ALL the news was bad coming out of the Kings Casino. Lang was able to capture the lead in the tournament in a battle against Dean Ospina when, on a J-7-3 rainbow flop, Ospina made a pot bet of 25K to see Lang make the call. On a nine turn, Ospina checked his option, then made a check-raise all in over Lang’s 38K bet. Lang made the call, tabling his pocket threes for the set, while all Ospina could muster was an A-8 for a gut shot straight draw. When that straight failed to materialize on the river, Lang rocketed to the chip lead with 400K in chips.
Lang extended that lead with a double knockout that included Stanislav Barshak, but Mazunin attempted to keep pace with him. After a bet from Tony Chang, Eugene Katchalov moved his stack to the center of the felt. Undaunted, Mazunin isolated with an all-in of his own, forcing Chang from the hand, sending Mazunin’s A-K against Katchalov’s pocket Jacks. A King would come on the turn, pushing Mazunin up to 450K to remain in the upper echelons of the leaderboard.
By the time the evening wrapped in Prague, only 78 of the original 287 starters on Day Two remained standing, with Lang at the top of the ladder:
1. Marco Lang, 694,000
2. Elio Fox, 571,500
3. Pawel Brzeski, 544,000
4. Manuel Bevand, 537,500
5. Dermot Blain, 530,000
6. Oleksil Khoroshenin, 513,000
7. Konstantin Danilov, 465,000
8. Mikhail Mazunin, 440,000
9. Jussi Nevanlinna, 438,500
10. Toby Lewis, 417,000
Hovering outside of the Top Ten are such notables as Kevin MacPhee (312K), Jason Mercier (295K), Konstantin Puchkov (176K) and Elisabeth Hille (175K), with MacPhee and Mercier above the 218K chip average.
The battle for the WPT Prague championship will be a long one. The final table is scheduled for Sunday, but the rewards will be a nice gift in the Christmas stocking for those who survive. 72 players will get paid, with the minimum cash a nice $6515, while the champion of the WPT Prague walks off with their name on the WPT Champions’ Cup, a seat to May’s WPT Championship and a $423,957 prize.