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After twelve 45-minute levels, the 118 Day 1a survivors of the €1,100 Eureka 5 Prague Main Event called it a day tonight - with Samuel Sjoqvist from Sweden in the lead after bagging 263,500.
The 26-year-old's live tournament resumé doesn't reveal much. So far, Sjoqvist has recorded only two cashes, one of them coming in the EPT11 Barcelona Main Event where he earned €20,300 for a 42nd place.
Some well-known pros also amassed a huge stack on Day 1a - Ari Engel, who has great memories from previous EPT Prague stops, has 233,800. The American pro finished sixth in the EPT8 Prague Main Event and added another final table appearance in the Eureka €2k High Roller last year. German mixed games specialist and EPT9 Sanremo finalist Ismael Bojang bagged 227,100 and EPT12 Malta champion Niall Farrell survived with 169,000.
Team PokerStars Pro Online Lilya Novikova was eliminated just before the end of the day while fellow Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov and Chen Lin were also dismissed.
There were 438 players competing on Day 1a and many more will take their seats tomorrow with 800+ players already registered for Day 1b.
Day 1a top five chip counts:
1st - Samuel Sjoqvist, Sweden, PokerStars player, 263,500
2nd - Volodymyr Hancharyk, Ukraine, PokerStars player, 262,000
3rd - Rune Kongeroed, Norway, 258,300
4th - Ari Engel, USA, PokerStars player, 233,800
5th - Andreas Hostrup, Denmark, 229,400
Eureka Prague Main Event history:
Season 1: 329 players, €231,290 prize pool, Keith Johnson (UK) for €58,400
Season 2: 652 players, €632,440 prize pool, Menikos Panagiotou (Cyprus) for €137,100
Season 3: 1,315 players, €1,275,550 prize pool, Dimitri Holdeew (Germany) for €226,400
Season 4: 1,738 players, €1,685,860 prize pool, Balazs Botond (Hungary) for €206,948
The EPT 12 Prague Poker Festival features a record 97 tourneys at the Hilton Prague from December 5-16, as well as EPT-run cash games running round the clock. A record 185 tables will be in operation and a record 250 staff working the event.
In last year's €5,300 EPT Main Event, 1,107 players competed creating a €5,368,950 prize pool; the event was won by American Stephen Graner for a massive €969,000.
