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With eight levels of play in the books, Day 1a of EPT Prague is finally complete. Leading the remaining 180 players is Iosif Beskrovnyy, who bagged 239,000 chips, but there are a handful of players biting at his heels, including Jose Alastuey, Mikhail Zabrovskiy, Jose Manuel Nadal Sordo, and Malte Monning.
Beskrovnyy shot up the charts during the last level of the evening, and appears to be the only player who crossed the 200,000-chip threshold.
Sordo’s day began with a bang. In Level 2, he had Antonin Duda, who recently finished seventh in the EPT Barcelona Main Event, all in and at risk. Duda was well ahead with 
against Sodo’s 
, and remained ahead on the flop (
), and the turn (
), but the 
spiked on the river. Duda hit the rail, while Sordo shot up to 70,000 chips. He crossed the century mark thereafter, and maintained one of the bigger stacks in the room throughout the rest of Day 1a, bagging 167,200 chips.
Kovalchuk, a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, started off slow, dipping to as low as 12,000 chips. He bolted up the counts during the last level of the evening, finishing with 137,400 chips, and will certainly be a force to reckon with in the coming days.
Monning won a massive pot off of Antonio Guerrero right after the dinner break. With the blinds at 250/500/25, Monning opened to 1,125, and Guerrero three-bet to 3,100. The action folded back to Monning, who four-bet to 7,625, and Guerrero five-bet to 21,100. Monning moved all in for 65,800, and Guerrero quickly called.
Monning: 
Guerrero: 
The board ran out 
, giving Monning a set on the river, and he suddenly was sitting on a massive stack. He finished with 132,000 chips.
Other notable players who survived to make Day 2 include, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Richard Toth, Eugene Katchalov, Juha Helppi, Fabrice Soulier, Todd Terry, and Eoghan O’Dea.
Day 1a casualties included Liv Boeree, Jonathan Duhamel, John O’Shea, Nachman Berlin, Steve O’Dwyer, Ionel Anton, Alex Bilokur, Guillaume Darcourt, and Arnaud Mattern.
Mattern, who busted on the last hand of play, wasn’t the only former EPT Prague champion to bust on Day 1a. Jan Skampa, who won this event in Season 6, was also in contention, but he fell in the last level of play. He and Souheil Mansour took a flop of 
. Skampa led out for 4,500, Mansour raised to 17,000, and Skampa called. Skampa checked after the turned, and Mansour quickly fired 22,400. Skampa moved all in for around 35,000, Mansour called, and Skampa turned over 
. He was in poor shape against Mansour’s 
, and was eliminated when the river brought the 
.
Martin Finger, who is the defending champion, made it through.
Boeree bowed out in Level 4 when she took several beats. According to her Twitter account, she ran the nut flush into a full house. In another hand, she lost with 
against 
on a flop of 
. And in her final hand, she was all in preflop with 
and lost to .
“Very sad panda,” she wrote.
William Davis, who appeared as a Loose Cannon on the PokerStars.net Big Game, was in the field today. With the blinds at 100/200/25, he opened to 425 from the hijack seat. Roman Korenev three-bet to 1,225 from the small blind, and Ismail Erkenov cold-called from the big blind. Davis called as well, and the flop came 
. Korenev led for 2,000, and only Davis called. The turn was the 
, Korenev checked, and Davis fired 3,000. Korenev folded, and Davis picked up the pot en route to bagging 66,600 chips.
Day 1a attracted a total of 336 players, and with a large field expected on Monday for Day 1b, Season 8’s record of 722 entrants for this event is in grave danger. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team at 12:00 CEST on Monday for continuing coverage of EPT Prague.
Until then, good night from the Hilton!
