What a day that was! A total of 528 players packed onto 54 tables today to play Day 1b of the PokerStars.net EPT Prague Season 9. That meant a total of 864 players across the two flights, smashing the 722 players that entered last year. The prize pool was released late on and the top prize of a massive €835,000 easily surpasses the €720,000 paid to Martin Finger last season. This is now officially the richest tournament ever to be held in this country.
Leading the way at the end of play was Vadim Belov who pipped Luis Rodriguez to post after he bagged up 179,300 chips. For long periods we thought Luis Rodriguez was going to end the day as leader after he won a huge pot versus Makarios Avramidis in a aces versus kings confrontation. He dropped back to finish on 176,800.
The play was frantic from the off, with cooler hands popping up all over the room matching the temperature outside. Martin Hruby and Byron Kaverman were two players with high hopes for the tournament, but they busted in the same hand after both flopping sets on 
flop. Mikita Badziakouski was sat in wait with 
for a straight though and sent them both packing.
Those sort of hands continued throughout the day and we recommend you read back through today’s coverage to absorb what the players had to contend with and what we witnessed.
Team PokerStars Pro had 14 representatives in the field today but not all made it through the minefield. Dario Minieri, Dag Palovic, Max Martinez, Michael Keiner, Luca Pagano, and Salvatore Bonavena all joined Hruby on the rail. We will welcome back Alex Kravchenko, Juan Manuel Pastor, Christian de Leon, Ville Wahlbeck, Pier Paolo Fabretti, Johnny Lodden and Ana Marquez on Day 2 though.
Those having to contend with the bulging side events this week after busting included former champions Kevin MacPhee, Benny Spindler, David Vamplew, Michael Tureniec and Davidi Kitai along with Faraz Jaka, Max Silver, Lars Bonding, Elio Fox and Griffin Benger.
The remaining 462 players from both day 1a and 1b will return for day 2 tomorrow at 12:00 PM CET, where they’ll make steady progress towards the 128 players that’ll leave with a Prague scented Christmas present worth a minimum €8,000. Some eyes will be on the final table prizes (listed below) but that there in dangerous behavior.
| Position | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|
| 1 | € 835,000 |
| 2 | € 510,000 |
| 3 | € 310,000 |
| 4 | € 250,000 |
| 5 | € 196,000 |
| 6 | € 150,000 |
| 7 | € 108,400 |
| 8 | € 75,000 |
The PokerNews reporting team will be back and full of vigor later on today where confirmed heroes and heroes in waiting will continue to brawl over the baize.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Rodriguez paused for a bit before tossing out 13,800.
, and again Rodriguez sat quietly for 30 seconds or so. He then reached for chips, and pushed forward 23,100.
- completed the board, and Rodriguez sat silently.
for tens full of aces, and Avramidis showed 
for a lesser full house. After the stacks were quickly counted down, Avramidis exited the room, and Rodriguez pulled in a wave of multi-colored chips.
