Alessandro Manfredini Leads 159 Returning Players From Day 1a of the €2,200 Eureka High Roller
Another record-setting day has come to an end at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague and Italy’s Alessandro Manfredini leads 159 returning players from Day 1a of the €2,200 Eureka High Roller.
The field of 1,534 entries surpassed the previous record of 1,149, set earlier this year at the EPT stop right here at Hilton Prague. Today’s two opening flights generated a prize pool of €2,945,280, and the remaining 159 players from Day 1a players will join the 71 survivors from Day 1b on Monday at 1:00 p.m. local time for their shot at the top prize.
Manfredini is followed at the top of the leaderboard by Valentin-Marius Cristea, who bagged 701,000 to secure the second-place spot. Close behind is Kubanychbek Abakirov with 684,000, while Kasparas Klezys and Tom Orpaz round out the top five with 678,000 and 625,000, respectively.
€2,200 Eureka High Roller Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chips | Day 2 Big Blinds |
| 1 | Alessandro Manfredini | Italy | 806,000 | 101 |
| 2 | Valentin-Marius Cristea | Romania | 701,000 | 88 |
| 3 | Kubanychbek Abakirov | Kyrgyzstan | 684,000 | 86 |
| 4 | Kasparas Klezys | Lithuania | 678,000 | 85 |
| 5 | Tom Orpaz | Israel | 625,000 | 78 |
| 6 | Braz Borges | Portugal | 620,000 | 78 |
| 7 | Victor Vozian | Romania | 601,000 | 75 |
| 8 | Nuri Hadioglu | Turkey | 534,000 | 67 |
| 9 | Thomas Channell | United Kingdom | 487,000 | 61 |
| 10 | Demus Patrik | Hungary | 480,000 | 60 |
Day 1a Action
The day kicked off with 225 entries and PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg chipped up early when he picked up a full house to bust his opponent’s queens on the very first hand of his day. It didn’t last long, however, and Spragg bowed out later in the afternoon after he couldn’t recover from taking an early hit to his stack.
Defending champion Jose Manuel Gonzalez also jumped in to try to follow up his March performance when he earned the top prize of €343,750. Gonzalez failed to find a bag for Day 2, along with Jason Wheeler, who made a run but bowed out just before the stone bubble.
Other notables that couldn’t survive the record-breaking opening flight include Paul Newey, Harry Lodge, Simon Lofberg, Fabio Peluso, Emil Bise, Juha Helppi, and Julien Sitbon, who jumped into Day 1b after his pocket sevens ran into the pocket aces of Abakirov.
The list of players that survived to see Day 2 includes Alexandre Reard, Simeon Naydenov, Dominik Panka, Stefan Lehner, Motoyoshi Okamura, and PokerStars Ambassador Parker Talbot, who took sixth in the EPT Prague Main Event back in 2018. Talbot will return with 83,000 and a chance to make a run at his first EPT trophy.
What's Next?
Day 2 kicks off on Monday at 1 p.m. local time with 17:36 left in Level 18 and blinds at 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante. Action is expected to continue on Day 2 until a winner is declared.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates throughout Monday’s Day 2 finale and the rest of the European Poker Tour stop at Hilton Prague.