Grafton Bags Large Lead After Day 1 of €50,000 EPT Super High Roller
It was the largest high-roller event of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague thus far as a whopping 49 entries were recorded on Day 1 of the €50,000 EPT Super High Roller. After eight levels were completed, only 26 players bagged chips and it was Sam Grafton who will carry a large lead into Day 2.
Grafton, the only PokerStars ambassador in the event, played his first tournament of the festival and got off to a hot start right away. The British poker pro took his seat at the start of the day along with 17 others when the cards went in the air. Grafton wasted little time doing what he does best, engaging in table talk and stacking chips.
The upward trend started for Grafton when he first eliminated Gregoire Auzoux in level four. Grafton soared up the ranks to the top of the leaderboard by his account of "outplaying everyone" and "raising on the river". Grafton then nailed a gutshot on the river against Jean-Noel Thorel to climb into seven figures for the first time. The day was capped off when Grafton got in a classic flip against Fedor Holz with ace-king against the German's pocket queens. Grafton came out on top once again to finish the day with 1,672,000 chips, the only player above a million chips.
Following in his footsteps among the big stacks include Rodrigo Seiji (965,000) who topped the field in the €10,000 Mystery Bounty event to kick off the festival. Daniel Dvoress (926,000) rounds out the top three chip counts after a late surge when the Canadian all but eliminated Steve O'Dwyer in the last few hands of the night.
Top Ten Chip Counts After Day 1 of €50,000 EPT Super High Roller
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sam Grafton | United Kingdom | 1,672,000 | 279 |
| 2nd | Rodrigo Seiji | Brazil | 965,000 | 161 |
| 3rd | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | 926,000 | 154 |
| 4th | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | 712,000 | 119 |
| 5th | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | 663,000 | 111 |
| 6th | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | 661,000 | 110 |
| 7th | Kent Staahle | Norway | 624,000 | 104 |
| 8th | Juan Pardo | Spain | 566,000 | 94 |
| 9th | Sergio Aido | Spain | 555,000 | 93 |
| 10th | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 494,000 | 82 |
There were 18 players who took advantage of the 50% house fee return option as those who were registered before the cards went in the air at 12:30 p.m. local time. That number continued to grow throughout the day but nobody contributed to that total more than Thorel. A couple of cases were due to some bad luck as Thorel fired a total of four bullets on Day 1, finishing the day with 411,000 chips. Other multiple entries belonged to Aleksejs Ponakovs, Mike Watson, Jorryt van Hoof, Alex Kulev, and Holz.
One of the highlights of the day included Gerard Pique, a Spanish football pro who just recently retired from Barcelona FC, taking to the felt with some of the best poker pros. While Pique may not match up as well with the world's best poker players, he stood his ground for quite some time on Day 1. However, unfortunately for Pique, he was eliminated in the last level of the night after becoming one of the short stacks.
Another player to keep an eye on heading to Day 2 includes Ben Heath who has been on a tear the last couple of days in the €25,000 Single-Day High Roller events. Heath won back-to-back titles over the last two days, totaling over €500,000 in the process. The British poker pro had a calm opening day of the Super High Roller, staying out of trouble en route to bagging up 372,000 chips.
Late registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 which begins at 12:30 p.m. once again for any of those looking to take another shot at spinning up a stack. The blinds will resume on level 9 at 3,000/6,000 and a 6,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 60 minutes in length and another eight levels will be on the schedule for Day 2. Each new starting stack will be given a fresh 250,000 chips along with five 30-second time banks.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the live updates as the players look to breach the money bubble on Day 2.