Toni Kaukua open-jammed from the hijack for 41,000 chips, and the action folded to Elias Gutierrez in the big blind, who made a quick call with the covering stack.
Toni Kaukua: A?J?
Elias Gutierrez: 5?5?
The flop came 5?A?5?, leaving Kaukua with little hope as Gutierrez made four of a kind. No miracle runner-runner aces appeared on the 6?4? runout, seeing Kaukua exit late on Day 1.
On a completed board of Q?Q?7?J?6?, Juha Helppi was faced with an overbet jam from Motoyoshi Okamura. After tanking for a while, Helppi called off his stack of about 60,000.
Okamura tabled A?Q? for trip queens, and Helpii frustratedly tossed his cards into the center, but they were forced to be opened. The dealer rolled over the J?8?, as he left the room.
There was a slow start to the final high-stakes affair of the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague, the �10,200 NL Hold'em. After multiple delays, the tournament finally kicked off with five players. However, after all was said and done, a respectable field of 30 entries assembled at the Hilton Prague, creating a prize pool of �291,000. However, that number is sure to grow when Day 2 kicks off as the late registration will be open until the restart.
Despite the delayed start, the action throughout Day 1 was plentiful and spectacular. Whittling the field down from 30 to just 11 players, it was Hungary's Andras Nemeth who amassed a massive chip lead with his stack of 884,000 chips, good for 177 big blinds at the start of Day 2. Acquiring nearly nine starting stacks throughout the day, Nemeth, known as "probirs" online, plays more than two and a half times the stack of his nearest competitor, Kazuyuki Tanemura from Japan, who bagged up 341,000 at the end of the day.
Kazuyuki Tanemura
Meanwhile, the only other Japanese player who survived the onslaught of Day 1, Motoyoshi Okamura, completes the podium with a stack of 255,000 and shares that spot with Sirzat Hissou, who acquired the same stack. Other players who ended Day 1 with more than two starting stacks include Fahredin Mustafov (234,000) and Elias Gutierrez (211,000). Meanwhile, Enrico Camosci and Deividas Daubaris find themselves on the bottom of the leaderboard, having made a minimal profit throughout Day 1 with their stacks of 102,000 and 101,000 respectively.
End of Day 1 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 2 Big Blinds
1
Andras Nemeth
Hungary
884,000
177
2
Kazuyuki Tanemura
Japan
341,000
68
3
Motoyoshi Okamura
Japan
255,000
51
4
Sirzat Hissou
Germany
255,000
51
5
Mounir Tajiou
Sweden
250,000
50
6
Fahredin Mustafov
Bulgaria
234,000
47
7
Elias Gutierrez
Spain
211,000
42
8
Jean-Vincent Lehut
France
193,000
39
9
Joakim Andersson
Sweden
176,000
35
10
Enrico Camosci
Italy
102,000
20
11
Deividas Daubaris
Lithuania
101,000
20
Among the players who did not make it through the day were Steve O'Dwyer and Juha Helppi, who fired two bullets each, as well as the likes of Aliaksei Boika, Aliaksandr Shylko, and recent �3,000 Mystery Bounty championGab Yong Kim, who all only bought in a single time.
However, all these players, as well as newly interested ones, will have the option to try again one more time. The late registration closes at the start of Day 2 when the blinds will be at 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. The prize pool and payout structure will also be confirmed at that time. Levels will continue to last 30 minutes each, and, as Day 2 is on the last day of the poker festival, a winner will be crowned at the end.
Make sure to come back to PokerNews tomorrow, December 17th, at noon local time to find out which new faces show up to register, and who will make use of their last chance to capture a trophy at the 2023 EPT Prague.
