EPT11 Prague – Graner Leads Final Seven, Castaignon Looking to Make History

Everything that’s been happening in Prague the last couple of days has been leading up to this moment. The final table of seven (yes, seven) will be returning for the Main Event of the European Poker Tour and today we will find out the name of the one person who will take home a first place of nearly €1 million and the prestigious EPT title.

Currently topping the field is Stephen Garner from the States, with the stack of 12.4 million chips. The Las Vegas based pro currently on the roundtrip through Europe will be looking to best his biggest score to date. The 26-year old finished sixth in the WSOP Millionaire Maker event earlier this year, earning $273,854 in the process.

While Garner is the one to beat, it is in fact Remi Castaignon who will be stealing the spotlight, as he is the only player seated at the final table who could match Vicky Coren’s record by becoming a two-time EPT champion. However, PokerStars player hailing from France will have some making up to do, as the EPT Deauville champion starts with 1 million in chips and is the effective short stack

Anton Bertilsson, PokerStars qualifier hailing from Sweden currently sits in second place with 7.7 million and the only one close to the top two is the Day 4 chip leader Fabio Sperling. The German will start the day with 4.7 million. Everybody else is in the 1-3 million region, so it is a quite tightly packed field outside of the top two spots.

Couple of well known names started the day yesterday, but they fell short along the way. Vanessa Selbst fell in 14th place, and soon to follow were Sam Grafton and Andras Nemeth who were sent to the rail in 12th and 11th. Davidi Kitai, who was also chasing his second EPT title after his victory in Berlin during Season 8, could go no further than 10th.

Jakub Slemr was eliminated in 9th and with the Czech’s departure, the final table of eight was formed. The plan was to play for the five full levels regardless, which is a novelty on the EPT (the play usually stops after the final table is formed) as tournament officials were looking to save valuable time for everybody involved.

It was during those final moments that we had the first casualty at the official final table. It was Miltiadis Kyriakides who was sent to the rail by Graner, making Kyriakides the first player in the history of the European Poker Tour to make the final table but not play the final day. There you have it, there is the first time for everything.

The play will commence in Prague in less than an hour and soon enough it will all be resolved. Right now Garner is really looking good to win the whole thing, while Castaignon needs a little miracle to get back in there and make the history – but stranger things have happened.

Get those cards in the air for one last time in the EPT11 Prague Main Event!