EPT11 Prague Main Event – Almost €1 Million Reserved for the Winner

Poker festivities in Prague continue to break records and make up for truly astounding numbers. Just moments ago it has been confirmed that the winner of the European Poker Tour Main Event in the Czech capital will take home €969,000.

It took 1,107 participants who paid the buyin of €5,300 to arrive at this number. The total generated prize pool amounted to €5,535,000, with 159 getting paid the minimum of €8,970. Outside of the Barcelona event and PCA, this is the biggest turnout since Season 6.

The big turnout did not catch tournament officials by surprise, however, as they were well prepared to handle almost anything that came their way. 140 poker tables and 228-strong team of tournament staff is there to deal with all the issues, queries and, of course, the stuff at the tables, not only in the Main Event, but across 59 different tournaments across the schedule.

Today marked the start of the Day 2 in the Main Event and 600 players returned to the tables after successfully navigating through the minefields of the initial flights. A few late entries have also joined them in the quest for the title, bringing the total number to 615.

Quite a few notables made it through the day, which is no surprise considering how many well known pros turned up to shuffle their chips with the masses. One of those who came through with the big stack was the winningest female pro Vanessa Selbst, accumulating more than 141k in chips.

The name of Leonid Markin may not ring the bell at first, but if you’ve been following the happenings at the EPT, you will know that this is the man who won Super High Roller event just two days ago, banking well over €700k. The latest poker World Champ Martin Jacobson also made it into the Day 2, although with not much more than the starting stack.

Another SHR final-tablist, Stephen Chidwick is still in the contention, as well as Eugene Katchalov and Liv Boeree whose 20k stack needs some help today.

For the 600ish survivors there is a long road ahead before they can even start thinking about the money, but on the other hand those who can make it all the way to the final table will get in a great spot to battle for truly serious money and a prestigious title.

The EPT11 Prague brought out the best in the game and, combined with the top organization efforts and the huge prize pools, this poker festival in Prague is equally enjoyable for participating players and those on the sidelines, following the action from the rail or comfort of their homes.

Once again, we are witnessing the poker at its best!

Image: PokerStars Blog