Record Breaking Day 1A in PokerStars Eureka Event in Prague

Breaking records in poker tournaments is always a good sign, indicating that poker is not only alive and kicking, but that it is actually growing. For players and fans alike, these occurrences confirm again and again that the game we all love will be around for the years to come.

Previous to yesterday, Eureka record was held by Vienna, Day 1A of which attracted 457 players. However, Prague was able to surpass this number (even if not by a lot), as 475 players descended to the tables to raffle their chips for the first starting day of the event.

With nearly five hundred players paying the buy-in of €1,100 for the first day, Eureka4 Prague is threatening to create a monstrous prize pool – one truly worth fighting for and guaranteeing those who put aside their time and money will not be disappointed.

However, many of those who started yesterday had to deal with their share of disappointment for a different reason completely as their adventure ended early on. Ten levels of play saw more than 300 players vacate their seats, leaving only 142 still in contention.

Of those making it through to tomorrow’s Day 2, we should mention three former EPT champions: Rupert Elder, David Vamplew and Roberto Romanello. Although none of them has a tremendous amount of chips to work with, they have experience on their side, so anyone who wants to discard them early on should think twice.

Former champions have a special place both at the tables and in the media, but who actually has the chips? That would be Tomas Fara of Czech Republic. Playing on the home turf, Fara was able to amass the stack of 243,500, about 50k more than the second place Jose Carlos Garcia (from Poland, if you were wondering) with 194k and Yannick Bonnet of France with 192k.

Day 1B is about to start in the Czech capital and the good news is that there were 800 players already registered last night. With the entries today and the late registration, we might be looking at over 1,000 players today, which would easily put Prague at the top of the Eureka attendance list.

First Ever Juniors Event

The first ever Juniors Event to take place at the European Poker Tour kicked off yesterday as well. To be able to participate, players had to meet two conditions – be between 18 and 21 years old and have €200 to pay for their seats.

Forty six players took it to the tables, which created a total prize pool of €8,924 and the first prize just shy of €3,000. It was a great event, gathering number of young players, many of whom have never had an opportunity to take a seat in a big poker tournament and for some it may be a start of a long and successful poker career!

Image: PokerStars Blog