Registration has now officially closed on EPT9 Prague, but it will still be an hour or so before we know the official number of players. Every now and again we get an email or a Skype message with a number incrementally larger than before, and it now seems to be a certainty that this will be the biggest EPT tournament ever hosted in these parts.
The most recent correspondence from the people who know about these things said that 481 are now registered for today. Combined with the 336 of yesterday, that takes us to 817 for the week. It’s a record. (And, remember, it’s not even official yet.)
Roberto Romanello and Salvatore Bonavena are playing today, which completes a rare set of former champions. With Martin Finger, Jan Skampa and Arnaud Mattern having played yesterday, it means that every single player who has ever been crowned champion of the Czech Republic has returned for a second crack of the whip.
(That almost never happens, by the way, especially in cities that have hosted more than five EPT main events. We have tried to figure out the last time the full pack showed up and genuinely have no idea.)
A little earlier in the day, we talked about some of the late registration tables here on Day 1B and things have hardly got any less difficult as we played into levels two and three. Dario Minieri and Johnny Lodden were late and were sat together, alongside Chris Brammer, Marc-Andre Ladouceur (recent IPT High Roller champion), Alexandre Debus and John Andress.
Mohsin Charania, Lars Bonding and Nicolas Levi were also late, so they got to play against one another.
And then even when those tables broke, it continued to be kind of tough. “Started of on a late reg table that was really bad,” tweeted Lodden. “Just got moved to an even worse! Direct left @JasonMercier, @dario and @Anton_Wigg.”
Follow hand-by-hand coverage, plus latest chip counts, in the panel at the top of the main EPT Prague page.
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