Thursday, 28th March 2024 10:31
Home / Uncategorized / EPT12 Prague: Baby it’s cold inside

At this time of year you expect to need a big winter coat to help protect against the winter chill that envelops Prague. Over the years that the EPT has visited in December there’s been plenty of snow and even a year where the PokerStars Blog got snowed in the day after the tournament ended.

There’s no sign of the white stuff this year and it’s actually warm for December, six or seven degrees instead of the average high of two. Where the temperature has dropped though is within the tournament room itself. We’ve seen cold decks, cold calling and players just being plain cold. Christoph Vogelsang seems to be the group spokesman for the latter point. The German approached tournament director Kate Badurek and politely said: “Is there anyway to make the room warmer? A lot of players are complaining about it being cold.”

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The cat in the hat
The high stakes pro has a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, although it’s worth noting that this is a usual feature of his tournament get up as he’s rarely without one. Still look around the room, or indeed spend some time in it, and you get where the players are coming from. We know already that Floridian Jason Mercier loves The Dolphins, if anyone didn’t then one look at the beanie protecting his head, and his long sleeve top gives you all the information you need, although this is slightly offset by the fact he’s wearing shorts!

Elsewhere Thomas Muehloecker, Steve O’Dwyer and Anton Astapau are protecting their respective necks with a scarf, Anthony Zinno and Jean-Noel Thorel are wearing chunky knits that wouldn’t look out of place if they were sat by a roaring fire in an English country pub and Sylvain Loosli has his hood up and looks to be one step away from hibernation.

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The knitwear is needed
The poker itself has been cold at times too with Mike Watson the victim of one particularly ‘chilly deck’. His J♥ 10♥ looked pretty good on a Jâ™  J♦ 10♣ flop, the nuts even. It was no longer the stone cold holding once the K♥ turned which was bad news for the Canadian as David Peters had the temerity to be holding Kâ™  J♣ . Once Watson thawed out he re-entered the tournament and his second bullet is going rather better.

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Watson was the victim of a cold deck
Whilst the temperature remains rather frosty the atmosphere is anything but. Conversation is flowing, smiles and jokes are being cracked and the only time the tables become more serious is when a big pot breaks out.

Coverage of the Eureka Main Event is all handily organized on the Eureka Prague page.

You’ll find updates on the Super High Roller on this page throughout the day and all the schedule information is on the EPT App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

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