Thursday, 28th March 2024 19:07
Home / Uncategorized / EPT12 Prague: Velikov leads delayed Eureka High Roller; Benakis wins Poker Cup

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Pavlos Benakis: Prague Cup winner

The €2,000 Eureka High Roller event was enormous this week: 747 people showed up, which is more than enough to fill a jumbo jet.

It was too many actually to fit into a two-day tournament, which is what had been scheduled, so the remaining eight players decided to bag up and call it a night at 4am last night/this morning. They will return at 9pm on Saturday, upon conclusion of Day 2 of the Main Event, to play to a winner.

Vladimir Velikov leads the way with 4.2 million in chips, and he will be sharing the final table with Balasz Botond, among others, which represents something of a reunion. Velikov and Botond both made it to the final of last year’s Eureka main event, which Botond went on to win. Velikov was fifth and will be seeking vengeance.

Presumably both will final table the EPT Main Event next year, the €10,000 High Roller the year after, the €25,000 the year after that before they go heads up for the title in the 2019 Super High Roller. That’s how it works, right?

Here’s the full final table line-up for that one:

Vladimir Velikov Bulgaria 4,200,000
Foeke Deinum Netherlands 3,225,000
Thomas Pedersen Denmark 2,365,000
Balasz Botond Hungary 2,350,000
Pim Gieles Netherlands 2,220,000
Sam Chartier Canada 1,840,000
Ibrahim Ghassan Lebanon 1,645,000
Jan Bendik Slovakia 725,000

In other side event news, hats off to Pavlos Benakis, from Cyprus, who became the first man in Prague to pull of a double triumph. What’s more, he did it in a single day, winning the €300 limit hold’em event and the €100 no limit hold’em event.

The big winner in side event land so far this week is Hungary’s Barnabas Nagy, who prevailed in the Prague Poker Cup. That was yet another vast event, attracting 1,425 players over three opening flights.

It cost €300 a pop and even if Nagy played every flight (and I’m not sure whether he did) his €55,750 will represent a very good return on investment.

Gareth Chantler, once of this parish, finished fourth and won €21,560.

Follow all the EPT Prague action on PokerStars Blog. The Main Event is on the Main Event page. The single-day high roller is on the High Roller page.

All the schedule information is on the EPT App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

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