Picking the action up on a board of 5?3?K?J? in a pot between Daniel Erlandsson and Samuel Fournier with 230,000 in the middle, Fournier check-called a bet of 70,000 from his opponent.
On the 9? river Fournier again checked to Erlandsson. Erlandsson moved all in for over 700,000, putting Fournier (who had about 400,000 behind) at risk if he called.
Fournier took a considerable period of time mulling over his decision. He asked if his opponent had jacks, and after folding, told Erlandsson if it was a bluff, it was a good one. Erlandsson meanwhile increased his stack to just over 1,000,000.
PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour history was made this week as the €1,100 Eureka Main Event drew 4,403 entries at the Hilton Prague. This marks the largest Eureka Tour Main Event field ever, topping last year's event in Prague by 10% (4,017 entries in 2022).
The prize pool is also the largest ever, hitting €4,226,880 and paying out a total of 659 places. The six opening flights saw 1,931 unique players, just behind the total of 1,985 last year.
Largest Eureka Tour Main Event Fields
Rank
Event
Entries
Prize Pool
1
2023 Eureka Prague
4,403
€4,226,880
2
2022 Eureka Prague
4,017
€3,856,320
3
2021 Eureka Prague
3,155
€3,028,800
4
2023 Eureka Cyprus
2,659
$2,552,640
5
2019 Eureka Prague
2,452
€2,353,920
Germany's Felix Schneiders made Day 2 of the Eureka Main Event
Nationality Statistics
The largest Eureka Tour Main Event in history attracted players from 70 different countries, three less than the 73 countries that were represented here last winter. The top three countries remained the same as 2022, with Germany leading the way again with 215 players making up 11.13% of the field. Italy (196 players) was the next most represented nation with 10.15%, followed by France (144 players) with 7.46% of the field.
Czechia (113 players), Greece (101 players) and Poland (100 players) were the other countries to hit triple digits in this year's field. They were followed by Romania (75 players), Switzerland (61 players), Sweden (60 players) and the United Kingdom (59 players).
Day 1a Chip Leader Mircea Flutur of Romania
Other countries well represented in the 2023 Eureka Prague Main Event include Spain (57 players), Ukraine (54 players), Israel (48 players), Austria (41 players) and Finland (40 players).
A full breakdown of the nationality statistics for the 2023 Eureka Prague Main Event is available in the graphic and table below.
PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas defended his big blind against the early position open of Andrei Toma.
Things quickly heated up on the 4?5?5? flop. Toma continued with a bet of 8,000, Colillas check-raised to 38,000 before Toma four-bet to 84,000. The action didn't deter Colillas, who moved all in for 221,000.
Toma agonized over the decision for three minutes before open folding 10?10? for an overpair, as Colillas scooped the pot.
The board was dealt up until the turn and read 6?6?4?3? when Lukas Hafner got his stack of 190,000 chips in the middle against Dominik Ostrowski, who covered him. With 175,000 chips already in the pot beforehand, a huge pot of twice the average stack had been created.
Lukas Hafner: Q?7?
Dominik Ostrowski: A?A?
Hafner needed to hit his straight draw to stay alive in the tournament, but the A? river gave Ostrowski a full house instead. It meant the end of Hafner's Main Event adventure, seeing him strand on the second level of Day 2.
Joao Oliveira was all-in preflop for 60,000 chips and Bekim Murtezi was so too, but for his stack of 75,000. Jason Wheeler looked them both up with the covering stack, and the three players showed down.
Joao Oliveira: A?8?
Bekim Murtezi: A?J?
Jason Wheeler: K?K?
"This is bad for me," Oliveira noted before the 2?10?2? flop fell. The 3? turn was no help for anyone either, and the J? river sealed the fate of both at-risk players.
They awaited their payouts while Wheeler won a big pot and was sitting on a healthy stack.
In a three-way pot with a board of 7?2?8?K? in the middle, Abdullah Turan checked from the small blind to Felix Schneiders in early position.
Schneiders then fired 28,000 chips into the pot, which got called by Espen Sandvik in middle position. Turan also flicked in the chips and the 10? river completed the board.
Turan then promptly led out with a shove for 75,000 and garnered two quick folds from his opponents, seeing him chip up to a little more than an average stack.
Across six starting flights, 4,403 entries have been made in the €1,100 Eureka Main Event, held as part of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague. Outdoing the 4,017 entries that stood as the previous Eureka record, a massive prize pool of €4,226,880 has been collected.
The exact payout structure has yet to be announced, but each of the 659 players who come back to Hilton Prague today at noon for Day 2 has secured a min-cash, and the winner is expected to take home more than 2022’s winner Pieter Theelen, who collected €496,760 in last year’s edition of the Eureka Main Event.
Speaking of Theelen, he made it to Day 2 once more, and with an above-average stack of 218,000 chips. He will start with roughly 44 big blinds, as blinds will be rolled back to the 2,000/5,000 level that Day 1a ended on. With 26 minutes left to play in that level, Thielen will have some time to try to catch up with chipleader Mengshi Tian, who starts today with the biggest overall stack, having bagged 889,000 chips on Day 1e.
Meanwhile, Day 1c chipleader Marcin Dziubdziela comes into Day 2 in second place with 852,000 chips, while Mircea Flutur completes the podium, having bagged 772,000 chips on Day 1a. Day 1d chipleader Amir Mozaffarian (700,000) and Thomas Syversen (667,000), who managed to secure the biggest bag at the final flight of the tournament, also find themselves in the top ten chip counts at the start of Day 2.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Mengshi Tian
Hong Kong
889,000
178
2
Marcin Dziubdziela
Poland
852,000
170
3
Mircea Flutur
Romania
772,000
154
4
Damian Wroblewski
Poland
701,000
140
5
Amir Mozaffarian
Germany
700,000
140
6
Laurent Vauquelin
France
671,000
134
7
Michel Karim
Sweden
669,000
134
8
Thomas Syversen
Norway
667,000
133
9
Fabio Peluso
Italy
622,000
124
10
Domenico Frisenna
Italy
611,000
122
Meanwhile, household names like Danut Chisu (505,000), Julien Sitbon (500,000), Pablo Silva (335,000), and mixed-games wizard and COOP-legend Tobias Leknes (329,000) will also have plenty of chips to play with on Day 2.
UKIPT Player of the Year David Docherty (305,000) will also join the second day of the biggest Eureka Main Event ever, as well as the Red Spade brigade of Felix Schneiders (208,000), Parker Talbot (194,000), Fintan Hand (92,000), and Ramon Colillas (67,000). Alejandro Lococo will join his colleagues with 155,000 chips, looking for repeated success after shipping this very event at the postponed 2021 EPT Prague
Felix Schneiders
After the 26 remaining minutes of Level 16 have been completed, seven more 60-minute levels are scheduled to be played on Day 2, with no dinner break to be had. At that point, the field will have completed Level 23: 10,000/25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante, and all remaining players will bag their chips up for Day 3, which is happening on December 10th.
Be sure to stick around on PokerNews for all of the exciting action on Day 2 of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event, and witness who will survive the onslaught to still have a shot at obtaining one of the massive six-figure payouts that are in store for the top finishers of the tournament.
