Action was fast and furious early on Day 3 of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague.
The record field of 4,403 entries had already been narrowed to the last 125 players to begin the day, all of whom had locked up at least €5,200. The field was further trimmed quite quickly early on inside the Hilton Prague, as that number was cut to 51 by the time players were sent on their second break of the day.
Poland’s Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz leads the way with his stack of 26,825,000 chips, holding a slight advantage over Miroslav Forman who sits just one million behind. The battle will resume at 12 p.m. local time on Monday, December 11.
Wyrzykiewicz earns a spot at a Eureka Tour final table for the second time after finishing ninth in Rozvadov in 2015. His largest career score came that same year in the EPT Malta, taking home €76,000 for an eighth-place finish. A spot in the top six on Monday would surpass that total, but everyone is eyeing the top piece of the €4,226,880 prize pool. The eventual champion will take home €511,710, along with the Eureka Tour trophy.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz | Poland | 26,825,000 | 107 |
| 2 | Miroslav Forman | Czechia | 25,820,000 | 103 |
| 3 | Alexander Tkatschew | Austria | 22,400,000 | 90 |
| 4 | Eduardo Pereira | Portugal | 13,000,000 | 52 |
| 5 | Ercan Atmaca | Netherlands | 12,400,000 | 50 |
| 6 | Antonino Venneri | Italy | 10,100,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Viktor Jensen | Sweden | 8,625,000 | 35 |
| 8 | Catalin Moraru | Romania | 6,625,000 | 27 |
| 9 | Radek Jantos | Czechia | 6,300,000 | 25 |
Austria’s Alexander Tkatschew enters the final day in third position and 90 big blinds, with a sizeable gap to Eduardo Pereira in fourth place. Pereira can pass his career-best score with a podium finish, which would better his 15th-place run at the PSPC Main Event last January in The Bahamas that earned a tidy $198,800.
The rest of the final table includes Ercan Atmaca of The Netherlands, Antonino Venneri, Viktor Jensen, Catalin Moraru and Radek Jantos, who enters as the short stack in his home country of Czechia.
Jensen built a stack late in the evening when his pocket kings cracked the pocket aces of Kirill Burtin. Though he was able to run his remaining stack up a bit, Burtin was the eventual final elimination of the night falling on the final table bubble.
None of the previous end-of-day leaders qualified for the final table, with Day 1d chip leader Amir Mozaffarian making the deepest run to finish in 17th spot for a payday of €20,970. Day 2 leader Marcin Dziubdziela could not build any momentum on the day, hitting the rail in 43rd place for €9,050. That was two spots better than Day 1e pace-setter Mengshi Tian.
The last two PokerStars Ambassadors standing as play began hit the rail without much of a pay jump. Ramon Colillas bowed out in 114th place (€5,960) while Felix Schneiders had to settle for 73rd (€6,850).
€1,100 Eureka Main Event Remaing Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | €511,710 |
| 2 | €306,790 |
| 3 | €219,120 |
| 4 | €168,570 |
| 5 | €129,680 |
| 6 | €99,750 |
| 7 | €76,720 |
| 8 | €59,010 |
| 9 | €45,400 |
Play will resume on Level 34 with blinds of 150,000/300,000 and a 300,000 big blind ante. The nine remaining players will continue with 60-minute levels until a winner is decided.
Stay tuned on the final day as the PokerNews live reporting team follows the action through to the final hand as the next Eureka Tour champion will be crowned.
