Another massive field was expected on Day 1e of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event of the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour at the Hilton Prague. And a massive field there was, as 1,511 runners were recorded today.
In total, the six flights combined generated 4,403 entries in this Main Event, exceeding last year's 4,017 entrants and creating a prize pool of €4,226,880. The final flight is still underway.
On Day 1e, 227 players made it to Day 2, and the money, as they bagged chips when 15% of the field remained. But only one of them had more than 100 big blinds at the end of the day, with Mengshi Tian finishing as the chip leader with 889,000 chips. Thanks to his massive stack, he even took over the current overall chip lead. The podium is completed by Michel Karim (669,000), and by 2022 EPT Monte-Carlo FPS runner-up Fabio Peluso (622,000).
Eureka Main Event Day 1d Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Counts | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mengshi Tian | Hong Kong | 889,000 | 111 |
| 2 | Michel Karim | Sweden | 669,000 | 84 |
| 3 | Fabio Peluso | Italy | 622,000 | 78 |
| 4 | Domenico Frisenna | Italy | 611,000 | 76 |
| 5 | Fabian Niederreiter | Germany | 552,000 | 69 |
| 6 | Levon Kesaplyan | Armenia | 541,000 | 68 |
| 7 | Jon Ander Martinez | Spain | 535,000 | 67 |
| 8 | Nicola Karl | Germany | 482,000 | 60 |
| 9 | Tomas Saltonas | Lithuania | 470,000 | 59 |
| 10 | Jacek Skiscim | Poland | 456,000 | 57 |
Other big stacks include Candido Cappiello (431,000) and Pablo Silva (335,000), as well as David Docherty. The PokerStars UKIPT Player of the year will be back on Day 2 with 305,000 chips and will be looking to win a third title in 2023.
He will have to fight hard as players like Tomas Patka (230,000), who already finished second of an Eureka Main Event and third of an FPS this year, Alessandro Pichierri (207,000) and Daniel Koloszar (141,000) will be in his way on Day 2, with more or less of an average stack.
French PokerStars commentator Benjamin "Benny" Bruneteaux (101,000) will also be back on Day 2, with a single 1,000 chip more than George Chiriac (100,000). Walter Treccarichi bagged almost half this stack (65,000), but still has a lot compared to Matthias Kribben and his... 5,000 chips!
While Kribben did manage to reach the money, it was not the case for Marle Spragg, Benjamin Spragg, Antoine Saout, William Kassouf, Niall Farrell, Aliaksandr Shylko, Julien Brecard, Vivian Saliba, Jules Dickerson, Simon Wiciak and more than 1,000 other players that took a shot at Day 1e.
For the other 227 survivors of this flight, Day 2 will kick off tomorrow Saturday, December 9 at noon local time. The payouts will be announced at the beginning of the day.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as reporters follow the event through the starting flights and all the way down to a winner.
