It's getting late at Eureka Prague and there are some weird hands being played. This one was fascinating, played out between Dietrich Fast, Francis-Nicolas Bouchard and Maximos Pertsinidis; a German, Canadian, Greek tussle that took some unpicking even when we had all the details.

Pertsinidis got it all started, raising to 32,000 from under the gun. Fast, one seat to his left, called and it moved around the Bouchard in the big blind. He called too. Pertsinidis had the biggest stack; Fast is comfortable; but Bouchard was pretty short.

The flop came [8s][qs][kh] and all three players checked. It seemed to be fizzling out. This theory earned more weight when they also all checked the [ts] turn, slowly, deliberately as if they were each trying to convince the other to bet.

The [6c] seemed like a pretty innocuous river card, but that's when the weirdness really started. Bouchard bet 48,000 and, after a short time in the tank, Pertsinidis called.

Fast saw all this and seemed to think it was time to make a move. He took a little while to ponder his move, but ended up raising to 180,000.

When it came back round to Bouchard, he put only one chip forward, which confused some folk at the table, as well as the reporters gathered table-side. It was, of course, a call, but the dealer had to encourage him to put the full amount in so that Pertsinidis could then ponder his decision.

Bouchard's call seemed odd not just for its manner, however. He only had about 150,000 more chips behind, so had committed more than half of his stack. Pertsinidis was right to be confused.

The Greek player went deep into the tank and, after a while, Fast called the clock. The TD wandered over and counted down his minute, at the end of which Pertsinidis still hadn't made up his mind. That went as a fold, but just as the dealer was pulling in his cards, Pertsinidis wanted to show them.

He flipped over [as][ah].

He was right to let them go, though, because he was actually third best. Fast showed [6d][6h] for a rivered set of sixes. But Bouchard had been hoping for a triple up. He had turned the nut straight with his [ac][jd].

Three big hands, but no elimination.

They have now entered the last level of the night.

German language coverage is on PokerStarsBlog.de. All the schedule information is on the EPT App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

The Eureka coverage is all handily organized on the Eureka Prague page.

It was a long old day at Eureka Prague, and the hours ticked us through a number of very distinct phases.

The 558 starters were slashed to about 300 with mediaeval brutality early on, before only the slightest of slowdowns ahead of Wing Sang Lee bursting on the bubble.

We then entered the Conv era, hastily followed by the post-Conv era--the line being the moment Conv "Marc" Convey bust in 143rd for €2,420, his maiden cash on the Eureka Poker Tour.

But after that, it was all about who could build a stack during a period of Cold War economy. No one player dared rise too high through the party ranks, even though another 80-ish were exiled.

It left us at the end with 53 players still in with a shout, with only a slim margin between the approximate top ten. The outright leader going into the penultimate day is Vladas Tamasauskas, a PokerStars player from Lithuania, who had a big stack all of the day.

He finished by winning a sizeable pot from Ari Engel in the last level and bagging 2,198,000, which puts him a pip ahead of his countryman Rytis Praninskas, the only other player with more than two million.

Praninskas has 2,047,000 and we have entered the Lithuanian era.

They will do well to keep it like that because there's still a lot of talent left in this one, including the reigning EPT Prague champion Stephen Graner, a former World Series runner up in Martin Staszko and perennial boss Andrew Chen. The biggest stacks are as follows, with the chase on for €311,000.

Vladas Tamasauskas - 2,198,000
Rytis Praninskas - 2,047,000
Meir Ben Shimon - 1,864,000
Mihai Croitoru - 1,654,000
Igor Untilov - 1,606,000
Maximiliano Gallardo - 1,531,000
Simon Persson - 1,489,000
Cosmin Tabusca - 1,475,000
Martin Staszko - 1,456,000
Frank Williams - 1,410,000
Diogo Cardoso - 1,366,000
Malte Mönnig - 1,350,000
Vladas Burneikis - 1,304,000
Clemens Manzano - 1,276,000
Peter Charalambous - 1,273,000
Stephen Graner - 1,123,000
Ari Engel - 1,059,000
Andrew Chen - 1,050,000

Play resumes at noon tomorrow, with the idea to get down to a final table of eight. That could take some time...

Click through to see winners so far.

German language coverage is on PokerStarsBlog.de. All the schedule information is on the EPT App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

The Eureka coverage is all handily organized on the Eureka Prague page.

It is Day 3 of Eureka Prague and the race is on to the final table. There are 53 players still involved, seated in the following positions, and there are only eight spots at the final.

Blinds will be 12,000-24,000 (3,000 ante) in Level 23. Play kicks off at noon.

Day 3 seat draw:

Table Seat Name Country Chips
1 1 Mitch Johnson UK 605000
1 2 Javier Rojas Mederos Spain 997000
1 3 Maximos Pertsinidis Greece 528000
1 4 Constantin Calea Romania 1475000
1 5 Jan Przysucha Poland 484000
1 6 Peter Charalambous UK 1273000
1 7 Martin Romba Czech Republic 295000
1 8 Frank Williams UK 1411000

2 1 Igor Untilov Moldova 1616000
2 2 Gianluca Speranza Italy 337000
2 3 Clemens Manzano Austria 1274000
2 4 Klas Krueger Germany 502000
2 5 Benjamin Lamprecht Austria 1000000
2 6 Dietrich Fast Germany 219000
2 7 Andrei Grigoras Romania 401000
2 8 Francesco Delfoco Italy 400000

3 1 Xavier El Fassy France 475000
3 2 Tomas Jozonis Lithuania 413000
3 3 Stefan Ivanov Bulgaria 337000
3 5 Gerret Van Lancker Belgium 597000
3 6 Petr Hlavacek Czech Republic 403000
3 7 Manuel Fernandes Portugal 776000
3 8 Alexandre Meylan Switzerland 701000

4 1 Akseli Paalanen Finland 318000
4 2 Mustafa Biz Turkey 596000
4 3 Martin Staszko Czech Republic 1456000
4 4 Meir Ben Shimon Israel 1864000
4 5 Christian Schwenk Germany 357000
4 6 Malte Monnig Germany 1350000
4 7 Simon Persson Sweden 1489000
4 8 Stephen Graner USA 1123000

5 2 Roman Nikulin Russia 1347000
5 3 Idan Raviv Israel 964000
5 4 Simeon Naydenov Bulgaria 920000
5 5 Andrius Bielskis Lithuania 319000
5 6 Ari Engel USA 1059000
5 7 Krysztof Laprus Poland 231000
5 8 Torsti Kettula Finland 843000

6 1 Mihaita Croitoru Romania 1654000
6 2 Maximiliano Gallardo Argentina 1534000
6 3 Diogo Cardoso Portugal 1366000
6 4 Vladas Tamasauskas Lithuania 2198000
6 5 Dmitry Zotov Russia 746000
6 6 Francis-Nicolas Bouchard Canada 666000
6 7 Rytis Praninskas Lithuania 2047000
6 8 Diego Menceyra Alonso Spain 383000

7 1 Esben Guenther Norway 851000
7 2 Vladas Burneikis Lithuania 1304000
7 3 Cosimo Sabatini Italy 527000
7 4 Dawid Grabinski Sweden 766000
7 5 Anthony Picault France 457000
7 6 Andrew Chen Canada 1050000
7 8 Miltiadis Kyriakides Greece 913000

* Prize-winners so far are on the prize-winners page

THIS POST IS TOO BIG. I'VE STARTED ANOTHER ONE. CLICK THROUGH FOR CONTINUING UPDATES FROM EUREKA PRAGUE.

8.50pm - Gallardo makes brave, right call, is knocked out anyhow
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
Maximiliano Gallardo is our 13th placed finisher, but got pretty unlucky here. I'm not sure what happened pre-flop, but he was looking at a board of [5c][8c][9d] and was up against Mihaita Croitoru, who checked.

Gallardo bet 200,000 at it. We later found out he had [as][8s]. But Croitoro now check-raised all in, covering Gallardo's million-ish chips.

Gallardo called with middle pair and was in pretty good shape against Croitoro's [ad][7d]. But when the [6h] came on the turn, Croitoro was pumping his fist quietly and respectfully and Gallardo was heading away. Gallardo wins €17,330.

8.45pm - Tamasauskas more than doubles
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
Martin Staszko opened his button, making it 200,000 to go. Vladas Burneikis, in the small blind, called the bet but then Vladas Tamasauskas shoved from the big blind, for about 350,000 more.

Staszko then four-bet to around 800,000, attempting to isolate the short stack, and it worked as Burneikis folded. Tamasauskas tabled [ac][kh] to Staszko's [qh][js] and Tamasauskas survived. Just. The flop was blank but the turn brought the [qc]. The [kc] on the river bailed out the Lithuanian and allowed him to fight on.

8.35pm - Huge power shift among Lithuanian men named Vladas
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
There's been a massive shift in momentum after the break and there's a big swing in the Lithuanian ranks too. Vladas Burneikis has just pulled off a full double up through his neighbour, countryman and namesake Vladas Tamasauskas and is now a massive chip leader.

I don't know how this played out beyond the fact that at the end, the pair were talking in Lithuanian and Burneikis was stacking an enormous pile of chips--more than 9 million. The board was still out: [7d][2c][7h][7c][kh] and Burneikis's winning two cards were [kc][qs].

Tamasauskas is now down to about 400,000, a tenth of what he had at the start of the hand. That's a big moment. Tamasauskas had been unbeatable until that point.

At the time that all that was going on, Pete Charalambous, the last British player in the field, was wandering away from the other table, busted in 14th.

8.25pm - Meylan hits the rail in 15th
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
Alexandre Meylan is out in 15th, picking up €15,500. The dominant chip leader Igor Untilov opened to 200,000 from the cut off and Meylan, with only about 800,000 behind, called.

The flop came [kd][3s][th] and it was always going in here. Meylan probably thought he was doubling up; he had [kc][3c]. But Untilov had [ks][tc] and there was nothing miraculous on turn or river.

8.15pm - Dangerous game, bluffing
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
Maximos Pertsinidis may have suffered some bad service at the restaurant he ate in during the dinner break, because he's come back full of fury. He just got involved in a postprandial pot against Simon Persson that cost him more than two thirds of his stack.

Pertsinidis opened to 250,000 from UTG+1 and Persson, in the cut-off, bumped it up to 525,000. Everybody else got out of the way, but then Pertsinidis called. The flop was seemingly safe: [3s][6d][4h] and Pertsinidis check-called Persson's bet of 425,000. The pattern repeated on the [6c] turn--check, bet 650,000, call--and that took them to a river of [qd].

Pertsinidis now took over the betting lead and slid out 625,000. Persson didn't ponder too long before calling, forcing Pertsinidis to reveal his [kd][td], for king high.

Until the river he had been ahead, however. Persson showed his [jh][qh] and took a huge pot to start off this session and get his stack up to around 6 million.

7pm - Dinner counts
Level 28 - Blinds 40,000-80,000 (10,000 ante)
There are 15 players left at the dinner break. Here's (roughly) what they're all playing:

Seat 1 - Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 3,000,000
Seat 2 - empty
Seat 3 - Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 4,800,000
Seat 4 - Vladas Tamasauskas (Lithuania) - 4,800,000
Seat 5 - Meir Ben Shimon (Israel) - 3,350,000
Seat 6 - Maximos Pertsinidis (Greece) - 3,200,000
Seat 7 - Torsti Kettula (Finland) - 2,700,000
Seat 8 - Simon Persson (Sweden) - 4,200,000

Seat 1 - Mihaita Croitoru (Romania) - 1,550,000
Seat 2 - Maximiliano Gallardo (Argentina) - 1,650,000
Seat 3 - Igor Untilov (Moldova) - 6,800,000
Seat 4 - Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 3,600,000
Seat 5 - Cosimo Sabatini (Italy) - 1,200,000
Seat 6 - Alexandre Meylan (Switzerland) - 850,000
Seat 7 - Peter Charalambous (UK) - 1,250,000
Seat 8 - Gianluca Speranza (Italy) - 4,400,000

6.40pm - Schwenk out in 16th
Level 28 - Blinds 40,000-80,000 (10,000 ante)
As the big hand was playing out between Speranza and Mederos, there was a much more routine coup going down on the other table between Christian Schwenk and Torsti Kettula.

They had it all in pre-flop, with Schwenk's [ah][7h] against Kettula's [8d][8s]. The flop came [qs][8h][2s] and if that wasn't emphatic enough, the [qc] on the turn ended all doubt. Schwenk went out in 16th for €13.660.

6.30pm - Speranza gets the full double, clips Mederos
Level 28 - Blinds 40,000-80,000 (10,000 ante)
It's clear we're not seeing every hand today, which is how come it came as a pretty big surprise to see Javier Rojas Mederos at the top of the chip counts at the latest break. I genuinely don't think I've seen him involved at all, yet he has clearly been bossing.

However, I did just see the hand, from start to finish, that lost him that chip lead and put Gianluca Speranza close to 5 million himself.

Speranza opened to 165,000 from UTG+1 and it was folded round to Mederos on the button. He called. That took them to a flop of [7h][5h][3d]. Speranza told a consistent story. He bet 185,000 and Mederos called.

The [kd] came on the turn and again Speranza kept up his attack. He now bet 410,00, which Speranza also called.

The river was the [7c] and Mederos announced that he was all in, for about 1.3 million on top of what was already invested. Mederos didn't seem to like this one bit--was he being played?--and eventually called.

Speranza had played his [ks][kc] pretty well, it must be said. Mederos forlornly flashed pocket jacks as he mucked.

6.10pm - New level, new order
Level 28 - Blinds 40,000-80,000 (10,000 ante)
Off they go in Level 28, with 16 players left on two tables. These are approximate stacks:

Seat 1 - Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 2,400,000
Seat 2 - Christian Schwenk (Germany) - 1,500,000
Seat 3 - Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 4,100,000
Seat 4 - Vladas Tamasauskas (Lithuania) - 4,000,000
Seat 5 - Meir Ben Shimon (Israel) - 2,700,000
Seat 6 - Maximos Pertsinidis (Greece) - 3,760,000
Seat 7 - Torsti Kettula (Finland) - 2,100,000
Seat 8 - Simon Persson (Sweden) - 4,600,000

Seat 1: Mihaita Croitoru (Romania) - 4,100,000
Seat 2: Maximiliano Gallardo (Argentina) - 1,600,000
Seat 3: Igor Untilov - 4,700,000
Seat 4: Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 5,400,000
Seat 5: Cosimo Sabatini (Italy) - 950,000
Seat 6: Alexandre Meylan (Switzerland) - 1,200,000
Seat 7: Peter Charalambous (UK) - 750,000
Seat 8: Gianluca Speranza (Italy) - 2,500,000

5.55pm - Delfoco is done
Level 27 - Blinds 30,000-60,000 (10,000 ante)
Francesco Delfoco's long and deliberate vigil is over after he got tricky with a short stack one too many times. He limped from the small blind and must have been delighted when Igor Untinov set him all in. He was sitting with [qd][qs] and, naturally, called. Untinov was behind with his [kd][9d] but he was not dead, and when the [kh] came on the river, Delfoco was out in 17th.

That's another redraw for the last two tables.

5.45pm - Engel in a tangle
Level 27 - Blinds 30,000-60,000 (10,000 ante)
Ari Engel is out. The last North American in the field after Andrew Chen was knocked out earlier today found himself in a weird and inescapable spot againstMihaita Croitou. I didn't see the hand play out, but based on what people at the table said, Engel limped from late position with [4h][6h] and Croitou called from the small blind with [6d][8s]. The flop brought the world for Croitou -- it came [4c][5d][7s] -- and he check called Engel's bet. But if the flop was good for the Romanian, the turn was even better. It was the [4s] and Engel now had every reason to get it in.

The [3s] on the end was not the paired board he needed. Engel is ousted in 19th.

5.35pm - Sabatini with another double
Level 27 - Blinds 30,000-60,000 (10,000 ante)
Action is pretty slow on Table 3 where the short-stacked Italian pair of Cosimo Sabatini and Francesco Delfoco are not committing their chips without giving it a good long think.

That said, it was Ari Engel who was in the tank most recently after Sabatini shoved for 550,000 total over Engel's open to 135,000 from early position. Everyone else folded and Engel pondered his decision. Eventually Engel called, tabling [ad][4s]. Sabatini had [ac][8c] however and the eight on the flop all but sealed it in the Italian's favour.

Not so lucky for Roman Nikulin, however. He was the latest to head to the payout table, out in 20th.

5.15pm - Chips and seats
Level 27 - Blinds 30,000-60,000 (10,000 ante)
Idan Raviv is out, trudging to the payouts table to collect the last four-figure payday of the week. It seems he had his pocket queens outdrawn by Dmitry Zotov's [9s][9d] when a nine flopped. Raviv had only marginally more chips than Zotov at that stage, but lost the remainder soon after.

Mitch Johnson was knocked out just before that too. They both took €9,990 with the next player out slated to get €11,830.

5pm - Snowman thawed by the Iceman
Level 27 - Blinds 30,000-60,000 (10,000 ante)
Petr Hlavacek, who has had a toy snowman on the table in front of him throughout this tournament, was the first player eliminated after the break, hitting a king on the flop with his K-J, but getting the last of his chips in on the river, by which point Simon Persson's pocket eights had made a set.

That leaves only one player from the Czech Republic still in (Martin Staszko) and Persson now smoothly stacking about 5 million chips again. Hlavacek gets €8,240 for 24th. (Correction to previous post, by the way: Persson's polo-neck is dark blue. Not black.)

Benjamin Lamprecht went out soon after, taking €9,990 for 23rd.

In between the two eliminations, Cosimo Sabatini doubled up his short stack. He found jacks and shoved pre-flop. It folded to Mihaita Croitou in the big blind and he called with [ts][qh]. There was a jack on the flop and little changed after that.

4.45pm - Chips and seats
Level 27 - Blinds 30,000-60,000 (10,000 ante)
Players are returning from their second break of the day and assembling around the final two tables. Here's the line-up, with Israel's Meir Ben Shimon now out front.

Table 1
1 - Torsti Kettula (Finland) - 1.475 million
2 - Benjamin Lamprecht (Austria) - 1.73 million
3 - Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 2.8 million
4 - Idan Raviv (Israel) - 1.33 million
5 - Meir Ben Shimon (Israel) - 4.55 million
6 - Gianluca Speranza (Italy) - 2.03 million
7 - Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 2.84 million
8 - Dmitry Zotov (Russia) - 1.13 million

Table 2
1 - Maximiliano Gallardo (Argentina) - 1.95 million
2 - Roman Nikulin (Russia) - 900,000
3 - Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 1.3 million
4 - Simon Persson (Sweden) - 4.2 million
5 - Maximos Pertsinidis (Greece) - 2.6 million
6 - Alexandre Meylan (Switzerland) - 1 million
7 - Mitch Johnson (UK) - 1.02 million
8 - Petr Hlavacek (Czech Republic) - 720,000

Table 3
1 - Mihaita Croitou (Romania) - 2,55 million
2 - Cosimo Sabatini (Italy) - 420,000
3 - Francesco Delfoco (Italy) - 680,000
4 - Igor Untinov (Moldova) - 3,8 million
5 - Peter Charalambous (UK) - 1,1 million
6 - Christian Schwenk (Germany) - 970,000
7 - Vladas Tamasauskas (Lithuania) - 3,85 million
8 - Ari Engel (USA) - 2,155 million

4.25pm: Small pots
Level 26: Blinds 25,000-50,000 (5,000 ante)
Very stealthily, Simon Persson has built himself an enormous stack this afternoon, befitting a man dressed in a black polo neck and looking every inch as calm as the Milk Tray man. He has around 5 million now and doesn't need to think too long about trying to keep the revolving door spinning as he sends player after player to the rail.

Persson opened one hand to 105,000 under the gun and Christian Schwenk moved all in for about 450,000 total. It was folded back to Persson, who called, even though he had only [kh][2h]. Schwenk's [ac][9h] held up and doubled up, but Persson is still doing very well indeed.

4.15pm: How Monnig bust
Level 26: Blinds 25,000-50,000 (5,000 ante)
It turned out that Robin Scherr didn't see Malte Monnig bust either, but he was able to get the general gist. Meir Ben Shimon opened from the cut off; Monnig shoved for about 600,000 with pocket fours and Shimon called with ace-king suited. Shimon turned a flush.

It's also the end of the road for Dawid Grabinski, who lamented that he lost with set-over-set, fives against aces. There are 15 minutes left on this level, and we'll get a chip-count for the last 25 players at the break.

3.55pm: Pay, jumped. Two bust in quick succession
Level 26: Blinds 25,000-50,000 (5,000 ante)
Within the space of a few minutes both Malte Monnig and Francis-Nicolas Bouchard have been knocked out. Monnig was the last man to get €7,030; Bouchard the first to take home €8,240.

I'll have details of Monnig's bust out just as soon as I can steal them from Robin on the German blog. As for Bouchard, he got his last chips in with [ks][js] but couldn't outdraw Mein Ben Shimon's [ad][qd] on a [9c][3c][2h][tc][th] board.

3.40pm: Manzano busts to Grabinski
Level 26: Blinds 25,000-50,000 (5,000 ante)
Here's Dawid Grabinski again. His incognito years are now well behind him. He has been chatting away all day to Clemens Manzano and, after Manzano open-shoved under the gun for 345,000, it was folded all the way round to Grabinski in the big blind, offering him the chance to make a significant impact on his new friend's day.

"Can we look at the hand together?" Grabinski asked the dealer, revealing that he hadn't yet checked his cards and wondering if Manzano could also peer over at the squeeze.
"I would do it for fun," Manzano said, agreeing to the plan in principle.
"I can get a reaction," Grabinski said.

The dealer, unfortunately, had to shake her head and tell them it was against the rules. But Grabinski didn't take too long after looking down at [ad][9c] to call. Manzano's [as][5h] was behind.

Grabinski told his neighbour that there was still a good chance of chopping this pot, but it wasn't to be. The board ran [kc][6s][td][6d][9h].

Manzano was out in 29th for €7,030.

The next player out also gets €7,030 but there's a pay jump after that to €8,240.

3.20pm: Small pots
Level 25: Blinds 20,000-40,000 (5,000 ante)
With 29 players left, it's getting even more cagey. Next player out will have outlasted 1,864 others and will probably think he deserves more than €7,030 for that. It's why it's worth clinging on until the end of today, when only eight will be left and a payday of at least €30,460 will be assured.

It's been small ball for the past 20 minutes or so. These are the only hands I saw:

Clemens Manzano raised to 80,000 from the cut off and Ari Engel defended his big blind. The flop came [5h][6d][qs] and Engel check-called Manzano's 85,000 continuation bet. They checked the [2h] turn and then also checked the [ac] river. Engel's [as][tc] was good by that point.

On the same table, it was folded to Igor Untilov in the small blind and he opened to 105,000. One seat next to him, Dawid Grabinski moved all in from the big blind and Untilov quickly folded.

Grabinski had earlier been joking that he had been playing "incognito" because his tournament ID ticket was turned face down on the table and that no reporter had ever asked him to turn it the right way up. It's ironic because Grabinski has likely never done anything previously incognito: he is at least 2 metres tall (6ft 5in at the very minimum) and is by far the tallest man in this tournament still.

Over on another table, Mitch Johnson also took a small pot from Constantin Calea. Calea opened to 85,000 and Johnson defended his big blind. They both checked a flop of [8d][6h][qd] and then Johnson won when he bet 90,000 at the [7s] on the turn.

2.55pm: Naydenov busts, is furious
Level 25: Blinds 20,000-40,000 (5,000 ante)
And just like that, the Bulgarian bracelet winner is out, slapping his cards down, defeated, after Idan Raviv took it all.

Raviv opened from under the gun, making it 85,000 to play and originally it looked as though Francis-Nicolas Bouchard, in the small blind, was going to play. He asked for a count of Raviv (about 1.3 million), but folded, leaving it down to Naydenov in the big blind to look up Raviv.

So it was just the two of them to a flop of [7s][5d][8h], which Naydenov checked. Raviv made a continuation bet of 115,000 and Naydenov called. The [6d] came on the turn and both players checked, taking them to a [9s] river.

Naydenov announced pretty quickly that he was all in and Raviv didn't take long to call the bet, putting one chip over the line. Naydenov immediately slapped his cards on the table, face down, and it looked initially like a bluff gone wrong. But it wasn't even that: when asked to show (as a called all in must be) Naydenov showed his [6h][6s] for a flopped straight draw, turned set and rivered straight.

But Raviv calmly showed [kd][td] for the rivered bigger straight and that was the end of Naydenov. He leaves in 32nd.

2.45pm: Staszko's muscle
Level 25: Blinds 20,000-40,000 (5,000 ante)
Martin Staszko also has some name recognition in these parts, it's fair to say. Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. No Czech player has ever got as near to global superstardom as he has, having finished runner up to Pius Heinz at the World Series Main Event. Staszko is a difficult player to report on because he doesn't seem to like playing many flops. He just gets his aggression out of the way early and forces opponents out of their comfort zone.

Case in point: Simon Persson opened to 80,00 from the cut off. Staszko three-bet to 200,000 from the button. Persson made it 465,000 with his four bet (no others were involved) and Staszko shoved. Fold.

2.30pm: Where's your bracelet?
Level 25: Blinds 20,000-40,000 (5,000 ante)
Ari Engel is probably the best known player to an American audience still alive in this event. Engel has $2.2 million in live tournament earnings, but is arguably even more famous for his online exploits. BodogAri was one of the earliest online crushers and has a SCOOP title among his many accolades.

But take Engel to central Europe and sit him next to Simeon Naydenov, which is precisely what has happened today, and he's nobody. Naydenov, you see, is became the first Bulgarian ever to win a World Series bracelet, in a shootout event in Las Vegas in 2013, and is quite the household name in the Eureka zone.

The two haven't played a huge number of pots against one another as far as I've seen, but Naydenov just took a really small one. Engel opened from under the gun, Naydenov called from the big blind, and then they checked all the way on a board of [qh][9h][qc][10s][7s]. Naydenov's [jd][9c] took it down.

Naydenov has slightly more than 1 million chips at this stage. Engel has slightly less than 2 million. There's still scope for them to renew their relationship.

2.15pm: Break-time chips
Level 25: Blinds 20,000-40,000 (5,000 ante)
When players return from their break, they will be playing blinds of 20,000-40,000, meaning a small blind and an ante now costs them a starting stack.

Here's a selection of the chip counts, including the biggest piles and the biggest names:

Vladas Tamasauskas - 4.7 million
Simon Persson - 4.1 million
Vladas Burneikis - 3 million
Mihaita Croitoru - 2.8 million
Igor Untilov - 1.95 million
Ari Engel - 1.9 million
Malte Monnig - 1.6 million
Dmitry Zotov - 1.6 million
Mitch Johnson - 1.1 million
Peter Charalambous - 980,000

2.05pm: Pay up
Break time
Players in the Eureka Main Event are on their first break of the day. There are 33 of them left. Stephen Graner was among those to fall in the last level, proving that he is mortal in the Czech Republic after all. Graner went out in 39th place. We'll do a quick chip count of some of the big stacks now.

1.55pm: Pay up
Level 24: Blinds 15,000-30,000 (4,000 ante)
Roman Nikulin opened to 66,000 from under the gun and action folded to Maximiliano Gallardo in the big blind. Gallardo, with about 1.8 million in total, approximately double Nikulin's stack, raised to 180,000. Nikulin pondered awhile before calling, leaving himself about 900,000 behind.

The flop came [as][3s][6s] and Gallardo led an amount sufficient to result in a quick fold from Nikulin.

1.45pm: Campanologist silenced
Level 24: Blinds 15,000-30,000 (4,000 ante)
Manuel Fernandes, the bell-ringing Portuguese player who was the chip leader at the end of Day 1, is now out, silenced in 33. There was a strangled jangled of the bell when he shoved all in for about 250,000 and was called almost immediately by Xavier El Fassy.

El Fassy had [jh][js] and was ahead of Fernandes's [7s][6s]. Fernandes started to make an explanation for the shove with suited connectors but couldn't quite find the words. The flop was [4d][3d][3c], offering hope, but there was no five forthcoming to fill a straight. The turn was the [as] and the river the [ks]. That was the end of Fernandes's jingling run.

1.25pm: Johnson hanging tough
Level 24: Blinds 15,000-30,000 (4,000 ante)
Constantin Calea opened to 70,000 from early position and it folded round to Mitch Johnson in the big blind. Johnson thought for a moment then announced that he was all in, prompting Calea to ask for a count. "About four-fifty?" Calea said. "Bit less," Johnson said, showing that it was about 427,000 total. Either way, it was too much. Calea folded.

1.20pm: A challenge
Level 24: Blinds 15,000-30,000 (4,000 ante)
Malte Monnig all but doubled after he won a flip that sent Mustafa Biz to the rail. This was as standard as it gets between two players with small-ish stacks: Monnig had [ad][ks] and Biz found [jh][js]. They got it all in pre-flop and the board ran [ah][3h][9c][7s][th].

1.10pm: A challenge
Level 24: Blinds 15,000-30,000 (4,000 ante)
There is now a challenge to Lithuanian dominance here, in the form of Mihaita Croitoru, from Romania. Croitoru was on the same table as Vladas Tamasauskas, whose fortunes have dipped of late. Croitoru now has about 3.6 million; Tamasauskas has about 2.2 million; Javier Rojas Mederos has 2.6 million.

12.50pm: Home-court advantage
Level 23: Blinds 12,000-24,000 (3,000 ante)
Stephen Graner offered his judgment on a recent play by Martin Staszko. "Home-court advantage," Graner said after Staszko opened to 50,000 from the cut off; Meir Ben Shimon raised to 130,000 from the button and Staszko, a Czech native, returned with a four bet to 295,000. Shimon didn't like it and folded like a broken ironing board.

"Home-court advantage," Graner said, even though this is pretty much becoming his own home court having won the EPT here last year.

But Graner does have a point. Anybody a long way from home is finding it hard going so far today. Andrew Chen and Frank Williams are two more of the first-level casualties today.

Here's the full list of players knocked out so far:

44. Andrew Chen - €4,960
45. Frank Williams - €4,960
46. Akseli Paalanen - €4,960
47. Dietrich Fast - €4,960
48. Stefan Ivanov - €4,960
49. Martin Romba - €4,960
50. Anthony Picault - €4,960
51. Krysztof Laprus - €4,960
52. Diogo Cardoso - €4,960
53. Diego Menceyra Alonso - €4,960

Don't forget, prize-winners so far can be found on the prize-winners page.

12.35pm: The next double up
Level 23: Blinds 12,000-24,000 (3,000 ante)
Christian Schwenk is the latest player to double up, getting his chips in with [as][ks] and finding Miltiadis Kyriakides with [7d][7c]. The flop hit the big slick. It came [ac][jh][ah] and the [ts][3s] turn and river changed little.

Double ups
12.10p.m.: Level 23: Blinds 12,000-24,000 (3,000 ante)
Dietrich Fast and Andrius Bielskis have both found early double ups. Fast, who started the day with 219,000, got them in with [qh][4h] and Francesco Delfoco called with [9c][9h]. That was looking bleak for Fast, but the board ran [kc][jd][qd][8d][2d].

On the neighbouring table, Bielskis got his 300,000 in with [ts][td] and butted into Roman Nikulin's [4d][4s]. There were no surprises and Bielskis doubled up, keeping alive the dreams alive of a Lithuanian 1,2,3,4 and 5.

A world of hurt on Southern Europe
12.05p.m.: Level 23: Blinds 12,000-24,000 (3,000 ante)
It's been an explosive start here in Prague with two players eliminated on what might have been the first hand. Even our exceptionally well organised German colleague Robin Scherr wasn't in position in time, but the general gist is that Vladas Tamasauskas put some hurt on southern Europe--and then some.

Tamasauskas now has 4 million chips, nearly double what he ended yesterday with (and he was the chip leader) and the seats previously occupied by Portugal's Diogo Cardoso and Spain's Diego Menceyra Alonso are both empty.

To repeat the headline: Tamasauskas is now way out in front of this one alone, with 4 million chips.

German language coverage is on PokerStarsBlog.de. All the schedule information is on the EPT App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

The Eureka coverage is all handily organized on the Eureka Prague page.

* Refresh the page for latest updates from Day 3 of Eureka Prague
* Prize-winners so far are on the prize-winners page

10pm: Final table line-up
After that extraordinary end to proceedings, the dust has just about settled and they have redrawn for the final. Here is how they will line up for the Eureka Prague final table, starting at noon on Thursday:

Seat 1 - Gianluca Speranza (Italy) - 4,750,000
Seat 2 - Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 6,430,000
Seat 3 - Meir Ben Shimon (Israel) - 1,670,000
Seat 4 - Mihaita Croitoru (Romania) - 3,120,000
Seat 5 - Cosimo Sabatini (Italy) - 1,875,000
Seat 6 - Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 6,145,000
Seat 7 - Simon Persson (Sweden) - 12,565,000
Seat 8 - Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 10,800,000

9.40pm: Two eliminations, final reached immediately!
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
There are, to use an understatement, scenes in Prague. Two players have just been eliminated at the same time, on neighbouring tables, taking us to a final table in a flash.

One pot was pretty small; one other was absolutely enormous and Simon Persson will be a huge chip leader tomorrow as a result.

So, let's go through this.

On one table, Persson opened from under the gun and faced a three bet to 580,000 from Igor Untilov to his left. It came back round to Persson and he four bet to 1,030,000.

Untilov called and they went to a flop of [9c][qs][9s].

At around this time, the action happened over on the other table. The short-stacked Torsti Kettula moved all in with [td][tc] and was picked off by Vladas Burneikis's [jh][jd]. There was no way either of them were doing anything different there and the board bricked, meaning Kettula bust in 10th and was still steaming about the pot before against Martin Staszko.

But that happened with the other pot still under way. In that one, we left it at a flop and Persson bet it, making it 640,000 to go. Untilov called that bet, taking them to a turn of [3h].

Persson was sitting with about 5.1 million behind; Untilov had 3.2 million back.

Persson wasn't going to slow down and fired 925,000 at that. Untilov now went deep into the tank. There was total silence around the table, even though the tournament directors were now preparing to make everyone shift to a single table. But when Untilov emerged from the tank he did so with an all in shove, and Persson called instantly.

"You have a nine?" Untilov said, incredulous. Persson didn't. He had pocket queens for the flopped boat and was now way ahead of Untilov's [kh][kc].

The [tc] on the river was meaningless and Persson had suddenly knocked out Untilov, ending the day and making himself a stack of more than 12 million.

9.30pm: Massive moment for home fans, Staszko doubles
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
Martin Staszko, who is already the Czech Republic's most celebrated star, has just kept his Eureka dreams alive with a massive double up through Torsti Kettula. Kettula has been ice cool throughout this tournament, but just reeled away from the table in despair as his opponent rivered him.

Staszko opened to 250,000 from under the gun on what is now a five-handed table. Kettula, in the big blind, three bet to 710,000 and Staszko, as he tends to do very often, pushed all in for 3,255,000.

Kettula called and his [jc][js] were in great shape against Staszko's [ah][jh]. The first four cards were all blank: [6c][2d][6h][7d] but lo and behold, there was the [ac] on the river to give the home-town hero a stack big enough to cause real menace on the final table tomorrow.

Kettula is now down to about 1.3 million.

9.20pm: Lithuanian down
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
The Lithuanian stronghold just took another blow as Vladas Tamasauskas hit the rail in 11th. The damage was done earlier in that enormous pot against his countryman, but Tamasauskas had mounted something of a fightback more recently.

However, he probably felt he had little option but to open shove for about 1.2 million when he found [9s][ts] just into Level 30. It's just unlucky for him that he smashed into Torsti Kettula's pocket queens, and couldn't catch up. Tamasauskas takes €19,460.

9.15pm: Pertsinidis? Saggysinidis more like
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
Maximos Pertsinidis is out in 12th, having never recovered from the huge hand just after the break against Simon Persson. Pertsinidis shoved for 250,000 from early position and Vladas Burneikis, who had posted 100,000 in the big blind anyway, was mandated to call.

He had ten-deuce and hit a deuce on the turn. That was the end of Pertsinidis, who picks up €17,330 and leaves us with 11 players.

We're now going into Level 30, where blinds are 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante).

9pm: Sabatini hanging around
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
Cosimo Sabatini has doubled his short stack, getting it all in with [kh][8h] and initially in trouble against Igor Untilov's [kc][qd]. But the flop offered a glimmer of hope, coming [ah][4h][2s] and then he got there the hard way with the [8s] on the turn. The [ks] on the river changed nothing.
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)

9pm: The Internet is finite
Level 29 - Blinds 50,000-100,000 (10,000 ante)
It turns out the internet has run out of room. Who knew. Actually, I'm not sure if that's the truth, but I can't seem to get anything to save in the previous post, so I'm starting a new one. Enjoy!

Goodness knows how many hands were dealt on the penultimate day of Eureka Prague Season 5, but it's easily into the thousands. However there were none more spectacular that the very final one, where Simon Persson had pocket queens and Igor Untilov had kings and, after a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing, they eventually got all their chips in.

The thing was that for long periods of the day, both Persson and Untilov had been chip leader as a field of 53 slimmed all the way down to its final. And although Vladas Burneikis had taken over at the very top of the counts by the time that hand emerged, both the Swede and the Moldovan still had plenty.

But neither was backing down by the time they were at the turn. And at that moment, the queens had found another one on the flop and Persson was now in the lead. He knocked out Untilov in ninth place and bagged more than 12 million chips, which he'll take to the final tomorrow.

Untilov was devastated. His ninth-place prize of €24,150 will seem like scant consolation when there's €311,000 on offer to tomorrow's winner. But he wouldn't be the only player to feel hard done by after a day of poker that again reinforced how brutal it can be.

There were coolers pretty much all day, and the pendulum swung in countless directions. Vladas Tamasauskas had knocked out two players before any reporters had even made their way to the tournament floor (and we're not talking just slovenly English reporters; I'm talking conscientious German reporters too.)

But although Tamasauskas had a huge stack for ages, he too was coolered and sent home, losing a monster to his countryman and namesake Vladas Burneikis. Burneikis is now the only Lithuanian at a final at which there are players from seven countries.

Home eyes will all be on Martin Staszko, who is already the most celebrated player from these parts. The former World Series runner up owes his place at the final--and his third-placed stack--to a beat he put on Finland's Torsti Kettula. Staszko likes to play pre-flop and got his chips in with [ah][jh]. But he ran into Kettula's [jc][js].

It was looking bleak for Staszko until the river, when an ace popped out. Kettula was crestfallen and went out in tenth.

Here's how they line up tomorrow for what will be a tremendous final.

Seat 1 - Gianluca Speranza (Italy) - 4,750,000
Seat 2 - Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 6,430,000
Seat 3 - Meir Ben Shimon (Israel) - 1,670,000
Seat 4 - Mihaita Croitoru (Romania) - 3,120,000
Seat 5 - Cosimo Sabatini (Italy) - 1,875,000
Seat 6 - Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 6,145,000
Seat 7 - Simon Persson (Sweden) - 12,565,000
Seat 8 - Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 10,800,000

Persson was the very image of cool and calm today, wearing a Milk Tray-man style polo neck and ruthlessly putting his chips to work. He'll be the man to beat tomorrow. But don't rule out Staszko.

There are two long posts detailing all the action from a pretty exciting day. You can read them here and here but not here.

All the payouts to date are on the payouts page. (Where there are gaps it's where people haven't been to collect their prize yet.)

The eight players looking for the €311,000 first prize in Prague are as follows. (See who has already cashed on the prize-winners page.)

Seat 1: Gianluca Speranza, 28, Italy, PokerStars qualifier - 4,750,000





Speranza comes from a family of poker players--his brother Alessandro and father Giampiero also play and Gianluca has been a regular on the European Poker Tour since Season 5. Since his first cash in 2007, Speranza has amassed close to $600,000 in live tournament winnings, a haul that includes three IPT final tables: fourth at IPT6 Saint Vincent for €25,000, fifth at IPT2 Malta for €23,000 and seventh in Sanremo in Season 5 for €16,700. He is currently ranked #36 in the Italy all-time money list. He lives in Vienna, Austria.

Seat 2: Martin Staszko, 36, Czech Republic, PokerStars qualifier - 6,430,000





No Czech player has ever won a Main Event on the Eureka Poker Tour but Martin Staszko is in a good position to change that. The 36-year-old pro from Trinec, an industrial town near the Czech/Polish border, doesn't need much introduction. He's by far the most successful live tournament player from the Czech Republic and leads his country's all-time money list with $5.9 million in winnings. Staszko's biggest achievement came in the 2011 WSOP Main Event when he was runner-up to Pius Heinz. Two months ago, Staszko won his first trophy on the EPT in the €500 Quintuple Draw event in Malta. He is the only player left with home-soil advantage.

Seat 3: Meir Ben Shimon, 30, Israel - 1,670,000





While Staszko aims to become the first Czech Eureka champion, Meir Ben Shimon is aiming to become the third Israeli to win on this tour, more than any other nation. Reaching the final in this event is already the biggest achievement of the 30-year-old from Tel Aviv's career so far, but is the shortest stack going into the last day. Ben Shimon mainly plays live, both tournaments and cash games, and has a clear passion for the pastime. When asked what his hobbies were outside of poker, he answered "Poker!"

Seat 4: Mihaita Croitoru, 22, Romania - 3,120,000





Croitoru was born in Romania, but moved with his family to Spain when he was ten and has lived there ever since. He considers himself mainly a tournament player and says he started taking poker seriously at the beginning of this year. Croitoru plays online on PokerStars.es and banked nearly €6,000 in an ESCOOP event back in July. The 22-year-old is playing the biggest tournament of his career and is the youngest player on the final table. He's already got some ambitions beyond tomorrow's final and says if he finishes fifth or better, he'll play the EPT Main Event as well. He's enjoying Prague a lot and is already thinking of coming back next year.

Seat 5: Cosimo Sabatini, 48, Italy - 1,875,000





Sabatini is the oldest player at this year's Eureka Prague final table, aged 48. He's an accountant from the small Italian town of Cassino and his poker CV includes cashes from Italy, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic. None of them have been particularly big until the Eureka 5 Prague Main Event, which has already brought him by far best result. Sabatini is enjoying back-to-back cashes in this event but this time he'll bank way more than he did for last year's 196th place.

Seat 6: Javier Rojas Mederos, 25, Spain - 6,145,000





Mederos also represents Spain, and has lived there for his whole life. He plays pretty much everything - tournaments, cash games and sit & gos. His greatest poker achievement to date came when he won the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for $83,000. The 25-year-old will need to get at least fourth place to beat that result here.

Seat 7: Simon Persson, 33, Sweden, PokerStars player - 12,565,000




Simon Persson came out on the right side of a massive clash against Igor Untilov that ended Day 3. The Swede knocked out his opponent in ninth place in the biggest pot of the tournament so far and give himself the chip lead going in to the final table. Persson is no newcomer to the live poker scene; he's been competing for years. Two years ago, he was runner-up in the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam for €182,913. Online on PokerStars, Persson's best result came five years ago when he banked $144,000 for first place in the Sunday Warm-Up.

Seat 8: Vladas Burneikis, 40, Lithuania - 10,800,000





When questioned if he's a pro or an amateur, Burneikis said: "I'm a fish." The Lithuanian has been playing poker for a few years, mainly live because - as he says - "Live, it's real". Making the Eureka Prague final table is the best result of his career to date. Burneikis is combining business with pleasure on this trip to the Czech Republic - as well as playing poker, he is also here to meet potential business partners.

* Refresh the page for latest updates from Day 4 of Eureka Prague
* Prize-winners so far are on the prize-winners page

5pm: Javier Rojas Mederos wins Eureka Prague and €311,000
The stage is full of Spaniards celebrating one of the most remarkable victories this or any tour has seen. A full wrap is imminent.

4.50pm: Martin Staszko out in second, winning €172,600
Level 33 - Blinds 150,000-300,000 (25,000 ante)
They got heads up with Martin Stazsko with only about 3 million in chips and he got it in on the very first hand. He had [as][7c] and Javier Rojas Mederos found [2c][2s] and called.

The board ran [4c][kh][js][8c][3h] and that was that. In an absolute flash, Javier Rojas Mederos is our champion!

4.45pm: Simon Persson out in third, winning €120,090
Level 33 - Blinds 150,000-300,000 (25,000 ante)
How did this happen? We're heads up already. Javier Rojas Mederos has absolutely crushed everything in the past hour or so and has now dispatched Simon Persson in third.

Persson made a stand with about 8 million chips and pocket fours. Rojas Mederos had [ad][kc] and called and then hit an ace on the flop. (There was another on the turn for good measure.)

4.40pm: Rohas Mederos on the tear
Level 33 - Blinds 150,000-300,000 (25,000 ante)
There's no stopping Javier Rojas Mederos, who has now just taken a decent dent out of Simon Persson. This looked like a limped pot pre-flop, with Rojas Mederos completing Persson's big blind, taking them to a flop of [7s][5s][7d].

Rojas Mederos checked, Persson bet 675,000 and Rojas Mederos called. The [as] came on the turn and it went check, bet of 825,000, call. Then the [jh] completed the board and this time is went check, bet 1.825 million and call again.

Persson showed [ks][th], but Rojas Mederos had made a shrewd call with [6h][5d]. He now has about 28.5 million, with Staszko with about 3.1 million and Persson with about 8 million.

4.20pm: The Vladas Burneikis show comes to an end
Level 33 - Blinds 125,000-250,000 (25,000 ante)
And just like that, he was gone. Vladas Burneikis, it is fair to say, has lit up this Eureka Poker Tour event -- but he has now burnt himself out and is heading home in fourth. There was very little he could do about this one--even though it seemed for a moment as if he was thinking about folding queens pre-flop.

It he had have found the fold, he would have avoided running into Javier Rojas Mederos's kings. But, to be honest, who is going to fold queens four handed?

It started with a raise from the button to 525,000 from Rojas Mederos. Simon Persson called from the small blind and Burneikis made it about 3 million to go from the big blind. Burneikis announced that he was all in and after Persson folded, Burneikis looked on in anguish.

Eventually he opted to call and was the man at risk. Rojas Mederos had him covered.

Rojas Mederos then showed the kings; Burneikis the queens and there was nothing to change either hand on the board.

Burneikis takes €86,850 for fourth and everybody's best wishes. He made this final incredibly exciting. Rojas Mederos, meanwhile, who was the short stack not long ago, now has 26 million and is way out front.

4.10pm: Burneikis with big fold
Level 33 - Blinds 125,000-250,000 (25,000 ante)
I'm afraid I didn't see how any of this played out, but I did see Javier Rojas Mederos announce that he was all in pre-flop against only Vladas Burneikis. I think Rojas Mederos has opened under the gun, been 3-bet by Burneikis on the button and then shoved, but I'm really not sure. Anyhow, Burneikis didn't seem to like it and folded his hand, flipping over ace-king. He clearly didn't fancy it four-handed.

4.10pm: Huge double for Rojas Mederos
Level 33 - Blinds 125,000-250,000 (25,000 ante)
A huge moment now for Javier Rojas Mederos, who has doubled up to more than 11 million, leaving Martin Staszko as the tournament short stack. They love a big pot in these parts.

Simon Persson started it, raising to 500,000 and Staszko, I think, raised from the small blind. I'm not totally sure about that, but I then definitely did see Rojas Mederos announce that he was all in from the big blind and Persson quickly folded.

Staszko asked for a count and learned it was 5.6 million and change. He then called.

Staszko: [as][qs]
Rojas Mederos: [8s][8h]

It was a close one at this stage, but the flop favoured Rojas Mederos even more heavily. It came [5d][6d][7d]. Then the [9c] came on the turn to end it. Rojas Mederos is now motoring.

3.54pm: Persson close to being king again
Level 33 - Blinds 125,000-250,000 (25,000 ante)
Simon Persson is now back in this one having close to doubled up against his neighbour and nemesis Vladas Burneikis.

Burneikis opened from under the gun, making it 550,000 to play. Martin Staszko called from the button and although Javier Mederos gave up the small blind, Persson wanted to play for more from the big blind. He raised to 1.5 million.

Burneikis called almost instantly and it looked for a while as though Staszko was going to call too. But he eventually folded and that let two players to a flop of [jh][6c][js].

Persson wasn't slowing down. He bet 600,000 and Burneikis called instantly. The [qs] came on the turn and Persson bet 1.1m. Burneikis called instantly. The [8d] came on the river and Persson kept up with his story. From about 5 million behind, he bet 1.77 million and this time Burneikis at least gave it some thought.

The Lithuanian dwelled for quite a while, muttering about going all in or folding, but in the end said that he called.

Persson flipped over [kh][ks] and it was good for pot of about 9 million. Persson now moves into second place.

3.40pm: Away again
Level 33 - Blinds 125,000-250,000 (25,000 ante)
They're now away in Level 33.

3.30pm: Break time counts
Those two huge pots for Martin Staszko have made him Vladas Burneikis's closest challenger. Here are the stacks at the break:

Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 22,875,000
Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 11,825,000
Simon Persson (Sweden) - 8,675,000
Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 3,900,000

They're now heading into Level 33 with blinds of 125,000-250,000 (25,000 ante).

3.15pm: Mihaita Croitoru out in fifth
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
On the very next hand after Meir Ben Shimon was knocked out, Martin Staszko won another enormous pot and sent Mihaita Croitoru to the rail. They again got it in pre-flop, with Staszko's [qs][qc] beating Croitoru's [6h][6s].

Croitoru lost a big pot right at the start of the final, but then rebuilt excellently. However he is now out in fifth and wins €70,490 for his troubles.

The remaining four are now taking their first break of the day, and we'll get their chip counts ASAP.

3.10pm: Meir Ben Shimon out in sixth
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
Meir Ben Shimon clung on heroically towards the end of yesterday and through the final today, but he has now hit the rail after losing a flip to Martin Staszko. Staszko opened the button, making it 400,000 and Ben Shimon shoved the small blind, for about 2 million and change.

Staszko called and tabled [kc][tc], which was in a race against Ben Shimon's [7s][7c]. The Gods saved it until the river. The board ran [9d][6s][4s][qc][ts].

Ben Shimon wins €56,520 for sixth.

2.55pm: Another straight for Burneikis
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
There's no stopping Vladas Burneikis and he just took another pot from Simon Persson. Burneikis limped from under the gun and both the blinds came along for the minimum after Mederos called from the small and Persson checked his option in the big.

All three players checked the flop of [2s][9h][2c] and then, after the [3h] turned, Mederos and Persson checked again. Burneikis bet 300,000, which was enough to get Mederos out of it. But Persson called for a [4d] river.

Persson checked and then Burneikis's speech play began. He fiddled with a stack of pink chips, worth 500,000 each, and originally seemed set to bet about 1.5 million. But after waving them around, he then grabbed some black chips and added them to the chips in his fingertips.

He split the two piles and said what originally sounded like, "This and this together," adding the 1 million in one hand to the 800,000 in the other. Burneikis then actually dropped just the 800,000 over the line, and Persson asked the dealer if that was OK. "What about the others?" Persson said.

Burneikis said that he had actually said: "This...or this...or together," deliberating between the two handfuls of chips, and the dealer corroborated. The bet of 800,000 stood. "I have a straight," Burneikis said.

"You have a straight?" Persson repeated.
"I always have straight," Burneikis said.

Persson didn't believe. He called. Burneikis showed [5h][6d]. That was, indeed, a straight. Persson mucked.

2.45pm: Refreshments for Vladas Burneikis
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
Vladas Burneikis doesn't need any encouragement to play a lot of pots, but he's just ordered an espresso and a brown liquid in a glass (is it whisky or brandy? I don't know) so things could get even more lively. He didn't have any Czech money, mind you, so Mihaita Croitoru stumped for it. Burneikis offered euros in exchange, but one suspects Croitoru would rather the chips.

2.40pm: Double for Ben Shimon
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
Meir Ben Shimon has doubled up again. After Vladas Burneikis opened to 425,000, he shoved from the small blind for 1.2 million, which put Mihaita Croitoru to a decision in the big blind. He folded, but later said he had ace-ten, and was clearly a little concerned by the big stack behind him.

Anyhow, Burneikis called with [ad][3s] and was behind Ben Shimon's [as][8h]. The board ran [ac][kd][7c][5c][jc] and the eight played. Ben Shimon clings on.

2.35pm: Gianluca Speranza out in seventh - €43,210
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
Gianluca Speranza is out in seventh and he's not happy about it. He open shoved to 860,000 from late position and Mihaita Croitoru, who has built his stack right up again after earlier trouble, called from the small blind. Javier Mederos also called from the big blind and so there was betting on the side.

The flop came [2d][4c][7c] and the two active players checked. The turn was [qs] and now Croitoru bet 400,000. Mederos open folded [ah][ks] and Croitoro flipped over [7d][7h] for a flopped set.

Speranza turned over his [js][jh], now behind, and the [8d] didn't save him.

Speranza turned away from the table, but then span back to question why Croitoro would only call from the small blind. "Come on man, you know you have to shove," he said. Croitoro didn't respond and on they went.

Speranza takes €43,210 for seventh.

2.25pm: Big pots only with Burneikis
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
Gianluca Speranza is now the tournament short stack with only about 1.2 million, or six big blinds. But his nemesis, Vladas Burneikis, is picking on everybody and just dished out some punishment on Javier Rojas Mederos. Mederos opened from the cut off to 400,000 and Burneikis was the only caller, from the small blind. The saw a flop of [2d][3h][td], which they checked, and they also checked the [5d] turn.

The [ah] came on the river and Burneikis bet 1.5 million, saying, "I do believe you have an ace." Mederos seemed confused but eventually folded.

Burneikis now has at least 15 million chips.

2.10pm: Ante-ing a starting stack
Level 32 - Blinds 100,000-200,000 (25,000 ante)
They're in Level 32 now, where blinds are now 100,000-200,000 and the ante is a starting stack.

2.10pm: Burneikis the bully
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
Vladas Burneikis is dominating this table now and has just put Gianluca Speranza through the wringer. Speranza opened to 340,000 from under the gun and Burneikis called from the big blind, the only player going to the flop with the raiser.

The board came [4d][3h][6c] and they both checked. But after the [5c] came on the turn, Burneikis said, "You are not lucky," and bet 405,000. Speranza wasn't so sure about that, and called.

The saw the [5c] on the river and Burneikis bet 1.2 million. Then the speech play began.
"I wouldn't raise with this hand," Burneikis said, somewhat cryptically. Then: "It's up to you."
Speranza admitted he was confused. "Why you bet so much?" he said. "You know I can't pay."
"Maybe all in and you will frighten me," Burneikis said, even though Speranza only had about 1.9 behind.
"Sick bluff man," Speranza said.
"Could be," Burneikis said. "But maybe not. Easy to bluff on that flop."

Burneikis then invited Speranza to look at the pay schedule and said that this decision might cost him €12,000. Speranza had heard enough and said he folded.

"You show me?" he said to Burneikis.
"Of course," Burneikis said and flipped over [10d][8s] for total air.

2pm: Burneikis takes pot from Persson
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
"I wouldn't play bad hand," Vladas Burneikis told Simon Persson as the two were contesting what was possibly the biggest pot of the final table so far. I didn't see how it panned out, but they were all the way to the river: [6d][ac][jc][5d][7s] and there was a big pile of chips in the middle.

Persson had checked and Burneikis had bet 2 million and was now needling his neighbour. "I wouldn't play bad hand," he said again.

Persson tossed in the call and Burneikis flipped over [3c][4c] saying, "Very bad hand." But it had made a straight on this board and was good as Persson mucked.

1.55pm: Sabatini bounced in eighth, wins €30,460
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
Cosimo Sabatini's long and watchful vigil is over. He had folded down to 420,000 chips, which was not much more than two big blinds, and open shoved with [ks][8h] from UTG+1. It folded to Martin Staszko in the small blind and, after checking how much Meir Ben Shimon still had in the seat to his left, raised all in. Ben Shimon folded.

Staszko had [qd][jc] so was actually behind Sabatini. And it got even better for the Italian on a flop of [kd][7s][5d]. But the next two cards were both diamonds -- [4d] and [3d] -- and Sabatini was flushed out. He takes €30,460 for eighth.

1.42pm: Double up for Ben Shimon
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
And a double up now too for Meir Ben Shimon, who shoved over the top of Martin Staszko's open, holding [ah][qs]. He had about 1 million behind and Staszko called with [ad][td]. And again the better hand held up.

"Your turn now," Vladas Burneikis said to Cosimo Sabatini, who has so far kept his chips behind the line.

1.38pm: Double up for Croitoru
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
We have our first called all-in of the final table, and our first double up. After losing that early pot, Mihaita Croitoru has been one of the short stacks at the table, but has been prepared to at least try to move his way out of that situation. It allowed him to get paid in full when he found [qs][qc] and shoved for 1.6 million over Simon Persson's raise. Persson had [kc][jc] but there was nothing weird on the board.

Croitoru is back kicking with about 3.5 million.

1.32pm: Shove gets through
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
Meir Ben Shimon has seen enough and shoved all in from under the gun. Nobody was that concerned with getting a count until it folded to Martin Staszko in the big blind, who found out that it would cost him 910,000 total to call. Too much. He folded.

1.23pm: Table imbalance
Level 31 - Blinds 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante)
Martin Stazsko has the three short stacks to his left, so just open-shoved his button and got two folds. After that, it was folded Mihaita Croitoru in the small blind and he open shoved too, getting Cosimo Sabatini to fold. Meir Ben Shimon has not, to my knowledge, played a hand yet. There's a real imbalance on the table, with those three short stacks in a line and their opposites, in the possession of Burneikis, Persson and Mederos across the other side.

1.16pm: Level up
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
They're moving into Level 31 now, where blinds are 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante). The last hand of the last level was won by Javier Rojas Mederos, who opened from early position and pinched the blinds and antes. Meir Ben Shimon is now very short.

1.10pm: Persson muscle
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
Simon Persson is not to be messed with, even if he has lost a couple of pots this morning. Just recently, Gianluca Speranza opened from under the gun, making it 260,000 to go. Persson three-bet from the small blind, bumping it to 660,000, and Speranza alone called. But Persson immediately bet at a flop of [4d][ts][ad] -- making it 525,000 -- and Speranza folded.

1.03pm: Mederos comes out fighting
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
As you would expect from both a chip leader and a Swede, Simon Persson is opening most post here today. He got things started on the most recent hand with a raise to 250,000 from under the gun and then watched the action fold around to Cosimo Sabatini in the small blind. The Italian player, who has nursed a short stack for nearly 24 hours now, pondered his options there, and then elected to call. It persuaded Javier Rojas Mederos to call from the big blind too.

The flop came [kd][9h][7s] and both Sabatini and Mederos checked. Persson, only to be expected, bet 325,000. But after Sabatini folded, Mederos cut out a raise to 780,000. Persson let it go.

12.58pm: Burneikis keeps up the pressure
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
The first three-bet of the final came from Vladas Burneikis, who came over the top of Simon Persson's open raise and persuaded the Swedish chip leader to pass. Actually, Burneikis may now have taken over the lead from Persson--and has position on him too.

12.54pm: Open shove
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
That accident reported below has left Mihaita Croitoru in the danger zone. He just opened shoved for about 2 million from early position, but picked up no callers.

12.50pm: Bold start for Burneikis
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
The opening hand of this final table may have set a precedent for the kind of things we can expect. Mihaita Croitoru opened to 250,000 from the hijack and Vladas Burneikis, a self-professed "fish" called from the big blind.

The two of them saw a flop of [3h][6h][kh] and both checked. The [4c] came on the turn and Burneikis took over the betting lead. He fired 425,000 at it, which Croitoru called. The river was the [th] and Burneikis bet 500,000 at that too.

Croitoru didn't hesittate too long before calling, but mucked when Burneikis showed [qc][7h] for the rivered small flush. Burneikis adds a million-plus to his stack, while Croitoru takes an early hit.

12.44pm: Start is imminent
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
It's 12.44pm and they are just getting started, a mere 14 minutes after schedule. In poker terms, that's practically early. There are 30 minutes left in Level 30 still to play, so they'll polish that off and then crack on into Level 31.

12.30pm: Backdated apologies
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
Players have all arrived and are cutting open the bags containing their chips. There's be a few formalities to undergo: photographs and changing up some of the low denomination chips principally. But we'll be under way very soon.

12pm: Backdated apologies
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
Yesterday afternoon, I was banging on about Simeon Naydenov being the only player remaining in the Eureka Poker Tour main event who had a World Series bracelet. I was wrong. Idan Raviv, from Israel, who went out in 21st, also had one, won in a six-max event in Las Vegas this summer. So sorry about that, Idan.

11.30am: Ready to go
Level 30 - Blinds 60,000-120,000 (20,000 ante)
Last minute preparations are under way for the start of the Eureka Prague main event final table. Here are the players remaining:

Seat 1 - Gianluca Speranza (Italy) - 4,750,000
Seat 2 - Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) - 6,430,000
Seat 3 - Meir Ben Shimon (Israel) - 1,670,000
Seat 4 - Mihaita Croitoru (Romania) - 3,120,000
Seat 5 - Cosimo Sabatini (Italy) - 1,875,000
Seat 6 - Javier Rojas Mederos (Spain) - 6,145,000
Seat 7 - Simon Persson (Sweden) - 12,565,000
Seat 8 - Vladas Burneikis (Lithuania) - 10,800,000

Read the final table player profiles for more about all of the finalists.

And here's what they are playing for:

1 - €311,000
2 - €172,600
3 - €120,090
4 - €86,850
5 - €70,490
6 - €56,520
7 - €43,210
8 - €30,460

Play gets under way at 12.30pm.

Followers of the Eureka Poker Tour have known for quite a while just how much fun this tour can be. And when 1,893 players showed up for the €1,000 tournament in Prague this week, it seemed clear that word had spread far and wide.

But if a €311,000 first prize wasn't enough to convince naysayers of the Eureka's exceptional appeal, it also served up one of the most entertaining, and quickest, final tables in any tour's history, won before the clock struck 5pm by Spain's Javier Rojas.

Right from its outset five days ago, this had been a tournament of fearless action and huge pots, but the final somehow managed to up the stakes even further. For long periods, the extraordinary talent of Vladas Burneikis burned the brightest, and after he went out in fourth, the sense of relief translated into a period of play that was even more hasty than what had gone before.

Rojas was a short stack five handed, but soon built enough chips to knock out the dangerous Burneikis. And then, within the space of about five hands, he accounted for Simon Persson in third and Martin Staszko in second, almost entirely negating the need for short-handed play. Heads up lasted precisely one hand.

Rojas took that €311,000; the home-town hero Staszko took €172,600; Persson €120,090 and Burneikis €86,850. Each deserved every penny for their part in a classic.

Our new champion is a 25-year-old professional, from Tenerife, Spain, and a former winner of the Sunday warm-up. He's outdone himself here, however, and will celebrate by hopping in the EPT Main Event tomorrow.

We got started today at 12.30pm, with eight players involved. The shortest stack sat in front of Cosimo Sabatini, from Italy, and he wasn't going to give it up immediately. Although a couple of other players, most notably Meir Ben Shimon and Mihaita Croitoru were also short, those two were crucially willing to get their chips in and both doubled up.

Sabatini blinded away, hoping to ladder a couple of spaces up the payouts table, but couldn't do it. He eventually got his last two bid blinds in with [ks][8h] but was flushed away by Staszko's [qd][jc] when four diamonds came on the board. Sabatini took €30,460.

By this point, Burneikis had already started what amounted to a masterclass in confusing the opposition. He seemed to be playing only small cards and hitting every flop. He took over the chip lead from Persson, who had to play into the Lithuanian all day, after rivering a straight with low connectors, and he then showed a huge bluff to Gianluca Speranza, making the second Italian the short stack.

When Speranza got the last of his chips in with jacks, he picked up two callers, including Croitoru, who had sevens. A seven flopped and Speranza was out in seventh, for €43,210.

Ben Shimon started the day as another of the short stacks and will likely have considered sixth to be a victory. That's exactly where his tournament ended, when he couldn't win a race with [7s][7c] against Staszko's [kc][tc]. Ben Shimon took €56,520 but missed out on the chance to become the Eureka's third Israeli champion.

Staszko suddenly started a roll and he knocked out Croitoru immediately after Ben Shimon. This time Staszko had Croitoru beaten all the way, with queens against sixes. Croitoru took €70,490 for fifth.

All that happened before the first break of the day, and things hardly changed when they came back from the interval. Burneikis at this point had an enormous lead -- 23 million to Staszko's 12 million, with Persson in third (8.6 million) and Rojas a distant fourth (4 million). But it was Persson who started chipping away at Burneikis's lead.

Persson got the absolute maximum from Burneikis with pocket kings, which he bet all the way, and reestablished the chip lead that he had at the start. But then Rojas began his own roll. He doubled through Staszko, which gave him enough chips to knock out Burneikis next.

Burneikis was clearly tilting, but there was not much he could do when he found queens against Rojas's kings. It all went in pre-flop and Rojas's hand held up. Burneikis completed the journey from hero to zero in a matter of minutes.

But any thoughts things might slow down after the Lithuanian was eliminated were quickly banished. Rojas made a hero call with [6h][5d] looking at a board of [7s][5s][7s][as][jh] and was right, taking a chunk out of Persson, who bluffed all the way.

Then Persson was suddenly out, losing a race with pocket fours against Rojas's [ad][kc].

On media row, we were still coming to terms with the fact that the player in fourth had been knocked out when we learned that we now had a winner. On the very first hand of heads up play, the short-stacked Staszko got it in with [as][7c] and Rojas called with [2c][2s]. The board bricked and Rojas was the champion, leaving Staszko, as he was at the World Series, second again.

If details seem a little scant from the final stages of this tournament that's because it happened in a flash. I'm not sure there was more than about eight hands between Burneikis going out in fourth and Rojas being named champion.

But that's fine with us. The Spanish supporters didn't even notice that their man had won: Rojas had to wander off the stage to tell them. That, of course, precipitated wild celebration as the former Sunday Warm-Up winner added a major live title to his collection.

Congratulations to Javier Rojas Medero for a clinic here in Prague. On to the EPT main event...

Eureka Poker Tour Main Event

Players: 1,893
Buy-in: €1,000+€100
Total prize pool: €1,836,210

1 Javier Rojas Mederos Spain € 311,000
2 Martin Staszko Czech Republic PokerStars qualifier € 172,600
3 Simon Persson Sweden PokerStars player € 120,090
4 Vladas Burneikis Lithuania € 86,850
5 Mihaita Croitoru Romania € 70,490
6 Meir Ben Shimon Israel € 56,520
7 Gianluca Speranza Italy € 43,210
8 Cosimo Sabatini Italy € 30,460

The end of Day 2 in an EPT Main Event usually offers players the first chance of the week to get some decent sleep. Play ends at around 8.30pm, so it's dinner then bed to dream about bursting the bubble the next day.

However there was no such luxury for Samuel Chartier and Foeke Deinum. Chartier bagged up 444,300 in the main event and Deinum 200,200, but those were not the only bags with their names on them.

Both Chartier and Deinum also made the last eight of the €2,000 Eureka High Roller event, which overspilled into a third day owing to its enormous field. It was scheduled to be a two-day affair but there were still eight players left late on Thursday night forcing them to reschedule the final to be played yesterday. Their bags of chips had been put into cold storage until such time as they could be thawed out and played with again.

The chip leader in the event was Vladimir Velikov, from Bulgaria, who last year finished fifth in the Eureka Prague main event, behind Balasz Botond. Botond also made the High Roller final this time around, underlining their abilities in Eureka events.

However when they finally managed to play out the final last night, none of the aforementioned players could record another victory. Instead, Lebanon's Ibrahim Ghassan, who was placed seventh of eight player returning, rode his short stack to the title (after they cut a four-way deal).

In total, 748 players started the event and, after Deinum went out in sixth and Chartier in fifth (for €53,530 and €70,820 respectively) the last four decided to guarantee themselves a six-figure payday each and chopped it up.

Velikov finished second but took the most money. He got €170,180. Botond officially finished third but got the second most (€164,450) and Denmark's Thomas Pedersen came fourth but took third most, with €163,080. Ghassan won the trophy and had €151,240 to go with it.

Eureka High Roller
Buy-in: €2,000 + €200
Players: 748
Prize pool: €1,451,120

1 - Ibrahim Ghassan, Lebanon, €151,240
2 - Vladimir Velikov, Bulgaria, €170,180
3 - Balazs Botond, Hungary, €164,450
4 - Thomas Pedersen, Denmark, €163,080
5 - Sam Chartier, Canada, €70,820
6 - Foeke Deinum, Netherlands, €53,530
7 - Pim Gieles, Netherlands, €38,450
8 - Jan Bendik, Slovakia, €26,270

Click for full payouts from the €2,000 Eureka High Roller.

Fresh off a blockbuster event to close Season 5 in Prague, the Eureka Poker Tour has announced it is coming back for another year.

Running March 2-8, the Season 6 kickoff festival in Rozvadov will feature a €1,100 Main Event running from March 4-8. That flagship tourney will again include two regular starting (Days 1A & 1B) plus a re-entry only turbo flight for Day 1C.

The tour will return in March with the first event of Season 6 at the King's Casino Rozvadov located near the Czech and German border. While we don't yet have details on the full schedule of events, you already have a chance to win your seat in the Main. PokerStars is running seat-only qualifiers right now. Beginning in January, you will be able to compete for full packages.

The finale in Season 5 was one to behold. The Eureka Prague Main Event broke all its previous records with a 1,893-entry Main Event. If that festival was any indication, Season 6 could be a monster.

For full details, keep your eye on the Eureka Poker Tour home page.

* Day 1A is over, Day 1B starts at 1pm CET. For a recap of Day 1A click here
* CLICK FOR END OF DAY 1A CHIP COUNTS
* Sprechen Sie deutsch? Dann klicken Sie rein beim PokerStarsblog DE
* 90 of 219 players made it through to Day 2.
* Want more tournament action? Click for LAPT Chile coverage.

10:25pm: Done
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

That's Day 1A of the Eureka6 Rozadov Main Event in the books. Day 1B begins at 2pm CET but before then we'll bring you a recap of today's play. That'll follow shortly.

10:10pm: Last four hands
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

The tournament clock has been paused and there will be four more hands before play is done for the day.

10:05pm: So close
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

Plenty of fallers in the last level of the night and it was a case of so close to Day 2 for: Felix Kaltner, Marco Weidner, Jaroslaw Szyndler, Josip Petrovic, Frank Blumlein, Gennadii Savonik, Andre Moschke and Michael Mrakes.

9:55pm: Luca's late night charge
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

Ivan Luca is up to 110,000 after busting a player. We didn't catch it first hand but apparently Luca had queens to his opponent's pocket jacks.

9:40pm: Busted
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

The final level of the night has just begun.

9:35pm: Busted
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

Over half the field has now been eliminated. Those who lost the last of their chips in level nine include: Vlad Darie, Marius Pospiech, Adam Jagucik, Christoph Glatzner and Tobias Schmidt.

9:20pm: Big stacks
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

As the end of level nine approaches, here are the big stacks

9pm: Luttke loses flip
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

It's getting to that stage of the night where we're starting to see a lot more pre-flop flips.

I just witnessed one play out between Gregory Luttke and Robert Hana. The action was started by Luttke, he opened to 2,200 and Hana three-bet to 6,400 total. "How many blue chips do you have left, four of five?" asked Luttke to Hana. After it was established the total was five 5k chips, Luttke slid forward a stack of his own and Hana called all-in.

Luttke: [Ah][Qs]
Hana: [Jc][Jd]

The [3d][Kd][3c][8s][4h] board kept the pair in front and meant Hana, who was all-in for 36,400, doubled to around 75,000 whilst Luttke dropped to 44,000.

8:55pm: They might be back tomorrow
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

Anyone eliminated today has the opportunity to try again in the turbo Day 1C that starts at 22:00 CET tomorrow night. So we might see some of: Oliver Knoll, Christopher Sandig, Clemens Erretkamps, Eugen Doban, Stephen Nitzschke, Jacek Bozio, Marciej Wojcicki and Marek Bartoszewicz tomorrow.

8:50pm: Break time
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

The players are back for the final two levels of the day. 131 of 219 have got as far as level nine and the average stack is 41,800.

8:35pm: Break time
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

That's the end of level eight and the players are now on a 15 minute break.

8:25pm: More for Mulligan
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

Andre Strobel was short stacked and made his move with [Ah][3c], it wasn't a lot for Lee Mulligan to call and he gave him a spin with [As][2s].

It looked like it was going to be a chopped pot but the [9c][Ts][Jc][Ks][9s] board made Mulligan's flush and Strobel was knocked out.

Lee Mulligan, 34,000
Andre Strobel, 0

8:15pm: Luca keeps climbing
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

A couple of levels ago Ivan Luca was down to just 12,000. He's now up to over 50,000 after eliminating Vojtech Skalak. On a [As][Ac][Jc] flop Luca bet 2,500 and Skalak check-raised all-in for 12,400 total. Luca thought for a short time before calling.

Luca: [Ad][5s]
Skalek: [Tc][9c]

The [Th] turn and [6d] river kept Luca in front and sent Skalek to the rail.

Ivan Luca, 52,000
Vojtech Skalak, 0

8pm: Chip counts
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

It's still Boris Andreev who leads, the Russian player has 103,000.

7:45pm: The numbers are in
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

Late registration closed at the start of this level and the tournament staff have confirmed that 219 players entered today.

7:35pm: No Eureka moment for these players
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

Exits everywhere! It's goodbye to Ali Sameeian, Stefano Perin, Stefan Deckert, Udo Hemmert, Dennis Hubner, Andreas Losche, Friedrich Brunsch, Josef Snejberg, Jens Hansen, Jan Krnac, Stonewall Jackson, Antonio Karman and Vitezslav Cech.

7:25pm: Call the clocks
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

I've just witnessed something that I've never seen before in live poker:

I arrived at the table to see a [Th][Tc][5h][5d][9d] board on the felt. Teodor Popovic had bet 10,000 into a pot of 23,000 and David Urban was in the tank. He took so long to come to his decision that the clock was called.

The floor was called and Urban was read his rights. He'd got over halfway into his allotted minute before he took action and his play was to move all-in. He had about 50,000 total and covered Popovic, who had 28,000 back.

Whilst Urban was in the tank Popovic had looked very cool, simply bouncing a pen on and off the felt. No he stopped and instead began to shuffle his cards. He kept doing that for at least two to three minutes and he seemed no closer to a decision.

It looked like we might get the clock called twice on the same street here, something I'd never seen before. Eventually a player at the table had enough and did indeed call the clock. It should be noted it wasn't the same player who had called the clock on Urban, nor was it Urban himself.

So Popovic was now on the clock and it ticked all the way down to zero at which point his hand was declared dead. Urban pointed at the PokerStars Blog and said: "Just for you," and showed [Kc][Jc] to the table for a stone bluff. No guts, no glory.

David Urban, 83,000
Teodor Popovic, 28,000

7:05pm: The Poker God's care not for reputation
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

At the very end of level seven two of the more familiar faces in the field were eliminated as Makarios Avramidis (a WSOP bracelet winner) and Raphael Wimmer (a Eureka Main Event champion) were both eliminated.

7:03pm: Six down, four to go
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

The players are back in their seats for level seven. They'll be a break at the end of level eight and then two more levels before Day 1 is over.

6:47pm: Break time
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

The players are on a 15 minute break.

6:40pm: Out
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

There's no easy way to say this but: Adrian Esslen, Kim Torvald Kallmann, Timo Scarcella, Demir Ismail, Tobias Peters and Ling Chen are all out.

6:30pm: Falandys suffers Voss loss
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

On the river of a [2d][6d][9c][As][5s] board Mathias Falandys bet 2,100 only for Christian Voss to move all-in for 9,900 total. Having got a count Falandys considered his options and then threw out two blue 5k chips to signify a call.

Voss showed [8h][7h] for the rivered straight, Falandys mucked but as it was an all-in hand his cards were turned over to reveal he had [Ah][Th].

6:20pm: Sweet turn for Kaltner
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

Felix Kaltner (cutoff) and Lee Mulligan (button) were heads-up to a [4s][6d][Qh] flop and there was enough in the pot to suggest this was a three-bet pot. Kaltner checked to Mulligan and called very swiftly when Mulligan bet 2,500.

That was all the betting they'd be though as both players checked the [7s] turn and [4c] river. Kaltner showed [7c][7h] for the turned set although from post-hand discussion it's likely he didn't need to hit a third seven to win.

Felix Kaltner, 59,000
Lee Mulligan, 26,000

6:10pm: The six-figure club
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

Boris Andreev is the first player over 100,000 and it was the good old fashioned aces versus kings that got him there. But, he was the player with kings and flopped a third one to bust TutusTuncay.

The Russian is up to 105,000, that's 3.5x the average.

6pm: The last of the level five bust outs
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

Whilst 214 players have shown up to play today just 193 remain. Level six has just started, those who fell in level five were: Robert Ashelm, Oliver Dopp, Hasan Unal, Tutus Tuncay, Stefano Perin and Zofia Mudrochova.

5:45pm: Big names arrive
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

This event just got a whole lot tougher. That's because Ivan Luca and Alex Kravchenko have both entered this event during level five.

5:40pm: Side events await
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

The bad news for Alexandru Benchea, Eleftherios, Adrian-Constantin Tulba, Wolfgang Hosl, Dominic Lindner and Kurtulus Albayrak is that they're all out of the Main Event. The good news is that there are loads of side events that they can play.

5:35pm: Raschke races ahead
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

Tillmann Raschke looks to be the early chip leader. The German is up to 72,000 and has almost tripled his stack already.

5:20pm: Over 200
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

The field has ticked up to 206 runners total now, more than double the number who played Day 1A during Season 5.

5:10pm: Gone
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

The introduction of the running ante has definitely upped the rate of exits. Eureka5 Hamburg champion Tom Holke is one of those on the rail. He's been joined by UKIPT champion Daniel Stacey, Maciej Kondraszuk and Milan Topoly.

4:55pm: Add another bracelet to the list...
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

And over $1,600,000 in lifeterm earnings. Jan-Peter Jachtmann has just sat down. The German player won the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event at the World Series of Poker in 2012. That win earned him $661,000 of his tournament earnings. Whilst that remains his only six-figure score he's had four cashes of over $50,000.

He's a threat, that's for sure.

4:45pm: Chip counts
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

A few counts of the names, notables and big stacks in the Day 1A field. UKIPT5 Isle of Man champion Dan Stacey is a recent arrival.

4:35pm: Round four
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

Players are back in their seats and cards are in the air. Level four sees the introduction of a running ante.

4:20pm: Take a break
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

That's the end of level three and the players are now on a 15 minute break.

4:15pm: I Claudius (will shove)
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

Claudius Istrate calmly placed the all-in triangle on top of chips. His river shove was for 7,550 into a pot of a similar size. Adrian Esslen was the man in the tank and he was eyeing up a [Td][9s][8h][Jd][5c] board.

During this pause in the action Lee Mulligan told me that the turn had checked through but that Istrate had bet the flop, Felix Kaltner had called, Esslen had raised and Istrate had been the lone caller.

The triangle toppled from Istrate's chips a couple of time but he diligently replaced it each time this happened. After a couple of minutes Esslen released his cards and Istrate showed [Qs][Tc] for the turned straight.

Adrian Esslen, 18,025
Cladius Istrate, 15,500

4pm: A few fallers
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

A couple more players have fallen during the level three. Thomas "The Talk" Traboulsi is out, as is Nick "Sandmann" Korts.

3:45pm: Ace start for Boswell
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

Brandon Boswell is up to 55,000 after he eliminated Josef Gulas in a pot worth 32,000. His Czech opponent five-bet jammed with pocket jacks into Boswell's pocket aces and didn't catch up.

He's the second exit of the day.

3:30pm: Holke takes a hit
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

I joined the action to see Eureka5 Hamburg champion Tom Holke involved in a big pot. Holke is easy to spot in a tournament room as he wears a Cowboy hat in the colours of the German flag. He'd bet 2,700 into a pot of 6,200 on the river of a [Qd][2c][8s][3d][4s] board.

Petr Satek was his lone opponent and after about 20 seconds thinking time the Czech player made the call. Holke was reluctant to show but he did eventually turn over [2s][7s] (2,700 for 2-7!) and Satek then showed [Ks][8d] to claim the pot.

Petr Satek, 35,000
Tom Holke, 26,000

3:15pm: Who wants to be a millionaire?
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

There are a number of poker players who've had success on the game show circuit. Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree is famous for her appearance on a show called Golden Balls for instance. But we think you'd be hard pushed to find someone who's had more on screen success than Sebastian Langrock.

On 11th March 2013 he became the eleventh person to win the jackpot (€1 million) on the Wer wird Millionär? gameshow (Who will become a millionaire?). He's playing today, his poker abilities have failed to match his quizzing smarts as yet as he's racked up 'just' €239,417 in live tournament earnings so far.

Just for fun let's see if you're as smart as Langrock. Below is the question that won him the jackpot. See if you can get it right. No googling allowed, but you can phone a friend if you like.

Q:Who should be familiar with the twenty-past-four position?

A: Driving Instructor
B: Karate Master
C: Waiter
D: Agricultural architect

3pm: Show us your bracelet
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

We've mentioned already how Pius Heinz's WSOP bracelet is on display here in the King's Casino (see 2:25pm post). Well he's not the only player in Rozadov with a WSOP bracelet to his name.

At this year's WSOP Europe in Berlin, Makarios Avramidis defeated a stacked field to win the €2,200 No Limit Hold'em Six Max event. Beating the likes of Marvin Rettenmaier and Stephen Chidwick earned him €105,000.

He's one of 162 runners who've entered the fray so far.

2:46pm: Man down
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

As the clock ticked into level two the first elimination of the day occurred. Nandor Solyom is the first player out on Day 1A.

2:35pm: A funny thing happened on the way to the hotel room
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

The thing with top class poker players is that they spend so much time clicking buttons that they, how shall we say, lack some life skills in certain areas. As this story neatly illustrates.

I'm indebted to Lee Mulligan for this story, which he told me shortly before play began. "I'm staying at this hotel out in the sticks," began Mulligan. "And I saw this Argentinian guy wandering around in the snow at 2am."

Interesting.

"I've seen this problem before," continued Mulligan, who's from Bristol, not Buenos Aires. "At this hotel there's an annexe and it's not immediately clear when you get your keys where your room is. He was quite a way from where he needed to be so I gave him a lift."

During this ride the pair struck up conversation and Luca told Mulligan that he'd been travelling around Europe playing poker and won something. "It was only when I got back and looked him up online that I realised what a sicko he was," said Mulligan.

Mulligan is already in his seat, no sign of Luca yet. Let's hope he doesn't get lost again.

2:25pm: Retirement's working out well for Heinz
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

Pius Heinz won the WSOP Main Event in 2011, banking over $8,700,000 in the process. He is, in his own words, "retired from poker." Well maybe not. He was here at the King's Casino to play a high stakes cash game that was streamed on Twitch and then hopped into the €5,000 High Roller that started on Wednesday.

That event attracted 22 entries (16 uniques and six re-entries) and Heinz beat the lot of them. It was no easy task to pocket the first prize of € 44,814 though. Three handed he was up against Ivan Luca and Martin Kabrhel, who are no strangers to high stakes tournaments. With Luca vanquished in third he and Kabrhel were both deep-stacked but it was the German who prevailed to earn the trophy.

His WSOP Main Event bracelet is on display here in the casino, maybe he'll put the trophy in the same display case?

2:15pm: Spotted
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

It's early days but we, and by we I mean my German colleague Robin Scherr, has already spotted a few familiar faces in the field.

There are two Eureka Main Event champions already seated. They're Raphael Wimmer, the Austrian won this event last season, and Tom Holke. The German player took down Eureka5 Hamburg.

But what's a Eureka title when you've won an EPT Main Event? Michael Eiler has that distinction, he won EPT7 Vienna where he defeated a final table that included Martin Hrubý and Daniel Negreanu to win €700,000. He's also in the field today.

2pm: Shuffle up and deal
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

Right on time this event is under way. There are currently 128 players in their seats, already eclipsing the 98 who played Day 1A at this event last year.

1:50pm: Time to start Season 6

For the fourth time the Eureka Poker Tour is back in Rozvadov and we're here to kick off the tour's sixth season. Playing host to the tour is the King's Casino, which is located on the border of the Czech Republic and Germany.

The 22 event festival is already in full swing, but today our attention turns to the flagship €500,000 guaranteed Main Event, which year on year has attracted more players. It gets underway at 2pm CET.

Eureka Rozvadov Main Event history:
Season 3: 421 players, €500,000 prize pool, Bart Lybaert from Belgium for €115,000
Season 4: 493 players, €500,000 prize pool, Martin Meciar from Slovakia for €87,600
Season 5: 664 entries, €644,080 prize pool, Raphael Wimmer from Austria for €99,695

Key Eureka6 Rozadov Facts:

- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 25/50 for 500 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be 10 of them. On Day 2 from level 15 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes.
- Late registration is open until the start of level seven.
- Day 1A is today, Day 1B takes place tomorrow and there's also a special Turbo Day 1C at 10pm CET. That's only open to players who have busted either Day 1A or 1B. The field will then combine for the first time on Sunday. Players will reach the money on Day 2 and then play down to a final table on Day 3. The final table will play out on Tuesday. Cue mad celebrations and swigging of pilsner from the trophy (possibly).
- Full Eureka6 Rozadov schedule here.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

Season six of the Eureka Poker Tour kicked off today at the King's Casino in Rozadov. A total of 219 players put up €1,100 to play some poker and when the ten levels were over 90 players had made it through to Day 2.

Topping the lot of them is Daniel Karacic. The Croat bagged up 194,400 and is no stranger to success in this casino. In September 2010 he scored his biggest career score to date when he collected €15,000 for winning a €330 tournament.

He leads a chasing pack that contains: Harald Casagrande (155,000), Lazer Gjergji (151,800), Gaspare Leggio (147,700), Arturs Scerbaks (138,700), Jens Steuber (126,100) and Ivan Luca (124,800).

The Argentinian high roller finished third in the €5,000 event that concluded here yesterday and showed up halfway through the day. He'd soon done half his stack, but a late night comeback, including a timely queens versus jacks coup, sees him in great shape for Day 2

There were EPT, UKIPT, Eureka and even Who Wants to be a Millionaire champions in the field today and Michael Eiler - who won EPT7 Vienna - had a great day at the felt. He was always well placed and the 117,900 he bagged up means he'll be hopeful of a deep run.

Of course for some stacks to grow others must disappear. For the likes of Alex Kravchenko, Marius Pospiech, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, Josef Snejberg, Raphael Wimmer, Makarios Avramidis, Tom Holke and Daniel Stacey it was a day to forget. They aren't completely out of contention yet though as they'll be able to enter Day 1C, a turbo Day 1 that starts at 10pm tomorrow and has 20 minute levels.

We'll be back before then though as Day 1B kicks off at 1pm CET. We'll see you then but you can catch up on today's coverage by clicking here. Whilst overnight chip counts are available here.

There's a big tournament taking place in South America too. Follow live updates from LAPT Chile here.

But until tomorrow, goodnight.

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

* DAY 1B HAS ENDED. CLICK TO READ THE RECAP
* CLICK TO REFRESH FOR LATEST UPDATES
* CLICK FOR END OF DAY 1B CHIP COUNTS
* 132 of 338 players advanced to Day 2
* Sprechen Sie deutsch? Dann klicken Sie rein beim PokerStarsblog DE
* Click for end of Day 1A chip counts
* Want more tournament action? Click for LAPT Chile coverage.

9:20pm: Day 1B is in the bag
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

That's the end of Day 1B. We'll bring you a recap of that shortly. Day 1C - a turbo flight with 20 minute levels - starts at 10pm. It'll be done around 2am and we'll bring you a recap of that flight when it ends.

9:10pm: Last three hands
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

The clock has been paused and they'll be three more hands before play is done for the day.

9pm: Fallen at the last
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

Just 157 of 338 players remain now. Among the players who've been eliminated in level 10 are: Markus Zimmer, Mario Eder, Marc Klausen, Gerald Soldermann, Ivan Curic, Anthony Ghamrawi and Mark Blockhaus.

8:50pm: Viola can't spike
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

Michail Jekimov can't believe that he's still in this tournament. He shoved for 12,300 with [5d][5h] and Andres Viola gave him a spin with [Ac][Jh].

The [6c][Tc][8c] flop made Viola the favourite but he bricked the [3h] turn and [Th] river. "Wow I continue!" exclaimed Jekimov. " You had so many out!"

After that had Viola drops to 85,000.

8:40pm: Tight at the top
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

With just over 30 minutes to go it's very close at the top of the chip counts. Less than a big blind separates Amir Mozaffarian (171,000) from Martin Ilavsky (170,000).

8:35pm: Last level begins
Level 10 - Blinds 600/1,200 (200 ante)

The final level of the night has just started but for some they didn't make it this far: John Kiernan, Paul Michaelis, Martin Greizinger, Mirek Spicka, Marc Goschel, Christa Hacke, Stefan Raab, Mikhail Filatov, Jan Matousek, Florian Baum, Stefan Hulin, Benjamin Philipps, Keith Christie and Martin Mulsow are among those who fell during level nine.

8:25pm: No comeback for Lampropoulos
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

Maria Lampropoulos has been playing a short stack for most of the day and she couldn't get a double up when she needed it. She shoved for 13,000 from the button with [8h][7h] and Ayhan Agdas called from the big blind with [Th][Ts]

A [9s][4c][Kh][Qs][3s] board kept Agdas in front and Lampropoulos tapped the table before exiting the tournament.

8:10pm: Chip counts
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

Here's a look at some of the names, notables and big stacks:

7:55pm: Bad news, good news
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

The bad news for Christopher Derrick, Apostolos Chatzopoulos, Martin Romba, Stefano Rossomando, Steffen Bendit, Aram Ali, Josef Antos, Jiri Horak, Patrick Kuriger, David Dolak and Antonin Duda is that they're all out of the Main Event.

The good news is that they can play Day 1C which starts in a little over two hours.

7:45pm: Two more to go
Level 9 - Blinds 500/1,000 (100 ante)

The players are back for the final two levels of the night.

7:30pm: Eight in the bank
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

That's the end of level eight and the players are on their final 15 minute break of the day.

7:15pm: Double barrel gets the job done
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

Pavel Sourek opened to 1,800 in early position and picked up calls from Gerald Soldermann and Jan Bloch (big blind). On the [5s][qc][2d] flop the action checked to Soldermann and he bet 2,675. Bloch was the only caller.

The [As] fell on the turn and a bet of 4,375 from Soldermann was enough to win him the pot.

7pm: 33% down
Level 8 - Blinds 400/800 (100 ante)

A third of the Day 1B field have been eliminated in the opening 10 levels. The latest exits include the likes of: Mario Lenzi, Ulf Steringer, Jose Ponce, Samuel Fasel, Michael Wiertzema, Domenico Gal, Jens Kleinschmidt, Hanno Offen, Marc Radgen, Frank Reichel, Bulent Caliskan, Georgios Vrakas, Dawid Rana, Van Hoa Dang and Gregor Abmayr.

6:40pm: Where in the world?
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

Whilst it's no surprise that Germany (221) and Czech Republic (72) dominate the Eureka6 Rozvadov field, players have come from all over the world to take part.

We've had entries from Afghanistan, Argentina, Canada, Vietnam, Iran, Israel and Kosovo. The full breakdown is pictured below.

6:30pm: Palovic powers on
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

Dag Palovic is up to 130,000. That looks to be good for the chip lead right now.

6:20pm: Kohnen zapped by Zurek
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

I missed the pre-flop action but on a [8h][As][3s flop Christoph Kohnen (button) bet 1,450, Thomas Zurek (small blind) check-raised to 4,700 total and after a brief think Kohnen called.

The [qh] fell on the turn, Zurek checked, Kohnen bet 6,700 (about half his stack), Zurek bet enough to set Kohnen all-in and he called it off.

Kohnen: [Ah][3d]
Zurek: [Ad][8d]

Both players had flopped aces-up but Zurek's were better and he held up on the [4h] river to climb to 50,000.

6:10pm: Going to have to take the turbo route
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

During the break we received a whole host of bust out slips from the tournament staff. As a result we can tell you that: Zeljko Jovanovic, Petr Targa, Karel Hanykyr, Sandro Pitzanti, Nevidas Biriokovas, Vitezslav Pesta, Nikolai Bozic, Hussein Dhani and Ewald Fichtner are all out.

They've all got the option to enter the turbo Day 1C that starts at 10pm.

6:03pm: Late registration is closed
Level 7 - Blinds 300/600 (75 ante)

With the start of level seven it means late registration is closed. As it stands 268 of 338 players remain on Day 1B. We'll get confirmation of that soon.

5:48pm: Break time
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

That's the end of level six and the players are on a 15 minute break.

5:40pm: Gone
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

Sadly for Deniz Maska, Salih Ozdemir, Pascal Wagner, Stefan Toelle, Drazen Kapusta and Vladimir Burstein they've all lost their chips during level six.

5:25pm: Mountains for Mozaffarian
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

Amir Mozaffarian is up to 120,000 after eliminating Michael Hierl. The latter shoved with pocket tens but Mozaffarian had him pipped with pocket jacks and they held up to eliminate Hierl.

5:10pm: Double up for Meiri
Level 6 - Blinds 200/400 (50 ante)

On the river of a [4s][5h][Kc][4c][Js] board Hannes Speiser bet just 200 into a pot of some 4,500. Aviv Meiri responded by moving all-in for 5,450 and Speiser requested a count.

He had a stack of around 80,000 so it was a small percentage of his chips to call and call he did. Meiri showed [Ks][Qh] which bested the [Ad][Js] of Speiser.

5:02pm: More level five fallers
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

Five not alive are: Gernot Kroiss, Rolf Baldus, Arash Safavi, Khabat Jahany and Ondrej Goetz.

286 of 328 runners remain.

4:50pm: Palovic picks up a pretty pot
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

A big pot for Dag Palovic to tell you about, he did a little fist pump after winning it which tells you just how crucial the pot was.

I only saw the action from the turn but there were three players still in the pot and 23,000 in the middle. The action was on Palovic and he bet 8,000. Radostin Todovichin eyed up the [4s][3s][5h][7h] board and then moved all-in for 11,125 total.

Florian Baum was the third wheel in this hand and he wanted to know what Palovic's options were if he called the all-in. Whilst this was happening Palovic took out his phone and took a photo of the board! Once it had been made clear Palovic wouldn't be able to raise, Baum folded and Palovic put in the extra.

Palovic: [7s][7d] - turned set
Todovichin: [Ac][2c] - flopped straight

The [5d] fell on the river to give Palovic a full house and that's when he fist pumped. He's up to 59,000 after that hand.

4:40pm: Do not advance to level six
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

Over 30 players have busted out during the opening four and a half levels. Among the latest to lose their chips are: Henrik Unverricht, Marian Virlanuta, Carmelo Argento, Markus Ganglbauer, Dennis Kirsch and Julius Legen.

4:25pm: Chip counts
Level 5 - Blinds 150/300 (25 ante)

Below are the counts of some of the names, notables and big stacks in the Day 1B field.

4:15pm: Duda dented
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

Antonin Duda has dropped to 17,700 after losing a pot against Mihai Hanu. Pre-flop Hanu opened from the cutoff and called when Duda three-bet from the button. The [7d][9d][Js] flop checked through and the [Kh] fell on the turn. Hanu check-called a bet of 3,000.

The [As] completed the board and Hanu checked again. Duda thought long and hard about what to do but he checked and said: "Two pair," and opened [Ks][7s], Hanu had a better two pair though as he held [Ac][Kc].

4pm: B is for busted
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

There's no easy way to say this but: Vedat Coknez, Elias Scott, Petr Jelinek, Thomas Erler, Ivan Sebeledi, Jan Nakladal, Heiko Rauch, Laurenz Desavis, Viorel Gavrila and Hussein Dhaini are all out of Day 1B. They might be back for Day 1C tonight at 10pm though.

3:50pm: Voth gets river value
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

I joined the action to see Tim Gruber betting 2,900 on the river of a [8h][5c][8h][Th][Ac] board. Ronny Voth was his lone opponent and the German raised it up to 8,900 total. This sent Gruber into the tank but he eventually elected to call. Voth showed [Ts][Tc] for a turned full house and Gruber mucked.

Ronny Voth, 47,000
Tim Gruber, 18,000

3:40pm: Good flop, bad turn
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

It's one thing making a big hand, it's another entirely to get paid, something Jens Kleinschmidt will be thinking right now after he played a pot against Riko Kohn.

I missed the pre-flop action but Kohn bet 1,000 on the [Tc][As][Qc] flop and called when Kleinschmidt check-raised to 3,000 total. The [Ks] turn card put two flush draws and four broadway cards on the board but it didn't slow Kleinschmidt down. He bet 6,100 and Kohn looked disgusted at this turn card. He shook his head, whatever he held this card was an action killer.

He took about 20 seconds to fold and Kleinschmidt showed [Kd][Jh] as he took the pot, meaning he'd flopped the nuts but not got the brick on the turn he needed to get more value.

3:30pm: Play resumes
Level 4 - Blinds 100/200 (25 ante)

Cards are back in the air. Still plenty of time for the field to swell as late registration is open until the start of level seven.

3:15pm: Take a break
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

That's three levels done and dusted. To celebrate the players are on a 15 minute break.

3pm: 300!
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

We're up to 300 runners now and Dag Palovic is among them. The Slovakian pro has almost $1,000,000 in lifetime earnings.

2:45pm: Cooler for Rudelitz
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

One of the dangerous German players mention below (see 2:25pm post) is out and it was a cooler that did for Enrico Rudelitz. He opened to 300 with [Ac][Ad], Bahador Azad three-bet to 800, the small blind smooth called and Rudelitz then bumped the price of poker up to 3,000. Azad was the only caller.

The [As][Th][4h] flop gave Rudelitz top set and he played it cute, check-calling a bet of 3,500. The [8h] fell on the turn and Rudelitz check-called again, this time 7,000. The [Qc] completed the board and Azad set Rudelitz all-in for his last 11,000 and the German made the call.

Azad rolled over [Qh][Jh] for the turned flush, he's up to 60,000 as a result.

2:35pm: Exits
Level 3 - Blinds 75/150

Two more exits to tell you about as Josef Gulas and Elena Litvinyuk are both out.

2:25pm: The Germans are coming
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

A number of well known German players have joined the field during level two. Jonas Lauck is an EPT regular who has over $1.1M in lifetime earnings. A win in the FPS Deauville High Roller in 2013 and a second place in a second place in the $1,500 Ante-Up event at the 2014 WSOP and a fifth place in a WSOP $1,000 bracelet event in 2015 are just three of his notable results.

Enrico Rudelitz's biggest career score also came on French soil, when he finished fourth in the EPT9 Deauville Main Event. That deep run in a 782 runner field earned him €215,000.

Robert Schulz is another player who's made a deep run on the EPT, he had a deep run at EPT11 Barcelona, making it all the way to 13th place before busting out for a €69,300 payday.

Last, but not least, lets throw a token Austrian into the German mix. Anthony Ghamrawi was runner-up to Oleksii Khoroshenin at EPT10 Vienna and earned €446,481 for that performance.

We're up to 280 players now on Day 1B.

2:10pm: Like, erm, Rozvadov taxis
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

Ok the metaphor doesn't exactly work but the point is the first exit has been followed by three more in quick succession.

Erdar Suleyman, Manuel Fischer and Miltiadis Roumeliotis all find themselves with time on their hands. Perhaps we'll see them in the turbo flight at 10pm tonight.

1:50pm: First exit
Level 2 - Blinds 50/100

Our German colleague Robin Scherr was the man on the scene for the first exit of the day and this is what happened:

Peter Splettstosser opened to 250 from middle position, Hanno Offen called from the cutoff and the button and small blind (neither of whom are on the player list) both called as well.

So it was four to a flop, which came [6c][7s][9d]. Action checked to Offen, who bet 600. The button and small blind both called only for Splettstosser to check-raise to 3,500 total. Offen was the only caller.

The [Kc] hit the turn, Splettstosser bet 6,100 into a pot of 9,200, Offen raised to 15,000, Splettstosser shoved for 19,700 total and Offen called the extra.

Splettstosser: [Kh][Kd] - a turned set
Offen: [Td][8c] - the flopped straight

The [8s] river kept Offen in front and eliminated Splettstosser, after that hand Offen is up to 52,000.

1:35pm: A few names
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

Players are continuing to drift into the tournament room and there are a few familiar faces amongst them. Antonin Duda has just taken his seat, the Czech player who wears an almost perma-smile whilst at the table.

He's had some great results over the years including two EPT Main Event final tables. Unfortunately for him they both resulted in seventh place finishes. Both were six-figure scores though with the EPT9 Barcelona result worth €125,950 and his EPT11 Malta performance netted a further € 108,200.

We had a WSOP bracelet winner in the field yesterday and that's the case again today. Paul Michaelis earned his last summer with a win in the $1,500 pot-limit Hold'em event. Ronny Voth is another dangerous German player in the field today and Martin Mulsow is also on the player list but we've yet to spot him in the field.

1:15pm: Stop and go
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

The formality that is Day 1B being bigger than Day 1A has already been reached. There are currently 229 players in their seats but not all of them are playing poker.

As per PokerStars rules there must be three players at the table for play to start and there are a number of tables with one or two players only. It's been a leisurely start.

1pm: Shuffle up and deal
Level 1 - Blinds 25/50

Right on time the action has started.

12:45pm: Let's get ready for a super Saturday

Let's do it again! It's time for Day 1B of the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event and as (almost) always we expect Day 1B to be significantly bigger than Day 1A. So with 219 players turning up yesterday the hope is that this could be the biggest ever Eureka Rozadov Main Event. If we get a little over double yesterdays runners we'll beat the mark of 664, which was set last season. Given there's also a Day 1C turbo flight then we're expecting somewhere around 700.

Eureka Rozvadov Main Event history:
Season 3: 421 players, €500,000 prize pool, Bart Lybaert from Belgium for €115,000
Season 4: 493 players, €500,000 prize pool, Martin Meciar from Slovakia for €87,600
Season 5: 664 entries, €644,080 prize pool, Raphael Wimmer from Austria for €99,695

The target for anyone playing today is 194,400 as that's what Daniel Karacic managed to amass yesterday. He topped the 90 players who made it through. Full chip counts of the survivors can be seen here.

Play is due to start at 1pm.

Key Eureka6 Rozvadov Facts:

- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 25/50 for 500 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be 10 of them. On Day 2 from level 15 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes.
- Late registration is open until the start of level seven.
- Day 1B is today and there's also a special Turbo Day 1C at 10pm CET. That's only open to players who have busted either Day 1A or 1B. The field will then combine for the first time on Sunday. Players will reach the money on Day 2 and then play down to a final table on Day 3. The final table will play out on Tuesday. Cue mad celebrations and swigging of pilsner from the trophy (possibly).
- Full Eureka6 Rozvadov schedule here.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

If Day 1A of a poker tournament is an amuse-bouche then Day 1B is a hearty starter. A total of 338 players elected to start their Eureka6 Rozvadov adventure today, easily eclipsing the 219 who played yesterday.

The format, of course, was the same, 10 levels each 45 minutes in length. When they'd been completed just 132 players remained and it was Quentin Dellis who topped the lot. If you recognise the name it's because the Belgian final tabled UKIPT Dublin last month. He finished sixth on that occasion winning € 31,880.

By the time play ended today 27 year old poker professional had built his 25,000 starting stack all the way up to 201,100 and is the only player thus far to break the 200,000 chip barrier. Dellis has been playing for five to six years, professionally for the last three. The bad news for other players is that when Dellis cashes he makes the final table. He's got seven live cashes to his name and the lowest finish of any of them in sixth.

Whilst Dellis was the only player to break the 200,000 chip mark plenty of other players ran up big stacks. The likes of Martin Ilavsky (174,100), Jean-Marc Jelk (168,100), Jonas Lauck (159,300) Amir Mozaffarian (157,300) and Dag Palovic (132,600) will all be well placed when Day 2 starts tomorrow at 2pm CET.

There were also plenty of big names among the 206 players who busted out during today's action. Martin Kabrhel, who sits second on the Czech Republic all-time money list, couldn't get anything going today. Paul Michaelis, who has a WSOP bracelet to his name, got his hands on a stack but couldn't hold onto it and Antonin Duda (two EPT Main Event final tables) would've given anything to build a stack. He couldn't and also busted out.

They'll perhaps try their luck in the turbo Day 1C which has just started. If they do they may well find themselves at the same table as: Martin Mulsow, Anthony Ghamrawi, Stefan Raab,
Maria Lampropoulos, Marc Radgen or Mattias Ruzzi.

That's it for Day 1B, you can catch up on all today's action here and view end of day chip counts here. Day 1C will wrap up around 2am CET and we'll bring you a recap of the final flight at that point.

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

The third and final opening flight of the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event has just wrapped. The special turbo Day 1C - levels were 20 minutes instead of 45 - attracted 118 runners which took the total players 675, add in seven no shows and that takes the total entries to 682 .That's a record for this stop of the tour.

Late in the day we got word of the official prize pool. The winner will receive €124,890, 103 players will get paid with a min-cash worth €1,800. To see the full payout structure click here.

This flight was a second chance for the all the players who took part - you could only play 1C if you had busted 1A or 1B - and it was Arsenii Karmatckii who took his second shot at the Main Event the best. The Russian player bagged up 166,200 to lead the 65 players who made it through from the third and final flight. They'll return at 2pm tomorrow to play Day 2.

Others who made it through the repechage include: Dennis Brutscher (126,500), Maria Lampropoulos (79,000), Martin Mulsow (56,000), Martin Kabrhel (34,400) and Marius Pospiech (24,500).

For others the motto of 'if at first you don't succeed try and try again," did not ring true as Hanna Offen, Tobias Peters and Paul Michaelis all tried again but came up empty once more.

The Day 2 seat draw and a full list of survivors will be available shortly. To catch up on the previous flights action click on the links below. We'll be back at 2pm CET for Day 2.

Daniel Karacic leads Day 1A survivors
Quentin Dellis tops Eureka6 Rozvadov Day 1B field

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

* DAY 2 HAS FINISHED
* CLICK TO REFRESH FOR LATEST UPDATES
* CLICK FOR LATEST CHIP COUNTS
* We're in the money 65 of 682 remain (103 get paid)
* Click for payout structure
* Sprechen Sie deutsch? Dann klicken Sie rein beim PokerStarsblog DE
* Want more tournament action? Click for LAPT Chile coverage

10:45pm: End of the day
Level 18 - Blinds 4,000/8,000 (1,000 ante)

That's the end of Day 2, a wrap of the day's play is on the way.

10:35pm: Last three hands
Level 18 - Blinds 4,000/8,000 (1,000 ante)

The players will play three more hands before bagging and tagging their chips.

10:25pm: Back to back bustouts gives Daniel Rose massive chip lead
Level 18 - Blinds 4,000/8,000 (1,000 ante)

The average stack is 248,000. Three times the average (746,000) is usually good for the chip lead. Daniel Rose has 1,590,000 after winning two massive back to back pots.

In the first Mateusz Martewicz opened from middle position, Boris Andreev smooth called from the small blind and Rose did likewise from the big blind. The flop was a tasty looking [Jc][9d][8d]. Andreev led for 30,000, Rose raised to 110,000, Martewicz clicked it to 190,000, Andreev shoved for about 180,000 total and Rose re-raised all-in.

Martewicz then tanked before folding what he claimed was a ten high flush draw, Rose had [Qh][Th] for the flopped straight, whilst Andreev held [Qd][Jh]. The [Ac] turn and [Kd] river completed the board to eliminate Andreev, whilst Martewicz would've eliminated both players had he called. That's quite crucial because on the next hand...

Rose, Martewicz and Martin Ilavsky - who were the three biggest stacks at the table - all saw a flop of [Ts][8s][Jh]. It checked through and the [5h] hit the turn and this is where it all went off.

Rose led for 30,000, Ilavsky raised to 125,000, Martewicz moved all-in for 570,000 (remember the average stack is just 248,000 at this point) and Rose then instantly re-raised all-in for abut 800,000 total. Wow!

Ilavsky now got out of his seat to try and comprehend what was going on. He had about 380,000 back and seemed unsure of what to do. "I have a set," he said to Rose as he mulled it over. Eventually he elected to fold [Tc][Td] and it was time for showdown:

Rose: [8d][8h] - a set of eights
Martewicz: [Kh][9h] - flush and straight draw

Ilavsky couldn't believe it, whilst Rose was delighted! The [Jd] river kept Rose in front and he won a massive 1,300,000 chip pot. It's safe to say he'll be the end of day chip leader.

10:05pm: Last level of the night
Level 18 - Blinds 4,000/8,000 (1,000 ante)
Level 18 will be the eighth and final level of Day 2. There were 74 players left at the start of the level and Thomas Lamatsch - who's the Tournament Director - think they'll be 43 players left at the end of the day. The PokerStars Blog predicts 47.

9:50pm: Rodriguez runs into the better hand
Level 18 - Blinds 4,000/8,000 (1,000 ante)

Rouco Rodriguez opened to 16,000 from late position, Jonas Lauck three-bet to 35,000 out of the small blind, Rodriguez moved all-in for around 130,000 and Lauck made the call.

Lauck: [9h][9s]
Rodriguez [8c][8s]

Rodriguez made the international noise for 'oh bother' when he saw he was behind. It didn't get any better for him as the [5s][Js][Jd][Qh][Tc] board meant Lauck stayed in front and climbed to 440,000.

9:35pm: More bustouts
Level 17 - Blinds 3,000/6,000 (1,000 ante)

There's a queue at the payout desk and it's no surprise as the players are flying out at a rate of knots. Gunther Rettel, Feryat Toprakil, Ivan Kruljac, Ingo Paulus, Frederic Schwarzer, Sergey Topchiy and Oliver Heidel are all out.

9:20pm: In the money finishers
Level 17 - Blinds 3,000/6,000 (1,000 ante)

It's congratudolences to the following players as they've cashed yes, but they've also crashed out of this tournament during level 17: Ayhan Agdas, Jens Steuber, Mateusz Bober, Maik Pribil, Rijad Hasani, Gregorz Bartold, Danilo Velasevic, Thomas Hueber, Lee Mulligan, Peter März, Julien Arethuse, Jean-Marc Jelk, Denis Panagopulos, Roland Weidinger and Aleksander Abutovic.

84 players left.

9:10pm: Mulsow no more
Level 17 - Blinds 3,000/6,000 (1,000 ante)

Martin Mulsow, who's always a gregarious presence at the table, is out and it's Boris Andreev who got him.

Mulsow opened to 15,000 from early position and Andreev smooth called from the small blind. On the [3d][7s][7d] flop Mulsow bet 15,000 and Andreev check-called.

The [Ks] fell on fourth street and Mulsow moved all-in for his final 60,000 and Andreev snap called. Mulsow showed [As][Qc] and Andreev had outdrawn him with [Kd][Qd]. The [8d] river improved Andreev to a flush and Mulsow was on his way.

The online grinder still has time to late-reg the Sunday Million if he wants.

9pm: Last lady lives on
Level 17 - Blinds 3,000/6,000 (1,000 ante)

Maria Lampropoulos is the final female player in this tournament and she just doubled up to survive.

Down to just 48,000 she shoved with [7s][7d] and Martin Kabrhel put her at risk with [Ah][4c].The [9d][Th][6h][Jh][Jc] board gave her a sweat but she doubled to around 110,000 whilst Kabrhel slips to 405,000.

8:55pm: Chips!
Level 17 - Blinds 3,000/6,000 (1,000 ante)

Below are the top 10 stacks of the 103 remaining players. It's Martin Ilvasky who leads the way. Whilst David Urban and Martin Kabrhel are also well placed. You can see a more complete set of chip counts on our dedicated chip count page.

8:50pm: Back from the dinner break
Level 17 - Blinds 3,000/6,000 (1,000 ante)

Dinner's done. The players are back in their seats for the final two levels of the night.

7:50pm: Dinner break
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

The bubble burst on the final hand of level 16 and the players are now on a 60 minute dinner break.

7:45pm: Martin Guth bubbles Eureka6 Rozvadov
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

Bubbling this tournament was a double bad beat for Martin Guth as you'll see.

He shoved for 52,000 with [Jc][Jd] and Karol Radomski called with [Ac][9c] from a stack of 240,000. The [6h][5h][Ah][Qc][Th] board meant Guth was out.

But, there was all-in at another table and if the all-in player was eliminated Guth and he would chop 103rd place money.

It was Grzegorz Wyraz who was at risk, he was all-in for 93,000 with [Ks][Qd] and in bad shape against Arsenii Karmatckii's [Ac][Kd].

Guth had wandered over to watch the hand and looked on as the board came [Th][9s][Ad][Jd][8c] to make Wyraz a straight meaning Guth left empty handed.

7:40pm: The bubble has burst
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

Details coming right up.

7:30pm: Clinging to the bubble
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

Mykola Lakatosh is down to just 7,000 and looks to be most at risk of bubbling here in Rozvadov. He's got a couple more hands to the big blind hits him. Will he survive?

7:20pm: Bubble time
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

We're on the bubble in Rozvadov.

Josef Pavelka, who was runner-up last year here suffered a bad beat at the hands of Petr Machacek to bust. Pavelka had kings to Machacek's jacks but a jack on the flop sent him out in 106th.

And Jens Hansen is out in 105th. He shoved for about 50,000 from the button with [Ad][Kh] and Thomas Hueber called from the big blind with [Ac][6d]. A cruel [2d][3s][8c][8d][6s] board saw Hansen eliminated by the river.

7:15pm: The stalling begins
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

We're a couple of spots off the bubble but the stalling has begun. Andriy Palyuga - who has 78,000 - so isn't super short had the clock called on him. The Ukranian was under-the-gun and had taken an age to act.

His time didn't tick down to zero though as he mucked with about 15 seconds left.

7pm: Paus survives
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

Down to just 25,500 Dominik Paus moved all-in from under-the-gun and although a couple of players looked interested he got the shove through and survived.

6:50pm: Six off the bubble
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

With the eliminations of Radek Jantos and Ioan Mihai Taizs just 109 players are left. 103 get paid.

6:35pm: Level up
Level 16 - Blinds 2,500/5,000 (500 ante)

Level 16 is the last level before the dinner break and it looks as if the bubble should burst before it ends. As the level started there were 112 players left in. Brandon Boswell, Bernhard Haider and Dustin Mangold are three of the players who've just missed the money.

6:25pm: Big slick vs big chick
Level 15 - Blinds 2,000/4,000 (500 ante)

By the time I arrived at the table there was already a bet of 16,000 in front of Johannes Dandl (under-the-gun+1) and an all-in shove of 92,000 in front of Domenico Gal. Dandl was in the tank and after thinking for a couple of minutes he called.

Gal: [Ac][Kc]
Dandl: [Ad][Qc]

The [5h][Kd][As] flop gave Gal a good grip on the hand but he refused to sit down until the [4c] turn card sealed the deal. The meaningless [5d] completed the board.

After that hand Gal is up to 192,000 whilst Dandl slips to 150,000.

6:10pm: The bubble looms
Level 15 - Blinds 2,000/4,000 (500 ante)

Just 120 players remain now, 103 of whom will get paid. Recent exits include: Jan Bloch, Igor Loginov, Udo Hemmert, Marius-Alexandru Gicovanu, Stefan Rapp and Day 1B chip leader Quentin Dellis.

6pm: Use the Schwarzer
Level 15 - Blinds 2,000/4,000 (500 ante)

From the cutoff Apostolos Chatzopoulos opened to 8,500, Frederic Schwarzer then shoved from the small blind for 47,500 and it folded back to Chatzopoulos who got a count and then called.

Schwarzer: [8s][8h]
Chatzopoulos: [As][2s]

The [6c][9s][6d][Kh][Td] board favoured the German. He doubled to 105,000 whilst Chatzopoulos slipped to 110,000.

5:55pm: There's a new chip in play
Level 15 - Blinds 2,000/4,000 (500 ante)

The start of Level 15 meant the 100 chips were no longer needed. So they were raced off and replaced with some green chips which are worth 25,000 a piece. Ivan Luca has two of them and he's got about 300,000 in total.

5:40pm: Sevens stay strong for Serif
Level 15 - Blinds 2,000/4,000 (500 ante)

Serif Gozegir is up to 280,000 after eliminating Markus Luczak. The Turkish player opened to 8,500 from under-the-gun, Luczak shoved for 47,000 total and Gozegir called the extra.

Luczak: [2s][2d]
Gozegir: [7h][7d]

By the turn of a [9c][Ah][Ac][8s] board there were some split pot possibilities but the [4s] fell on the river and Luczak was eliminated.

5:30pm: Hour long levels from here on
Level 15 - Blinds 2,000/4,000 (500 ante)

Level 15 has just started and the levels will be 60 minutes in length from now on. There are 140 players remaining and the average stack is a little over 120,000 (30 big blinds).

5:15pm: End of level 14
Level 14 - Blinds 1,500/3,000 (400 ante)

Level 14 has come to an end and the players are now on a 15 minute break.

5:10pm: Down to 140
Level 14 - Blinds 1,500/3,000 (400 ante)

Over the opening four levels more than half the field has been eliminated as we're down to 140 players. Janis Matisons, Benjamin Bauer, Lukasz Tomecki, Daniel Onat, Robert Hana, Robert Schulz, Charles La Boissonniere, Ondrej Mar and Marian Virlanuta are some of the latest casualties on Day 2.

4:55pm: A few counts
Level 14 - Blinds 1,500/3,000 (400 ante)

4:40pm: Nice river!
Level 14 - Blinds 1,500/3,000 (400 ante)

Down to just 13,400 Andreas Gann moved all-in with [Kc][Kd] and picked up a call from Martin Kabrhel, who held [8h][8s].

The [8d][Qc][Ts] flop gave Kabrhel the lead, the [9d] turn made things interesting and the [Jh] river completed Gann's straight and he survived.

Despite that hit Kabrhel still has a healthy stack of around 150,000.

4:30pm: Getting closer to the money
Level 14 - Blinds 1,500/3,000 (400 ante)

Level 14 will be the last 45 minute level of the tournament as we push the clock up to 60 minutes from level 15 onwards. As the level gets under way 154 players remain but sadly for fans of: Robert Wirth, Marc Radgen, Thomas Mulansky, Roman Sokolov, Teodor Popovic, Marcin Jaworski, Friedrich Raz, Jan Nakladal, Tim Eulenbach, Wieslan Klimczak, Georgios Vrakas and Marc-Andre Ebermann they are all out.

4:20pm: Clash of the titans?
Level 13 - Blinds 1,200/2,400 (300 ante)

Martin Ilavsky has just been moved two seats to the left of Dennis Karacic. They are two of the five biggest stacks in the tournament. Ilavsky has 350,000 whilst Karacic has 280,000.

If they get involved in a big pot they might create one super stack!

4:10pm: Sent to the rail
Level 13 - Blinds 1,200/2,400 (300 ante)

Blinds go up and the number of players go down, it's a fact of life for a poker tournament. Helping that number get closer to the 103 who get paid are: Thomas Traboulsi, Mihai Stinca, Marko Turnsek, Dag Palovic, Robert Zipf, Ulf Steringer, Paraschos Stavridis, Tamas Janicsak, Petr Satek, Michael Huber, Michal Mrakes, Gregory Luttke and Eimantas Valcius.

4pm: Slowroll, nitroll or neither? You decide
Level 13 - Blinds 1,200/2,400 (300 ante)

I joined the action to see a three-bet of 13,500 in front of Igor Loginov and an all-in shove of roughly 72,200 in front of Tonio Roder. Loginov was in the tank and took some time before calling.

Roder: [Jh][Jd]
Loginov: [Kd][Ks]

Roder simply smiled when he saw that Loginov had taken as long to call as he did with pocket kings. The [4s][9d][2c][6d][2h] board kept the cowboys in front and Loginov took a bit of stick from players at the table about his play. Not from Roder though it should be noted.

Igot Loginov, 157,300

3:55pm: Kokoska climbs to the summit
Level 13 - Blinds 1,200/2,400 (300 ante)

Robert Kokoska started the day with 38,200. He's now up to 335,000, which is good for the chip lead. As to how he got there, well he told a colleague he had aces twice and kings once. Easy game.

3:46pm: One a minute
Level 13 - Blinds 1,200/2,400 (300 ante)

The 197 remaining players are back in their seats. Doing the math, that means we lost 90 players in the opening 90 minutes!

3:31pm: Break time
Level 12 - Blinds 1,000/2,000 (300 ante)

That's the end of level 12 and the players are now on a 15 minute break.

3:30pm: All out
Level 12 - Blinds 1,000/2,000 (300 ante)

Over 80 players have been eliminated in the opening 90 minutes. Markarios Avramidis, Vlad Darie, Thorsten Ostwald, Rainer Emde, Lukas Pezda and Mihai Hanu are some of those who've been knocked out.

3:15pm: Aces no good for Pospiech
Level 12 - Blinds 1,000/2,000 (300 ante)

Marius Pospiech wandered over to media row and told my German colleague how he'd exited the tournament. Turns out Pospiech got it all-in with aces against queens for a 80,000 chip pot. So far, so good. A queen on the flop meant it was all over for the German though.

3:05pm: Double up for Khomamy
Level 12 - Blinds 1,000/2,000 (300 ante)

From early position Petr Machacek opened to 4,500 and Kasra Pour Khomamy then moved all-in for 37,900 total from the small blind. It passed back to Machacek, he got a count and then called.

Machacek: [Qd][Jd]
Khomamy: [Ac][4s]

Khomamy was surprised to see he was ahead, and it stayed that way on a [Ks][4h][2s][6c][3d] board. He's up to around 80,000 whilst Machacek drops to 125,000.

2:55pm: More exits
Level 12 - Blinds 1,000/2,000 (300 ante)

It's always the same on Day 2 as there's a flurry of exits during the opening level or two before things settle down.

The latest batch of players to feel the hangman's noose around the neck of their tournament life are: Jan Petras, Jan Navratil, Demir Ismail, Natalia Nikitina, Rainer Emde, Marcel Kesler, Olaf Langenfeld, Alexandre Hocquaux, Zeljko Jovanovic, Vladimir Demenkov and Sergey Menshov.

2:45pm: Eiler flying
Level 11 - Blinds 800/1,600 (200 ante)

It's been a great opening level for Michael Eiler. The EPT7 Vienna champion is up to 235,000.

2:30pm: Respect the raise
Level 11 - Blinds 800/1,600 (200 ante)

If Ivan Luca isn't the best player left in this field (Martin Kabrhel perhaps?) then he's the best player with a big stack and he just put it to good use.

Tamas Janicsak opened to 3,500 from the cutoff, Antonio Martins Pedro smooth called on the button and Luca, who was in the small blind, considered his options.

He announced raise and slid out a bet totalling 12,700. Janicsak quickly folded and although Pedro looked interested he too folded to the Argentinian.

2:10pm: Short day for...
Level 11 - Blinds 800/1,600 (200 ante)

Day 2 has not gone the way they'd have hoped for Frank Robotka, Tomasz Domaracki, Seballo Faldalarga, Michael Polchlopek, Frank Stumpf, David Dolak, Carsten Barth, Michael Koran, Petar Petrov, Tomas Pleticha, Adrian Esslen or Martin Bartos as they're all out.

None of those players had over 20 big blinds to start the day.

2pm: Shuffle up and deal
Level 11 - Blinds 800/1,600 (200 ante)

Right on time the tournament is under way. Just before play started the Tournament director announced details of the prize pool. The winner will collect €124,890, whilst a 103 players will get paid, with a min-cash worth €1,800. See the full structure here.

1:50pm: Day 2 set to start
Level 11 - Blinds 800/1,600 (200 ante)

Welcome to Day 2 of Eureka6 Rozvadov. There were a total of 682 entrants into the Main Event and 287 of those have made it to Day 2. Leading the way is Quentin Dellis. The Belgian, who finished sixth at UKIPT5 Dublin in February, is the only player who'll begin Day 2 with over 200,000 as he bagged up 201,100 to top the Day 1B field.

The plan for today is to play eight levels. The first four of those will be 45 minutes in length and then from level 15 onwards the clock is increased to 60 minutes.

Play will start on time at 2pm. Stick right here for moving day.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

Sometimes the end of day chip leader is at the top of the counts throughout the day, steadily accumulating throughout to finish on top. On other occasions, like today at the King's Casino in Rozvadov, the chip leader bludgeons their way to the top by winning one or two massive pots.

Daniel Rose is the man who tops the chip charts heading into Day 3 of the Main Event and his lead is massive as he has almost double that of his nearest challenger. His ascent to the chip counts came courtesy of back to back pots in the last level in which the German went from 400,000 to 1,600,000. He slipped a little to end the day on 1,570.000.

Want to start your own Eureka campaign? Sign up for PokerStars and start your journey. Click here to get an account.

In the first of the two big hands he flopped a straight to win a 600,000 pot against Mateusz Martewicz (who folded the flop) and Boris Andreev, who had top pair and a gutshot and missed. Had Martewicz called he'd have rivered his flush and eliminated both players. That was crucial because on the next hand Martewicz, Martin Ilavsky and Rose - who now covered Martewicz played a huge pot.

The fireworks went off on the turn of a [Ts][8s][Jh][5h] board. Rose led, Ilavsky raised, Martewicz shoved for 570,000, Rose re-shoved for over 800,000 and Ilavsky had a decision for his final 400,000. His decision was to fold a set of tens. He folded the best hand as Rose had a set of eights and Martewicz [Kh][9h] for the combo draw. The river was a blank and Rose scooped that chip leading pot.

To be fair to Ilavsky he didn't go on tilt after that hand and staged a late night comeback of his own to finish the day second in chips on 841,000. The rest of the top five is pretty menacing as it's made up of: David Urban (837,000), Ivan Luca (708,000) and Alexandru Farcasanu (643,000).

At the other end of the spectrum Martin Kabrhel (111,000) and Michael Eiler (17,000) will return tomorrow with a short-stack. To see the counts of all 63 survivors click here.

Whilst the Day 3 seat draw can be viewed here.

At 2pm local time the 287 players who'd made Day 2 of the Main Event sat down, all hoping to finish in the top 103 spots to ensure some return on their investment. The bubble would burst just minutes before the dinner break and it was Martin Guth who ensured that 103 players would tuck into their dumplings with a cash to their name.

It was a double bad beat for Guth as not only did he have his pocket jacks cracked by the [Ac][9c] of Karol Radomski but he had a chance to chop 103rd place prize money as there was an all-in at another table. It was Grzegorz Wyraz who was at risk, he was all-in with [Kd][Qd] and in bad shape against Arsenii Karmatckii's [Ac][Kd]. Guth had wandered over to watch the hand and looked on as the board made Wyraz a straight.

Once the bubble burst there followed the usual rush to the exits and among those who cashed in but crashed out on Day 2 were: Lee Mulligan (96th, €1,800), Martin Muslow (91st, €1,920), Adam Jaguscik (82nd, €1,920) and Boris Andreev (71st, €2,120). You can see the payouts so far here.

Whilst they won't be back tomorrow for the Main Event, we will be. Action starts at 2pm CET. You can catch up on all today's action in Rozvadov here, whilst Day 2 action from LAPT Chile can be found here.

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

* This is an archive of Day 3 coverage. For latest updates click here.

6:30pm: End of the level
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

The players are now on a 15 minute break.

6:25pm: No stopping Ivan Luca
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

Ivan Luca has about 1,800,000 after eliminating Johannes Dandl. It was actually Oliver Heppchenwho started the action, he raised to 50,000 from the hihack, Dandl smooth called and Luca then three-bet to 177,000 total. Heppchen folded but Dandl called, leaving himself just 195,000 back.

On the [4c][9s][Th] flop Luca bet 50,000 and Dandl smooth called. On the [3h] turn Dandl moved all-in and Luca snap called. The Argentinian had [Td][Ts] and Dandl was drawing dead with [As][Jc].

6:15pm: Kokoska wins big pot to eliminate Farcasanu
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

A huge pot has boosted Robert Kokoska to around 1,400,000 and sent Alexandru Farcasanu out in 23rd place.

Pre-flop Kokoska made it 40,000 to go from the cutoff, Farcasanu three-bet to 100,000 from the button and Kokoska smooth called. The flop fell [Ks][2c][3d], Farcasanu bet 85,000, Kokoska check-raised to 180,000 total, Farcasanu moved in for about 600,000 total and Kokoska made the call.

Kokoska: [Kc][Qc]
Farcasanu: [As][7h]

Farcasanu's bluff had gone wrong and he didn't catch up on the [Jd] turn or [3c] river and Kokoska just had him covered.

6:05pm: Kristeller cracks kings
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

Oh boy!

Andres Viola opened, Martin Kristeller three-bet jammed for 433,000 with [8d][7d] and Karol Radomski re-shoved with [Ks][Kd]. The [Td][6h][4s][Tc][5d] run out meant Kristeller rivered a straight to climb to around 900,000 whilst Radomski is down to 160,000.

6pm: Final three tables
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

Below is the redraw for the final three tables of the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event

5:45pm: Down to 23, Luca keeps climbing
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

The clock had been paused as Mahmut Yildirim (26th) and Lazer Gjergji (25th) had been eliminated which meant redraw of the final 24 players.

There was though still a pot happening at Ivan Luca's table. Domenico Gala had opened to 40,000 from under-th-gun, Luca flat called, as did Grzegorz Wyraz.

Action passed to Christian Tauscher in the small blind and he moved all-in for 129,000 total. Back on Gala he raised, but it wasn't enough to meet the minimum required. As it was over 50% of the legal raise size though it went as a min-raise to 218,000 total to be precise.

Back on Luca he thought for a couple of minutes before raising to 395,000 total. That got rid of Wyraz but Gala tanked for a couple of minutes before folding and leaving himself with 350,000 back. After the hand he said that his intention had been to raise Tauscher's all-in bet.

Luca: [Ad][Qc]
Tauscher: [9s][7s]

A [Ah][Td][8c][2h][8c] board meant Luca took the pot and eliminated Tauscher. After the hand Gala intimated that he'd have made a flush had he stayed in the hand.

As he didn't Ivan Luca is up to about 1,800,000. They'll now be a short break whilst the tournament staff conduct the redraw.

5:30pm: Wyraz wins big pot to dent Speiser
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

Hannes Speiser sure has been in the thick of the action over the last hour. I arrived at the table to see a pot of around 500,000 in the middle of the table, along with a complete board of [2d][7h][5c][As][2h] on the felt.

Grzegorz Wyraz (big blind) was first to act and he moved all-in. Speiser (button) had about 330,000 behind and tanked for a good two minutes before folding. Wyraz showed the [8c] as he took the pot. He's up to around 900,000 after that hand.

5:18pm: Price of poker goes up
Level 22 - Blinds 10,000/20,000 (3,000 ante)

Into level 22 now and 28 players remain. That makes the average stack 602,000 for a shade over 30 big blinds. A 30 big blind average seems to be pretty consistent.

5:10pm: Lauck busts to Lampropoulos in huge pot
Level 21 - Blinds 8,000/16,000 (2,000 ante)

A huge pot has seen Maria Lampropoulos climb to 1,400,000 and send Jonas Lauck tumbling out of the tournament. Pre-flop Lampropoulos raised to 35,000, Lauck three-bet to 100,000 on the button, Lampropoulos four-bet to 175,000 and Lauck made the call.

The flop fell [7s][Jh][8s], Lampropoulos c-bet 125,000, Lauck raised all-in for 360,000 total and Lampropoulos called.

Lauck: [As][5s]
Lampropoulos: [Ks][Kc]

The [2h] turn and [Kh] river kept the Argentinian in front and it's now an Argentinian one-two at the top of the chip counts as only Ivan Luca has more chips.

5pm: Speiser surge! Doubles again
Level 21 - Blinds 8,000/16,000 (2,000 ante)

Hannes Speiser has enjoyed a great 10 minutes as after tripling up earlier he just doubled up! Pre-flop Dusan Privoznik raised from early position and Speiser defended from the big blind. A flurry of bets and raises on the [Jh][Ad][2d] flop saw Speiser all-in for 293,000 with [Jc][2c] and looking to hold against Privoznik's [As][Th].

The [9s] turn and [5c] river didn't change anything and Speiser doubled to around 670,000 whilst Privoznik dropped to about 100,000. He busted shortly afterwards when his [Qs][Td] couldn't get there against Fabian Schaack's [Ad][9h].

4:50pm: Speiser back in the game; Popa busts
Level 21 - Blinds 8,000/16,000 (2,000 ante)

A three way all-in was in progress by the time I arrived at the table and this was the situation:

Hannes Speiser: [As][Ah] - all-in for 92,000
Martin Ilavsky: [Ad][3d] - the covering stack
Catalin-Marcel Popa: [Ac][8c] - all-in for roughly 108,000

The board ran [7d][Qh][5s][Qd][5h], so Speiser trebled up to almost 300,000, Ilavsky dropped to 650,000 and Popa was left with just 16,000 and he was eliminated on the next hand.

4:40pm: Timarac busts Mozaffarian
Level 21 - Blinds 8,000/16,000 (2,000 ante)

Down to just 220,000 Amir Mozaffarian open shoved with [2s][2d] and got a call from Dragoslav Timarac, who was in the big blind.

The Serbian player showed [Ad][Qc] and we were off to the races. The [8s][9c][Ks][Qc][Kc] board meant the overcards won this one and Timarac climbed to 730,000 as a result.

Szymon Sobanda and Daniel Nitzsche are also out. 33 players remain.

4:30pm: Counts at the start of level 21
Level 21 - Blinds 8,000/16,000 (2,000 ante)

During the break tournament staff did a comprehensive chip count of the remaining players. Ivan Luca has jumped out to the lead, whilst overnight chip leader Daniel Rose has seen his stack cut in half during the opening two levels.

4:20pm: Back from the break
Level 21 - Blinds 8,000/16,000 (2,000 ante)

Play has restarted, the average stack is 468,000 which equates to just under 30 big blinds.

4:05pm: Break time
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)

I don't know about you but we need a break after those opening two levels. 63 players have been knocked down to just 36. We'll be back in 15.

3:55pm: Gann gone
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)

Andreas Gann - who you might remember from the famous Irish Open slowroll that went viral - has just busted out of this tournament, losing a race to do so.

He had about 70,000 and was all-in and at risk with [7s][7d] against the [Kd][Qs] of Martin Ilavsky. The [9s][5s][4s][9h][2s] board stayed low but it also made Ilavsky a flush. He'd dropped some chips earlier today but is now back up to 400,000.

3:45pm: Sevens not lucky for Burstein
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)

After Grzegorz Wyraz opened from late position, Vladimir Burstein re-raised all-in for roughly 70,000 from the small blind. Call from Wyraz.

Burstein: [7s][7d]
Wyraz: [Ks][Jc]

The [Qd][6h][Qg][Js][Jh] board made Wyraz a full house. He's up to 715,000 after that hand.

3:35pm: Death by quads
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)

Down to around just 65,000 Karel Novak shoved all-in with [Ac][Ks] and found a call from Alexandru Farcasanu, who had [4d][4s]. What started as a race was all but over when the window card was the [4h]. The [Js] and [4c] completed the flop to make Farcasanu quads and leave Novak drawing dead.

Farcasanu is up to 980,000.

3:25pm: Payouts
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)

We're updating the payouts page as we go - with the speed of exits it's not easy! But click here to see who's cashed and for how much.

3:15pm: Kokoska takes out Chalpuka
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)\

Pavel Chalupka - which translates to English as Paul Cottage - is out after three-bet jamming for 100,000 with [Ac][Kd] and running into the pocket tens of Robert Kokoska.

It was a flip and it's one the pair won on a [9h][5c][3d][7d][7c]. Kokoska is up to 510,000.

44 players remain.

3:05pm: What an hour!
Level 20 - Blinds 6,000/12,000 (2,000 ante)

Well that was an exciting 60 minutes. 15 exits and a ton of doubles. It's still Daniel Rose who leads, but Ivan Luca also has over a million now and lurks in second place.

2:55pm: Kings cracked
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

There have been a lot of all-in and calls in this level and Dominik Paus was just involved in two of them. In the first Lazer Gjergji shoved for 104,000 with [Ad][Qs] and Paus called with [Kc][Kd]. The [As][8h][5h][4h][7s] board meant Gjergji doubled to 220,000 whilst Paus slipped to 101,000.

Those chips went in shortly afterwards with pocket aces against the king-queen of Serif Gozegir and this time the big pair held and Gozegir was out on the next hand.

2:45pm: Heder can't win with the hammer
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

From the small blind Mick Heder shoved all-in for an effective 98,000 and Sergei Firsov took a look at his cards before announcing call.

Heder: [7c][2c]
Firsov: [Ad][Jc]

Heder had made an ambitious shove, "I thought he'd fold," he said afterwards. The [Ks][Td][Ad][9c][8d] board doubled Firsov to 200,000 whilst Heder dropped to 195,000.

Meanwhile, Gaspare Leggio, Arsenii Karmatckii, Michael Panovec and Martin Kabrhel are out. 51 players remain.

2:35pm: Luca takes out Cho
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

Down to just 64,000 Yong Cho shoved all-in from the button with [Ac][Qh] and Ivan Luca re-raised all-in from the small blind with [Ts][Th] and the big blind folded.

The [5h][6h][2d][Kh][Kd] meant the Argentinian's hand held up and Cho was eliminated. Luis Reis Marto is also out.

2:20pm: Two out, one in
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

A flurry of action in the opening 20 minutes here in Rozvadov.

Tilmann Ebeling is out after calling all-in with [Ac][4s] for around 65,000 only to run into Jiri Horak's pocket aces.

Grzegorz Pysiak at least got it in good with [Qh][Js] against Robert Kokoska's [9c][7c]. The latter had shoved from the small blind with Pysiak calling off for about 100,000 from the big blind. A [6s][Ad][6d][9d][4c] board favoured Kokoska though.

Meanwhile Maria Lampropoulos was all-in for 114,000 on a [Kc][As][5s] flop with [Ac][7d] and hoping to hold against Gaspare Leggio's [Ks][3s]. The monster draw missed on the [Td][5d] turn and river and she survived.

Maria Lampropoulos, 250,000
Gaspare Leggio, 150,000

2:07pm: Eiler first out
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

Given he returned with 1.7 big blinds it's no surprise that Michael Eiler is the first player out today. He was under-the-gun on the first hand and shoved with [9s][8c]. Marek Blasko re-raised all-in for 71,000 from middle position and everyone else folded.

Blasko showed [As][Ac] and Eiler couldn't crack aces as the board came [3c][5s][Ts][2s][Ad].

2:03pm: Play has started
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

Day 3 is under way here in Rozvadov.

1:50pm: The fight for the final table begins
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

Welcome to Day 3 of the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event. A total of 63 players have made it this far and the plan for today is to get to the final table, or at least as close as possible. Whilst 63 players to 8 seems a lot, 31 players (almost half the field) return today with a sub 20 big blind stack.

That's not a problem facing Daniel Rose. Two huge back to back pots in yesterday's final level means he comes into Day 3 with a stack of 1,570,000. The average is just 267,000. In fact Rose has the average stack for when 11 players remain!

Play starts at 2pm CET, you can see the start of day seat draw here.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozvadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

* CLICK TO REFRESH FOR LATEST UPDATES
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1:35am: Final table chip counts
Level 27 Blinds 30,000/60,000 (10,000 ante)

This is how the final eight will stack up when the final table starts at 2pm CET. As it's cards-up it'll be subject to a one hour delay on the broadcast meaning we'll be starting our coverage at 3pm CET. Before then a wrap of the days play will be forthcoming.

1:30am: Dominico Gala eliminated in ninth place (€9,920)
Level 27 Blinds 30,000/60,000 (10,000 ante)

The final table is set!

Pre-flop Dominico Gala opened to 130,000 on the button and Ivan Luca called from the big blind. On the [9s][Tc][Th] flop Gala c-bet 110,000, Luca check-raised 300,000 total and Gala smooth called fairly quickly.

On the [3s] turn Luca bet 535,000 and Gala called. The pot was now 2,050,000 and Gala had just 1,000,000 back. On the [9c] river Luca moved all-in and Gala tanked for seven minutes before eventually calling.

Luca: [Ts][7c]
Gala: [Qc][Qh]

Gala couldn't get away from the overpair and Luca won a massive pot and will start tomorrow's final table as the chip leader.

1:10am: No one wants to be the photo bubble
Level 26 Blinds 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante)

Whilst there's over €2,600 between the 9th and 8th place payouts there's also the matter of missing out on the final table photograph!

It's been fairly cagey stuff so far at the unofficial final table. David Urban and Dominico Gala have been the most active players. Perhaps the most interesting thing to happen is the commentators digging out Gala for ordering a drink and not tipping.

"You've won at least €9,920 you could at least tip," they said.

0:50am: Gala takes some from Urban
Level 26 Blinds 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante)

David Urban and Dominico Gala reached the river of a [Qc][5c][Kd][3h][Ts] board and Urban bet 345,000 - almost a pot sized bet. Gala went into the tank and then called with [Ad][Tc]. Urban mucked his hand, he slips to 1,685,000 whilst Gala is up to 2,485,000.

00:40am: The unofficial final table has started
Level 26 Blinds 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante)

The nine remaining players are back in their seats and action is under way.

0:25am: Unofficial final table seat draw
Level 26 Blinds 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante)

0:20am: Andres Viola eliminated in 10th place (€ 8,070)
Level 26 Blinds 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante)

The unofficial final table is set!

David Urban opened to 110,000 on the button and then called when Andres Viola moved all-in for 595,000 from the big blind.

Urban: [Ad][Ts]
Viola: [Ac][9s]

The [Kc][Qs][Jh] flop meant Urban flopped broadway and the [Kh] turn and [Qs] river kept him in front.

They'll now be a short delay whilst they do a redraw of the final nine.

0:03am: Andres Viola doubles through Mick Heder
Level 26 Blinds 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante)

After loisng a pot to David Urban to slip to 295,000 Andres Viola moved all-in from the small blind with [As][Ah] and Mick Heder called from the big blind with [ad][5d]. The board ran [Td][Th][8h][Ts][9s] and Viola got his double up. He's up to 650,000, Heder drops to 1,500,000 and Urban has 1,400,000

11:45pm: Rene Kodlin eliminated in 11th Place (€8,070)
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

Down to 10!

The exit happened on the feature table with Hannes Speiser opening to 85,000 and then calling Rene Kodlin's shove of 410,000.

Kodlin: [Kd][Th]
Speiser: [Kh][Qc]

A [7h][4s][2s][4d][Jd] board meant Speiser's hand held to boost him to 1,350,000 whilst Kodlin collected €8,070 for his efforts this week.

With one more exit we'll be down to the unofficial final table of nine.

11:30pm: Peter Siemund doubles through Robert Kokoska
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

Big hands, big pot and not an exaggerated tank in sight. Great poker!

Peter Siemund opened to 85,000 from the cutoff, Robert Kokoska three-bet to 205,000 from the small blind, Siemund moved all-in, Kokoska asked for a count (about one million) and then called. This took about 30 seconds total.

Siemund: [As][Kc]
Kokoska: [Ad][Qs]

A [4s][Jh][3c][6c][Kd] board doubled Siemund to about 2,300,000 (he was all-in for 1,145,000) and saw Kokoska drop to 580,000.

11:25pm: Martin Ilavksy eliminated in 12th place (€6,950)
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

Down to just 200,000 Martin Ilavsky moved all-in from the small blind with [Jd][7c] and Ivan Luca snapped him off with [Ac][4d]

A [Kc][3s][2h][Tc][9d] board means we lose Ilavsky in 12th place and Luca is up to 2,710,000.

11:15pm: Gala's turn to double with aces
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

A few hands after losing a big pot to aces, Domenico Gala got a double up with them. Ivan Luca opened from the hijack wih [Jc][Jd], Gala just called with [Ah][As] from the small blind and Maria Lampropoulos smooth called from the big blind. On the [8c][2s][8s] flop Luca c-bet 115,000 and Gala was the only caller.

The [3d] turn checked through and the [Tc] completed the board. Gala checked again and instantly called when Luca jammed for 405,000 He got a full double up to 1,300,000, whilst Luca slips to 2,450,000.

11:05pm: Speiser doubles with aces again
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

Hannes Speiser sure loves aces. He doubled through Andres Viola with them earlier and just repeated the trick in a hand against Domenico Gala.

Gala had [As][Qs] to Speiser's [Ac][Ah] and although the [Ad][Ts][5h][Tc][Qc] board hit both players it hit Speiser harder. He was all-in for 575,000 so now has around 1,200,000 whilst Gala is down to about 750,000.

10:56pm: Daniel Rose eliminated in 13th place (€ 6,950)
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

They say there's a curse of the chip leader and 13 was definitely unlucky for start of day chip boss David Rose as he's just been knocked out in 13th place.

He was down to just over 400,000 and moved all-in from under-the-gun with [Kd][Qc]. David Urban re-raised with [Ac][Kh] and everyone else folded. The [As][5h][2d][6s][Qh] board meant the dominating hand held and Rose was sent to the rail. Meanwhile Urban is up to 1,500,000.

10:50pm: 13 into eight is the plan
Level 25 - Blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante)

The 13 remaining players are back in their seats. The plan is to get to the final table of eight tonight.

10:10pm: Dinner break chip counts
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

The players are now on a 45-minute dinner break. Ivan Luca leads the field with a stack of 3,095,000.

10:05pm: Big double for Siemund
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

On the final hand before the players went on a 45-minute dinner break there was a big hand between Peter Siemund and Hannes Speiser at the outer table

The former moved all-in from the cutoff for 538,000 with [2d][2s] and Hannes Speiser put him at risk holidng ace-king. The [Ts][7c][5d][Tc][8h] board kept the ducks in front and Speiser drops to around 650,000 whilst Siemund is up to 1,150,000.

9:58pm: Fabian Schaack eliminated in 14th Place (€6,280)
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

Live and die on the river...

After Stoyan Stefanov opened to 60,000, Fabian Schaack moved all-in for about 500,000 from the small blind. Mick Heder was in the big blind and he re-shoved, forcing Stefanov to fold.

Heder: [Ad][Js]
Schaack: [Ac][Qd]

The [Tc][8s][3s][6s][Jc] board meant Heder hit his kicker on the river to send Schaack out in 14th. Heder is up to 1,650,000 after that hand.

9:55pm: Dragoslav Timarac eliminated in 15th Place (€6,280)
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

Hannes Speiser opened [7h][7d] to 70k, Maria called with [jd][jh], Dragoslav Timarac then pushed with [7s][7c] for 472k, Ivan Luca re-raised all-in with [ad][kd] for 2.5m and both Hannes and Lampropoulos folded.

The board was [qc][ah][6s][5h][6c], Timarac was eliminated and Luca climbed to 3.2m

9:37pm: Grzegorz Wyraz eliminated in 16th Place (€5,620)
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

EPT regular Grzegorz Wyraz is out in 16th place and his chips have gone to David Urban. The Pole opened, Urban shoved and Wyraz called all-in for about 480,000.

Wyraz: [Ad][Qh]
Urban: [7d][7s]

A [Kc][Jd][6s] flop gave Wyraz a gutshot to go with his overcards but he missed the [Js] turn and [4s] river. Urban is now up to 1,400,000.

9:33pm: Back at it
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

Play has restarted. There are 33 minutes left in the level and the players will then go on a 60 minute dinner break.

9:20pm: Aces cracked...again
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

We've seen a lot of aces getting crack today and Daniel Rose was the latest victim. Mick Heder shoved from the cutoff for 484,000 with [Kd[Jh] and Rose called from the small blind with [Ac][Ad].

The [Th][7c][5h][2h][3h] board made Heder a flush and saw Rose let out a stream of expletives. He's down to 350,000 whilst Heder is up to 1,020,000.

At the same time this happened Patrick Wolff was eliminated at the feature table meaning we're down to 16 players. They'll be a short break whilst they redraw the final 16 and set up the new feature table.

In Wolff's exit hand he shoved for 177,000 with [Ah][Js] from the hijack and Rene Kodlin called with [Qc][Qs] on the button. A [9d][Kh][6d][4s][2h] board kept Kodlin in front.

9:17pm: Oliver Heppchen eliminated in 18th place
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

Down to just 236,000 Oliver Heppchen moved all-in from under-the-gun with [Ad][6c]. He picked up a call from Ivan Luca and the Argentinian had him dominated with [Ac][Jd].

The [Ks][5d][2s][Kh][Qd] board kept Luca in front and he's up to 2,200,000 now.

9:15pm: Big hands, small pot
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

This pot could've played out so much differently and it most cases would've been a huge pot.

From under-the-gun Daniel Rose raised to 75,000, Maria Lampropoulos smooth called from the cutoff and Robert Kokoska came along from the big blind.

The flop was a tasty looking [Qh][Td][Ah], the action was checked to Lampropoulos and her bet of 100,000 was enough to win the pot. Rose showed [Ks][Kc] as he folded and Lampropoulos opened [Ac][Kd] as she took the pot.

She's up to 2,175,000, whilst Rose drops to 800,000.

9:05pm: Stefanov on a surge
Level 24 - Blinds 15,000/30,000 (4,000 ante)

A short time ago Stoyan Stefanov had a sub 10 big blind stack. Now he's got almost 2,000,0000!

A big pot against ivan Luca gave the biggest boost to his stack. By thte time the two of them reached the river of a [9d][8d][8h][Js][Ad] river there was around 340,000 in the middle. The Argentinian checked the action over to Stefanov and he bet 175,000. After a bit of tank time Luca check-raised to 350,000 and Stefanov thought for a little while before calling.

Luca had [8c][6d] but Stefanov had made a straight with [Qs][Td]. Both have about 1,900,000 now.

8:50pm: Speiser doubles with aces
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

Andres Viola opend to 50,000 from the button and Hannes Speiser shoved all-in for 525,000 from the big blind. "Count please," said Viola. "If it's less than 30 big blinds I'm calling."

It was and he did:

Speiser: [Ad][As]
Viola: [Th][Td]

The [8s][5h][7h][9c][4s] board kept the aces in front and Speiser doubled to 1,100,000 whilst Viola slips to 320,000.

8:40pm: Stoyan Stefanov doubles through Ivan Luca
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

Is there a chink in Ivan Luca's armory? He just lost a pot to double up Stoyan Stefanov to lose a little under 12 big blinds.

Luca opened to 48,000 from the hijack with [Qc][Tc] and Stefanov shoved for 287,000 total with [Ac][Jh]. It folded back to Luca and he thought for about 90 seconds before calling.

The [4d][5s][Kc][Jd][6h] board favoured Stefanov and he doubled to around 600,000. Luca still has lots though, about 2,300,000 to be precise.

8:35pm: Martin Kristeller's aces cracked; out in 19th
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

What goes around comes around, I guess. Earlier today Martin Kristeller cracked kings with [9d][7d] and he's just had his aces cracked to exit the tournament in 19th place.

Pre-flop Robert Kokoska opened to 50,000, Kristeller three-bet to 130,000 and Kokoska smooth called. On the [Js][3h][9s] flop Kokoska checked to Kristeller, he bet 160,000, Kokoska check-raised to 325,000 total, Kristeller moved all-in for around 800,000 and Kokoska called.

Kristeller: [As][Ac]
Kokoska: [Ks][Qs]

The [7s] completed Kokoska's flush and the meaningless [4h] fell on the river. The stacks were counted down and Kokoska had Kristeller covered. He's up to 2,350,000 after that hand.

8:25pm: Darius Beres busts in 20th
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

Some action!

Dragoslav Timarac opened to 50,000 with [as][jc] and Darius Beres pushed from the small blind for 217,000 with [ad][8s]. Call from Timarac.

The board ran [7s][ac][4s][jd][kc] to send Beres home with a cheque for €4,960 and boost Timarac's stack to 770,000.

8:15pm: All quiet on the outer tables
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

Nothing much to report in the way of action from the outer tables. There was a flurry of action in the opening four levels, but the pace of play has slowed during level 23.

8pm: Karol Radomski eliminated in 21st place
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

It took about ten minutes into level 23 before we had any significant action but when we did it resulted in an exit.

Martin Kristeller opened to 35,000 from the cutoff, Karol Radomski then moved all-in from the button for 56,000 total. Maria Lampropoulos and Hannes Speiser both called from the blinds and Kristeller put in the extra to create a four-way pot.

The three active players checked down the [6d][Th][Qs][4d][Qh] board, Radomski had [Ac][Jh] but Kristeller's pocket sevens were the best hand and Radomski was eliminated.

7:50pm: Live stream begins
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

The live stream has started. It means we'll be blogging on a one hour delay. Stay right here for written coverage and/or click here to watch the cards-up live stream.

7:45pm: Live stream delay
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

There's been a delay in the live stream starting so it looks like we're going to be blogging on roughly a one hour delay. First updates with you shortly...hopefully.

6:55pm: Chip counts
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

Whilst you're waiting for the 'live updates' to resume. Here's a look at the chip counts of the remaining players. Our next update will be at 19.30 CET.

6:45pm: 40 minute delay due to live stream
Level 23 - Blinds 12,000/24,000 (3,000 ante)

Ok bit of a weird one this but stay with us. There's now a feature table and a live stream, which is on a 30 minute delay as it's a cards-up stream. So that will start at roughly 7:30 CET and can be watched here..

So to avoid spoilers we'll be blogging the outer tables on a 40 minute delay too. Essentially we'll note down the time a hand takes place and then write it up but publish it 40 minutes later.

Still with us? Good.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozvadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog