9.40pm: End of level eight
The 98 remaining players are now on a 15 minute break, you'll find level nine updates in a new post shortly.
9.30pm: Greater Szabo
One of the chip leaders - Zoltan Szabo - just created a big pot, despite being a small contributor to it.
He opened to 1,500 from his stack of 71,000 and got no less than three callers before Krzysztof Chmielowski squeezed to 4,900 from the small blind. Amazingly, Szabo was the only one of the four players to fold. This meant there was around 22,000 in the pot before the flop!
The first three community cards were [Ah][4s][6s], Chmielowski bet 4,000 and one by one everyone folded.
9.15pm: Fab fives for Eiji Macena
There are quite a few Brazilian players in the field today and one of them - Fabio Eiji Macena - just won a meaty pot. I joined the action live on a [5s][8s][3c] flop, Elji Macena bet 2,200, Vasileios Kontogiannis made it 9,000, Elji Macena set the Greek player all-in and he called all-in.
Elji Macena: [5c][5d]
Kontogiannis: [As][10s]
The flopped set of fives were well in front but any spade would give Kontogiannis a double up. The [4c] turn and [Kd] river kept the Brazilian in front though and he moves up to 62,000.
8.55pm: Exits
Just 114 players remain meaning that almost half the field has been eliminated. The latest batch of eliminations include: Thomas Patsis, Maksim Seregin, Sören Voehrs and Alexander Kostylev.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75
8.35pm: Wasek takes a pot
Polish player Artur Wasek made two EPT final tables in 2010 and the commentators at the final tables noted that Wasek had a unconventional playing style and I just saw it for myself live.
He limped into an unopened pot in middle position and went heads-up to a [Qh][4d][2s] flop against Robin Stam. It was checked to Wasek, he bet 600 and Stam made the call. The [Ks] turn was checked through as was the [9c] river, Wasek showed [9d][5h], whilst Stam had [Ac][10c], Wasek's one pair was enough to take the pot. He's up to 18,000.
8.20pm: Bust outs and big stacks
Sadly Team PokerStars Pro Richard Toth has been eliminated from Eureka Prague, as has Eureka Bulgaria runner-up Algirdas Saveikis, Martin Staszko, Stanislovas Kavoliunas, Urmo Velvelt and Rudi Reinkort.
Whilst Olah Tamas has ran up a stack of 67,000 to nestle in as one of the chip leaders.
8.05pm: Numbers confirmed
Tournament staff have confirmed that the total numbers for Day 1A is 222. And I've been informed that the players will play a total of 10 levels today.
7.50pm: Big stacks
All of these players probably enjoyed a comfortable dinner as they're the big stacks as level 7 gets underway: Victor Mishin (62,000), Andrey Da Silva (48,000), Radim Soudsky (48,000), Johann Prechtl (47,000), Dawid Paczka (46,000) and Ibanez Rodriguez (46,000).
7.40pm: Play back underway
Play is now back underway here in Prague, I'll get confirmation on the final number of runners just as soon as I can.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400 ante 50
6.40pm: Dinner break
Around 145 players remain and they're now on a one hour dinner break.
6.30pm: Wheeler gets a puncture
Former chip leader Jason Wheeler has had his stack cut from 62,000 to around 25,000. He was around down to around 31,000 when I caught the following hand...
On a [5h][4d][As] flop David Urban (hijack) bet 900 and both Wheeler (cut-off) and Pavla Benát Anová (button) called. The [4c] hit the turn, bet of 2,200 from Urban, only Wheeler called. The [3h] completed the board, Urban emptied the clip, firing a third barrel, 3,100 was the price. And after dwelling, Wheeler paid Urban off, as the latter's [Ad][Jh] was good.
6.20pm: Be careful what you wish for
Ah aces, the dreamiest starting hand of them all. When you peak down at a pair of aces you're already mentally calculating how many chips that you'll win. But of course they don't always win as David Lappin found out to his cost.
"Had aces twice... Lost to 42 on 44997 board (luckily checked flop). Won in a 3bet pot, barrelling flop and turn on K83-8. 23k," he tweeted.
6.10pm: More bust outs
There's no easy way to see this but Pascal Hartmann, Drakic Luka, Rumen Nanev, Paulo Santiago, Narcis-Gabriel Nedelcu, Cristian Bolfos, Daniel Johnsen, Lukasz Kubicki, Dinu Bogdan, Adam Szalay, Vytenis Navickas, Ami Barer, Tomas Geleziunas and Paul Jenkinson are all free to visit Prague's famous Christmas market.
6pm: Another level?
Players have just been told that they'll play a minimum of eight levels today, possibly more. It all depends on total numbers, which can't be assessed until late registration closes.
5.55pm: Chip counts
A few chip counts for you: Jarsolav Urban (8,700), Algirdas Saveikis (11,000) and Dawid Paczka (46,000).
160 of 220 player remain, late registration is open until the start of level seven.
5.40pm: Huge pot for Adam Hamaoui
I only caught the river action of this huge pot by with a complete board of [2d][3h][Ks][9h][8d] on the felt an unknown player bet 5,000 into a pot of around 7,000, Adam Hamaoui then moved all-in for 12,000 total.
His opponent stood up, massaged some chips between his hands and then announced call, Hamaoui showed [8c][8h] for the rivered set, whilst his disgusted opponent showed [Kd][3d] for an ahead to the river two pair. After that hand Hamaoui is up to 31,000.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25
5.30pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but if this event were a re-entry then: Lardo Leheste, Philipp Kober, Stati Schengen, Martynas Miliasuskas, Hermenegildas Zilys, Edo Naftaly, Kevin Spillane, Lukasz Wasek, Igor Cioroi, David Vamplew, Evgeny Kharchenko, Sebastian Supper, Alexander Moiseev, Stylianos Papantoniou, Sonja Kovac. Roman Havelka, Jorge Ufano, Agris Klaise, Thomas Lind, Erjat Balinca, Maciej Piotrowski, Raigo Aasmaa, Victor Podofedenko, Ricardas Vymeris, Andrejus Jakovlevas, Patrice Mauroy, Paolo Compagno, Beslan Vedizhev, Jens Kerper, Iulian Ruxandescu, Daniel Krejca, Anatoly Filatov, and Mihai Lucian Mitan could all re-enter should they wish to.
5.15pm: Vamplew vanquished
In truth David Vamplew never got anything going in this tournament, typical then that his exit was a total cooler. "busted #ekaprague KK vs AA," he tweeted a short time ago.
5pm: It's Toth at the top
Seated right at the top of the room on the left hand side is table four. It's a table that contains a couple of players who know what it's like to go deep in big events. In seat 10 is Richard Toth, the Team PokerStars Pro has six, six-figure scores to his name including a third place finish at EPT3 Copenhagen, a second place finish in a $1,500 WSOP event in 2006 and a victory at WPT Slovakia in 2009. The Hungarian is up, ever so slightly, on his starting stack as he has a stack of 15,300.
Two seats to his right sits Artur Wasek, the Pole finished fourth at EPT6 Berlin and repeated the trick at EPT7 London, he's up to 18,000 here in Prague.
4.45pm: Big six Wheeler
His American accent isn't the only thing that makes Jason Wheeler stand out in this tournament. His chip stack is doing more loud talking than even the brashest, or loudest American voice could - of which Wheeler's is neither. He's up to 62,000 which by my reckoning is good for the chip lead.
4.35pm: And they're off again
Bad beat stories exchanged, cigarettes smoked - indoors which is good for the smokers at least as it's roughly 1 degrees outside - and coffees drunk, the players are back in their seats and level five is underway. Amongst those still going is David Lappin he's chipped up to 27,000. He's also got fellow Irishman Gary Clarke for company at his table the latter finished fifth at Eureka Latvia.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Prague:Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha.