12.45am: Ibanez leaves it late to lead Day 1A of Eureka Prague
We knew Eureka Prague was going to be the biggest Eureka event of the season and whilst the 222 players who entered Day 1A of the €1,000 + €100 main event didn't quite make it the biggest Eureka of the season on their own, those who enter Day 1B certainly will.
With just 190 registered when shuffle up and deal was announced the remaining 32 trickled in throughout the day, perhaps to get out of the crisp cold winter climes of Prague. And they had a generous six levels of late registration to do so. So, it's fitting that the chip lead of Day 1A wasn't settled until the very final hand of the night, on the only table that was still going, the others having long since finished their final three hands.
In a four-bet pot Ricardo Ibanez and long-time chip leader Olah Tamas each put 23,000 in pre-flop. The [As][7c][2d] flop slowed them both down, Ibanez bet 24,000 on the [3d] turn and Tamas called. Both reverted back to checking on the [2s] river, Ibanez showed [Ah][9s] to win the pot and climb to 136,000.
That nudged him ahead of Juraj Berzinec (125,000) and Krzysztof Chmielowski (119,200), whilst Ioannis Triantafyllakis (115,600) also had a good day at the felt.
Whilst we're expecting a few Team PokerStars Pro's to enter the fray tomorrow, the sole representative today was Hungarian Richard Toth. He was sat two to the left of the always entertaining Artur Wasek for much of the day. Neither would advance to Day 2 though, with Toth exiting during level seven.
He wasn't the only big name player we lost today as Czech players Martin Staszko and Jaroslav Urban both hit the rail. Whilst Eureka Bulgaria runner-up Algirdas Saveikis followed suit. Just 67 made it through to Day 2.
A fresh batch of players will be back at noon to try and achieve what they couldn't and make it through to Day 2. You can follow the action live right here.
To catch up on all today's action click on the links below or scroll down for Levels 9-10. But for now it's goodnight from Prague. Chip counts of those who did make Day 2 will be posted overnight on the chip counts page.
12.05am: Done for the day
Play is over and the players have dispersed their separate ways. The chip leader is Ricardo Ibanez, who has 136,000. He only became chip leader on the very last hand of the night when he won a big pot from one time chip leader Olah Tamas.
A re-cap of the day, including that chip lead defining hand, will be posted above shortly.
11.50pm: Last three hands
The clock has been paused and players will play three more hands before bagging and tagging their chips.
11.40pm: Tams still chip leader
Long-time leader Olah Tamas is still chip leader but his lead is now quite slender. He's down to 135,000 and Krzysztof Chmielowski is closing in as he has 124,000. There's roughly 20 minutes left to play in Prague and there are 69 players left.
11.25pm: Out
The latest batch of exits include: Alexandru-Ionut Ionescu, Olasz Endre, Jakutis Povilas, Eleftherios Sinnos, Carmen Zainescu, Grzegorz Cichocki, Joao Manuel Gonçalves De Brito and Milan Tomasz Rabsz
11.15pm: A grimace, a shake of the head and a fold
Just before the blinds went up I witnessed one of those moments that must happen multiple times in every tournament.
The pot was opened to 1,200 from late position, Zymvragakis Charalambos then three-bet to 4,200, leaving himself just 10,000 back. The original raiser, who covered, then moved all-in. Back on Charalambos he looked at his stack, looked at the tournament clock which was ticking down the last seconds of level nine, grimaced, shook his head at having to give up such a high percentage of his stack and then mucked his cards.
11pm: Damian at the double
Damian Siewert just got a much needed double up, but boy was he put through the wringer in the process.
The action was started by Zoltan Szabo he raised to 2,500 under-the-gun, Siewert then moved all-in from middle position for 21,600, plenty of quick folds until it reached Stelyan Georgiev in the small blind. He had a stack of around 60,000 and tanked, then tanked some more before moving all-in. Both the big blind and Szabo folded and it was on their backs time.
Siewert: [Ah][Qc]
Georgiev: [10d][10s]
Siewert was behind and at risk, the [2h][5s][3d] flop was about as good a flop as it got for Siewert, without actually giving him the lead. The [4s] turn was even better though as it gave him a lock on at least half the pot and the [9s] river gave him the entire pot. He's now up to around 50,000 whilst Georgiev slips to 35,000.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000 ante 100
10.45pm: Exits
They made it to level nine but: Bogdan Matijasevic, Marco Gasparovic, Branimir Atanasov, Armen Stepanov, Björn Bruns, Konstantinos Nanos, Rudi Van Mol, Jaroslaw Jaskiewicz, Robert Cezarescu, Jonathan Gagnon Villeneuve, Jakub Krajniak and David Kilmartin won't be making level 10 as they're all recent casualties of the rising blinds and antes.
10.25pm: Chip leaders
Right now the average stack is a shade over 37,000, this players have at least double that amount and in the case of the chip leader around four times the average. Leading the way right now is Olah Tamas, he's got a monstrous stack of around 150,000. No one else, not even Ladislav Mika, who's lost some ground has over 100,000.
But in the chasing pack sit: Ricardo Ibanez (86,000), Juraj Berzinec (85,000), Petre Ionescu (79,000) and Adam Jaguscik (75,000)
10.10pm: Mika at the top of the charts
Ladislav Mika that is. The Czech PokerStars qualifier is the first player (to my knowledge) to break the 100,000 chip mark. He's got around 102,000.
9.55pm: Last two levels of the night
During the break tournament staff raced off the green 25 denomination chips. Those green chips made it slightly further than: Artur Wasek, Oskars Silins, Oleg Romanov, Robin Stam and Jonathan Prince all of whom were eliminated shortly before the break.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Prague:Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha.