Notable Names Bow Out as €1,100 Eureka Main Event Draws Gigantic Field
A mammoth-sized field turned out for the €1,100 Eureka Main Event inside the Hilton Prague, which has become one of the must-play events of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague.
Day 1a of the tournament attracted a whopping 959 entries, surpassing the 694 figure which came on the same day in March's edition of EPT Prague. Day 1b, which is just wrapping up also saw an increase and had a further 434 entries.
Day 1c and Day 1d have also begun to create a players list with 314 and 1 registering for the final two starting flights. Overall, 1,708 entries have been counted so far and is on pace to break the attendance record which stands at 3,155.
The Day 1a field generated €920,960 of the €1,639,680 prize pool, which looks to eclipse the €3,028,800 collected back in the Spring time.
Eureka Main Event By The Numbers
| Event | Entries | Advanced | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 1a | 959 | 144 | €920,640 |
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 1b | 434 | 65 | €416,640 |
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 1c | 314 | - | €301,440 |
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 1d | 1 | - | €960 |
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 2 | - | - | - |
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 3 | - | - | - |
| €1,100 Eureka Main Event Day 4 | - | - | - |
Notable Names Struggle in Day 1a
A host of poker's top names turned out for Day 1a, but were unable to make into the final 15% of the field. The likes of Fedor Holz, Pierre Calamusa, Andrea Ricci, Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Jessica Teusl all fell short of navigating the first hurdle.
PokerStars Ambassadors Alejandro Lococo and Benjamin Spragg also hopped into the Eureka Main Event but suffered the same fate as the names above.
When the dust settled on Day 1a, Damir Savio ended the session as chip leader with a stack of 849,000. Tournament circuit regular Dawid Smolka also had a fruitful day on the felt and bagged 680,000 in chips. France's Aurelien Russo rounds out the top three chip counts and will begin Day 2 with a healthy stack worth 606,000.
The bubble burst in quick fashion, and the 144 Day 1a advancers have all locked up the min-cash which will be determined when the rest of the Day 1's play out.
Eureka Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damir Savio | Italy | 849,000 | 106 |
| 2 | Dawid Smolka (pictured) | Poland | 680,000 | 85 |
| 3 | Aurelien Russo | France | 606,000 | 76 |
| 4 | Toni Kaukua | Finland | 595,000 | 74 |
| 5 | Fredrik Skarfstad | Sweden | 558,000 | 70 |
| 6 | Konstantin Farber | Germany | 475,000 | 59 |
| 7 | Yulian Bogdanov | Bulgaria | 443,000 | 55 |
| 8 | Thomas Channell | England | 436,000 | 55 |
| 9 | Peter Tordai | Hungary | 424,000 | 53 |
| 10 | Safwane Bahri | France | 421,000 | 53 |
PokerNews will be on the ground for Day 1c and Day 1d of the Eureka Main Event, which gets underway on Friday, December 9 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. CET respectively.