2013 PokerStars.com EPT Prague

The Season 10 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event continued on Friday with Day 1b action from the Hilton in the Czech Republic’s largest city. Day 1a attracted 389 players, and a staggering 609 showed up for the second starting flight to make a combined total of 998 players – making it the largest EPT Prague ever! What’s more, that number could increase as late registration is open until the start of Day 2.

After eight 75-minute levels of play, the field was whittled down to 369 players with 2013 World Series of Poker third-place finisher Amir Lehavot and his stack of 229,300 leading the way – which is quite a bit more than Day 1a chip leader Tiberu-Florian Georgescu's 191,000.

It didn’t take long for action to heat up on Day 1b, and one of the game’s toughest players was among the first to go. At the end of Level 1 (50/100), World Series of Poker bracelet winner Pascal Lefrancois was eliminated from the tournament. Our Live Reporting Team didn't come across the hand until things had played out, but they arrived in time to see Italy's Mustapha Kanit with the in front of him on a board. Lefrancois who looked a bit disgusted, chucked his cards to the muck unseen and made a hasty exit from the event.

In Level 6 (200/400/50) Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano won a monster pot and in the process eliminated Chris Moorman. It happened when Pagano raised to 900 from under the gun, both Kitty Kuo and Andrey Shaporin called, and Moorman raised it up to 4,200 from the big blind. Both Pagano and Shaporin called, the flop came down , and Moorman continued for 4,700. Both his opponents called, the turned, and Moorman moved all-in for 13,500, Pagano isolated with a raise, which inspired the Russian to tank-fold the face-up. Moorman turned over whilst Pagano the for a set. The river was the meaning that Shaporin would've made the flush had he stuck around. Nonetheless, Pagano chipped up to 110,000 and knocked out Moorman. Pagano would go on to finish the night with 137,600.

Others who failed to survive the night were Team PokerStars Pros Max Lykov, Martin Hruby, Liv Boeree, Marcin Horecki, Richard Toth, Ville Wahlbeck, and Isaac Haxton. Likewise, notables like Jason Duval, Joe Kuether, Fabrice Soulier, Jan Bendik, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Jake Balsiger, Ren Feenstra, Paul Berende, Will Failla, Ignat “0Human0” Liviu, and Jamila Von Perger all hit the rail.

While many fell, a laundry list of notables made it through the Day 1b minefield. Among those who will return on Day 2 are former World Poker Tour Montreal champ Jonathan Roy; former EPT Prague champ Martin Finger (58,600); and reigning EPT London champ Robin Ylitalo (55,400). They’ll be joined by Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov (81,900), Dag Palovic (79,900), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (79,700), Daniel Negreanu (74,600), David Williams (50,500), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (48,500), Christophe De Meulder (40,100) and Mickey Petersen (37,800).

The surviving players from both starting flights will combine into one field on Saturday for Day 2 action. Cards will be in the air at Noon local time, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to bring you all the latest and greatest from the largest EPT Prague in history!.

While you wait, check out the new PokerNews Punch List with Sarah Grant and Chad Holloway:

The PokerStars Blog looks back on how the seven seasons of EPT Prague has produced some memorable champions. Read all about it here.

The tournament staff has just announced that the remaining players will play four more hands before calling it a night. We're going to head down to the tournament floor to catch any last-minute action and compile a list of notable chip counts. Stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 1b action.

Simon Deadman has had a rollercoaster couple of levels but at the moment at least it's one that's going uphill not downhill. He returned from dinner break with 100,000 but had dropped down to 38,000. However, thanks to winning two big pots against Jonathan Barusta he's back up to 110,000.

In the first Deadman raised to 1,200 from under-the-gun and then called when Barusta three-bet to 3,200 from middle position. The flop fell , Deadman checked, Barusta bet 4,100, Deadman check-raised to 11,600 and Barusta smooth called. The fell on fourth street, Deadman fired out a bet of 16,400 and Barusta folded.

Then a few hands later with the board showing Deadman (big blind) bet 8,900 and Barusta (early position) called. "I've got a nine," said Deadman showing , Barusta flung his pocket jacks into the muck as another pot escaped him.

For a lot of players at this stage they are in shove or fold mode, but on a few rare tables there are two or more big stacks who are still willing to duke it out with each other.

We joined the action on the flop of just after Ion Pavel from Romania seemed to have made a reluctant call facing a big bet from small blind Ciaran Burke, a PokerStars qualifier from Ireland. It was in the region of 5,000 and both players were sitting on stacks of over 100,000 with Pavel having slightly more. The turn card was the . Burke took his time to digest the card and bet a healthy 8,300. Pavel started talking to his opponent, trying to get a read or send out some information before making the call. on the river and Burke again took his time. He settled on a bet of 16,900 and now Pavel really started talking, going through all the options, asking if his opponent wanted a call. Burke responded, “You got ace, ten?” Pavel eventually settled on saying “I know I’m beat.” and made the call. He was right. Burke turned over for a full house and scooped a juicy pot.

It's getting to that point in the evening where players are putting their stacks at risk pre-flop with increasing regularity. Although Christophe De Meulder wasn't all in, his four-bet to 13,000 amounted to a third of his stack. You sensed he wasn't passing and Jakub Michalak must've realised this as he released his hand. Pot to De Meulder who's up to 43,000.

A couple of tables over Ioannis Apostolidis had three-bet shoved for 16,000 and Ka Kwan Lau, who had 1,600 in the pot already was weighing up a call. "You show one if I fold," asked Lau. "I'll show both if you fold and show me both," replied Apostolidis. Lau did fold, showing pocket eights as he did and true to his word Apostolidis showed as he took the pot.