Home / Poker News December 2008 / EPT Prague Day 1A report
EPT Prague Day 1A report
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2008-12-10 05:39
There were no fewer than 272 players bellying up to hte tables of the European Poker Tour’s Prague stop, out of which only 88 were still in contention at day’s end. The list of illustrious players taking part in day 1A’s hostilities held names like Michael Martin, the EPT’s London champion, and Arnaud Mattern, the Frenchman who won the Prague stop last year. Other notable presences were those of Rolf Slotboom, Gus Hansen and Marcus Golser.
The competitors wasted no time pulling out the heavy artillery, and heads soon began to roll. Rolf Slotboom was unfortunate enough to have his pair of Kings called down by an opponent with A,Q. As the flop fell A,9,8 he was already neck deep in trouble, but the Q on the turn really sealed the deal. He lost a huge pot there which didn’t eliminate him, but left him crippled. It didn’t take long for him to get those last few chips into the pot, and he headed to the rail, tail between legs, barely having gotten the pulse of the action.
Marcus Golser, Michael Martin and Arnaud Mattern would be eliminated relatively early on too, as the chance of a repeat by last year’s champ promptly went out the window. Mattern decided to get nasty on a flop of 9d, 5s,3d, holding As, Js in his pocket he got two callers on his preflop raise, and when he fired a second bet on the flop the same two guys persisted. A 10s fell on the turn giving Mattern a flush draw, and as one of his opponents bet into him he went all-in in response.
The initial bettor folded, but the guy who had smooth-called before, called this one too, tabling Qd, 10d for a pair. The river failed to fill up Mattern’s flush, and thus he too became a victim.
Gus Hansen and Theo Jorgensen were also disposed of, as Ludovic Lacay had an excellent day adding to his stack twice at Otto Richard’s expense.
He eventually ended the day in the chip lead with 94,200, followed by Dan Pedersen in second with 71,200.
