Eureka Poker Tour Prague

[AlrightJack]

The inaugural Eureka Poker Tour event, taking place at the Card Casino in Prague is well underway. A total of 329 players took their seats over 2 starting days on Thursday and Friday and now 98 have returned for day 2. Several Brits still entered but while Mike Hill, Neil Rawnsley and Will Frost all exited yesterday, James Keys, Mitchell Johnson and Keith Johnson are still in the chase for the €58,400 first prize. James wasn't even going to play, but when I told him he could still potentially finish 2nd in this and make it to Snowfest on time, he took one look at the rain coming down outside and decided to eschew his intended plans to go for a walk round Prague. He took his seat just a few minutes before the late entry period closed.

Today they will play nine levels or until they get to the final eight. This is how they line up:

Name   Nationality   PokerStars Status   Chips   Table   Seat
Marius Ionel Tripsa   Romania        127,000    6   3
Jaroslav Urban   Czech Republic        114,000    12   2
Cristian Murgoci    Romania    PokerStars Player    107,100    1   2
Kamil Kóska    Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    104,900    4   4
Oldřich Šiml    Czech Republic        102,100    7   7
Jakub Ratulowski    Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    98,600    8   1
Martin Strban    Slovakia   PokerStars Qualifier    98,400    12   5
Lucian Mod-Luhasz Ovidiu   Romania    PokerStars Qualifier    98,300    9   1
Pawel Bartosz   Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    97,900    2   3
Chuc Viorel Ion Burlan    Romania    PokerStars Player    97,900    13   5
Martin Švub    Czech Republic    PokerStars Qualifier    93,600    5   5
Pavel Berka   Czech Republic        88,800    8   2
Zsolt Vasvenszki   Hungary        87,400    3   2
Grzegorz Mikielewicz    Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    86,100    13   1
Ringo Libolt   Luxembourg    PokerStars Qualifier    83,300    13   6
Stefan Brand    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    78,400    6   8
Thomas Pill   Denmark        77,700    14   7
Veronika Kokoceva   Czech Republic        76,500    7   5
Ward de Bruyn    Netherlands    PokerStars Player    74,200    7   4
Gosztonyi Csaba   Hungary        73,200    14   4
Petar Zografov   Russia       72,800    7   1
Christian Polkow    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    70,700    9   3
Michal Maryška   Czech Republic        70,100    5   4
James Keys    United Kingdom        69,000    1   6
Martin Jeník    Czech Republic    PokerStars Qualifier    67,600    14   3
Vitaly Malyakin   Russia       67,400    6   5
Mitchell Johnson    United Kingdom    PokerStars Player    67,300    12   1
Wojciech Kaminski   Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    66,700    7   6
Krzysztof Nega    Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    65,200    9   2
Loredan Hanganu   Romania    PokerStars Qualifier    61,300    15   2
Sebastian Lucuta   Romania    PokerStars Qualifier    61,100    2   4
David Torok   Hungary        61,100    14   2
Jens Eisner   Denmark        61,000    9   4
Marius Pospiech    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    59,700    12   7
Gianfranco Ironico   Italy       59,000    5   6
Severin Schleser    Austria    PokerStars Qualifier    58,200    8   7
Lubor Dědič    Czech Republic    PokerStars Player    58,100    15   4
Robin De Bondt    Belgium    PokerStars Qualifier    54,300    15   5
Ondřej Vinklárek   Czech Republic        52,600    3   5
Keith Johnson    United Kingdom    PokerStars Player    52,100    9   7
Ivan Anatolevich Skobolov   Russia   PokerStars Player    51,200    3   6
Kework Besiktasliyan    Netherlands    PokerStars Player    50,000    15   6
Thomas Winder    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    49,400    13   4
Frederickx Alexander   Belgium        46,700    3   1
Sergey Levin   Russia       46,200    15   1
Ján Petráš   Czech Republic        46,000    13   3
Stelyan Georgiev   Bulgaria    PokerStars Qualifier    45,300    4   3
Ole Petter Nordbø    Norway    PokerStars Qualifier    43,900    1   7
Marius Culescu   Romania        43,700    1   3
János Mécs    Hungary    PokerStars Qualifier    43,600    4   8
Vlado Banicevic   Montenegro       42,900    5   1
Gábor Körtvélyessy   Hungary    PokerStars Qualifier    42,700    2   6
Tamas Hermecz   Hungary        42,500    4   6
Calin Furdui    Romania    PokerStars Player    41,600    15   3
Tomas Petru   Czech Republic        41,400    6   4
Bart Hoogeboom    Netherlands    PokerStars Player    39,800    13   7
Jérôme Brugger    Switzerland    PokerStars Qualifier    39,100    12   4
Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez    Spain    PokerStars Qualifier    39,000    15   7
Bohumil Valenta   Czech Republic        38,400    8   4
Roman Kadziela   Poland        38,200    6   2
Michael Garcell    United States    PokerStars Qualifier    38,100    9   6
Constantin Flutur Sorin   Romania    PokerStars Qualifier    38,100    12   3
Stefan Kollar   Slovakia       38,100    14   5
Béla Tóth   Hungary    PokerStars Qualifier    37,300    14   6
Antti Kalevi Virtanen    Finland    PokerStars Qualifier    36,900    5   2
Marco Johanes Adams   Netherlands        34,200    8   5
Claudia Csongei    Hungary    PokerStars Player    33,000    2   5
Peter Harangozo   Hungary    PokerStars Qualifier    31,500    2   2
Pawel Sanojca    Poland    PokerStars Player    31,100    9   5
Petr Kralicek   Czech Republic        30,900    12   6
Lukosevicius Mindaugas   Lithuania    PokerStars Qualifier    30,600    2   7
Sergey Orekhov   Russia       30,400    1   8
Ioannis Prokopakis    Greece    PokerStars Qualifier    30,300    14   1
Keller Csaba   Hungary        27,600    3   3
Mikhail Rudenko   Russia       26,800    7   2
Fabrizio Salina   Switzerland       26,200    5   7
Mario Zeljko    Croatia   PokerStars Qualifier    25,600    5   8
Florian Mücke    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    25,100    6   6
Kim Alexander Eduardovich   Russia   PokerStars Qualifier    24,800    2   1
Pawek Boruta   Poland        24,800    4   5
Jiri Stuchlik   Czech Republic        22,600    4   1
Marcus Ekman    Sweden    PokerStars Qualifier    22,300    7   3
Christoph Kohler   Germany    PokerStars Player    22,200    1   5
Lieke van Wordragen    Netherlands    PokerStars Qualifier    21,600    1   1
Sabin Filev   Bulgaria        21,600    4   2
Julian Hasse    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    20,500    4   7
Patric Hümmerich    Germany    PokerStars Player    19,600    7   8
Miloslav Ilanovský   Slovakia       18,700    1   4
Łukasz Paluch    Poland    PokerStrars Qualfier    16,600    8   6
Grzegorz Cichocki    Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    16,400    6   1
Tomasz Szpila    Poland    PokerStars Qualifier    15,300    3   4
Yuriy Leskiv   Ukraine       14,500    3   8
Ahmad Hassanein    Denmark    PokerStars Qualifier    14,000    6   7
Guenther Lukat    Germany    PokerStars Player    13,700    13   2
Nikolai Aleis   Germany        12,700    3   7
Jan Petermann    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    11,300    2   8
Tomas Fibigr   Czech Republic        11,100    8   3
Thomer Pidun    Germany    PokerStars Qualifier    10,900    5   3

[The Camel]

"Take a look around Prague"

Is that what they call it these days?

[MC]

"Take a look around Prague"

Is that what they call it these days?

lolz

[Mitch]

Me and Keys busto, Keith about avg on 1st break.

Really well run tourny, good structure and excellent dealers.

Deffo planning on playing some more of these.

[smashedagain]

Mr rabb always sails a good shiP.

[AlrightJack]

5 left on the final table, including Keith Johnson, who is currently the chip leader, on 1.8m of the 4.9m in play. If anyone wants to follow his progress, updates can be found on the PS blog.

[millidonk]

Keith and Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez HU.

[AlrightJack]

Keith now heads up against Antonio Rodriguez from Dieguez Rodriguez from Spain. He has a 2-1 chip lead.

[AlrightJack]

Make that a 9-1 chip lead now

[paulhouk03]

win

[AlrightJack]

Keith ships for €58,400!

Eureka!

[cambridgealex]

Great series, really recommend it to all fish. If you're a winning player I wouldn't bother - very high standard, poorly run etc. Better off playing elsewhere.

[AlrightJack]

lol, see you at the next one Alex.

[bergeroo]

I really liked the main event - I thought it seemed like a really good structure for an 800euro event. Would have loved the side events to have a bit of a higher buy in - not high roller style, but perhaps half the main event buy in and slightly bigger turbos, but this is not really a complaint.

The turbos were capped at 80 and for some reason they didn't have any alternates even though more people wanted to play? Seemed a bit odd! When I pointed out there were 9 seats at a poker table, so there was one spare seat, they let me in as number 81.

The dealers were basically competent, if a bit surly. I asked one his name and he said "why?". Local players seemed to be able to get away with a little bit more, like reaching over the line with a pile of chips and dropping one for a call and just little sloppy things like that - but many were more recreational, so that's fine.

However, in a cash game I was in a hand with an absolutely terrible ruling. I don't know if the tour uses the floor staff and has a tournament director from the casino or has its own. After this i really hope it has its own!

It was a 25/50 krone cash game which is the equivalent of 1/2 euro.

Hand is as follows. Guy opens from early position, mid position calls, button calls, as do I in the small blind and the big blind comes along too.

Flop is QJT and I check and it checks around to the button. Button is a slow player and is kind of covering his cards, so the dealer burns and turns. A second queen on the turn QJT(Q). These mistakes happen and I believe that in every other casino I've ever been in the turn queen will now be shuffled back into the deck, the button decides his flop action and then a new turn is dealt. Or the queen is put aside, the next card is burnt and turned. Ie the river is now the turn, then the queen is shuffled into the deck before the river is dealt - that way only one card is now different.

I believe either one of these rulings is super standard?

What instead happened was the turn was dealt. The dealer noticed the button, an older Czech guy hadn't acted and then gave him the option to act, having now already seen what card was coming on the turn! He checked and then the dealer came to me in the sb for my turn action.

I instantly said to the dealer - wait a minute, that turn doesn't go - he's got unfair extra information for his flop action. At this point, the dealer who had been quite fluent in English before, suddenly didn't seem to speak much any more. I had to just sit there and ask him to call the floor about five times.

Eventually the floor comes over. A stern, well built, 50-something Czech lady. Dealer explained it to her in Czech, I then explained it to her in English. She definitely knew what happened and the order it did, but she said to me - ok carry on with the hand, you are to act.

To me this is an absolutely ridiculous ruling, it quite possible completely affected the hand. I continued to try and say that the turn should be shuffled back into the deck but eventually she walked away. I considered just sitting there and not acting and getting someone to call a clock on me which would require the floor lady to come back over but that would have been stupid and petty. Instead I played out the hand and the rest of the orbit and then went and cashed out my chips with the intention of never playing there again.

The best part was at the end of the hand, the button bet the river and everyone folded, he then flashed a queen. So indeed him seeing the turn could well have completely influenced his flop action.

I don't think it was an angle shoot, more incompetence and the button certainly wasn't good enough to take advantage anyway, but it doesn't fill me with confidence to play in a place that doesn't know basic poker situations like thisand where I may get the rough end of the stick in a ruling if I am not Czech.

I don't expect perfect dealing and rulings all the time. But dealers and floor in the Italian Poker Tour and UK Poker Tour venues - both Stars sponsored events, have been first class in my experience, so I was disappointed more than anything.

I'm sure Jonathan has no direct control over the dealers at the casino, but he does choose the venues, so I guess I just wanted to write about this hand.

I certainly plan to play Zagreb in September and all the best with the tour!

[AlrightJack]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. The venue in Prague has a reputation for having the best dealers in the country and the TD/Manager Vaclav Rychtarik is very experienced and extremely competent. This was one of the main reasons we decided to use this venue and all things considered, i would be happy to go back there. That said, the venue by their own admission did have a few newer dealers working during the event, so although the overall standard was pretty good, there may have been a few who were not so skilled amongst them.

We will have our own TD at all the remaining Eureka events this year to ensure consistency and maintain standards, but dealers and floor staff will largely be provided by each venue. The next stop in Nova Gorica is at the Perla Casino, which is one of the largest in Europe and they have a lot of experience running poker events - The IPT goes there regularly, as do several other tours. The Bulgarian event is also at a casino we have previously held an event at and is also a well run and managed venue. For almost all our tours we have control over how the main event and side events are run, but usually cash games are run by the venue rather than by us. I will however pass your comments on the ruling on to the Card Casino Prague, as I am sure they will find it useful feedback.

We're considering having a high roller side event at one or two of the stops later in the year and I'm also working on a new format that I hope to be able to run at a Eureka event at some point.