Live Tournament Round Up sees EPT10 Prague victories for Rafael Nadal, Dmitry Holdeew and Vanessa Selbst; and it’s Tiberu-Florian Georgescu leading the way after Day 1A of the main event.
Once a winner, always a winner.
That certainly seems to be the case for tennis star Rafael Nadal. The jewel in the PokerStars sponsorship crown took down a one table charity event at EPT10 Prague that involved former football stars Ronaldo and Andriy Shevchenko, Italian skier Albert Tomba, Dutch Olympic hockey gold medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo and Daniel Negreanu.
Nadal taking his victory, and €50,000 for a charity of his choice, after defeating de Melo in heads-up action after his [Ah] [Tc] out maneuvered the [Th] [6h] of the former hockey star in the final hand of the contest.
It remains to be seen if we will see Nadal playing in any further events in Prague.
World Series of Poker Circuit Grinder Ari Engel Shines on Day 1A of EPT10 Prague
389 players turned up to party at Day 1A of EPT10 Prague and around 219 of them made it through to Day 2, with the Romanian Tiberu-Florian Georgescu leading the way with 191,000 chips.
Snapping away at Georgescu’s heels was the WSOPC grinder Ari Engel, who has good Prague form after making the final table in 2011 when he finished in 6th place. Engel is coming off the back of a recent Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) victory in Missouri and no doubt has the scent of the big money.
Other notables to make it through the day include Sebastien Saffari (162,000), Anaras Alekberovas (115,600), Jonathan Little (104,200), Sergio Aido (73,000), Michael Tureniec (70,300), Kent Lundmark (67,100), Steve O’Dwyer (60,200), Toby Lewis (44,900), Shannon Shorr (40,400) and a raft of players under the 40,000 mark including Craig McCorkell, Olivier Busquet, Max Silver, Juha Helppi and Jonathan Duhamel.
People who fell by the wayside included EPT7 Champion Roberto Romanello, Jeff Rossiter, Jake Cody, Matt Perrins, John Eames and Vanessa Selbst.
Dmitry Holdeew Wins the Eureka Poker Tour Prague
Dmitry Holdeew won the largest ever tournament to be held on Czech soil after defeating 1,315 players to take the €226,400 first prize at the Eureka Poker Tour in Prague.
Holdeew overcame a final table that included Marcin Horecki (7th), Stephen Chidwick (3rd) and after a two-hour heads-up battle Ami Barer (2nd).
The heads-up battle was a tale of two all-ins. The first giving Barer hope when his pocket eights outfoxed the pocket fours of Holdeew two claw back the chip lead from the German, and the second would be the final hand of the night.
Barer check-raising all-in on the turn holding [Kh] [4h] for the flush draw on [Td] [7c] [3h] [9h] and Holdeew called holding [Ts] [9d] for top two. The [Kd] hit the river and Germany had bagged itself another big win.
Final Table Standings
1st – Dmitry Holdeew – €226,400
2nd – Ami Barer – €131,400
3rd – Stephen Chidwick – €92,500
4th – Jaroslav Peter – €68,800
5th – Mark Dalimore – €53,500
6th – Milan Simko – €39,800
7th – Marcin Horecki – €30,500
8th – Johannes Tiefenbrunner – €21,700
Vanessa Selbst Takes Another Six Figure Score in Prague
Vanessa Selbst has started her climb towards $9m in live tournament earnings after taking down the €5,000 EPT10 Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) Championship in Prague for €100,700.
It’s the second major side event victory in the past two EPT10 events after defeating Max Silver in heads-up action to take first in the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) High Roller in London for £67,499.
Selbst defeated a stellar field, of 71 players which included a heads-up victory over Sam Greenwood, and takes her 2013 live tournament earnings over the $2.5m mark, in what must rank as one of the most memorable years of her life.
