Day Two at the Prague Unibet Open Main Event saw 86 players return to the Golden Prague Poker Room to fight to a final table. It’s never easy to predict the flow of a tournament, and the ebb of players, but it seemed like the pace accelerated throughout the day and by the time the bubble burst (in the form of Philipp Hofbauer) the field was headed full tilt towards consolidating the chips in just nine players’ stacks.
The chip leader at the start of the day, Marius Bobinas from Lithuania, fought through most of the day but ultimately fell short of the final, while others who’d built an early lead took it all the way through the ten levels of play. Among them were Henri Ojala, Perica Bukara and Jacob Andersen (playing his first live tournament, according to his father), while Daniel Pettersen, fourth at the start, finished in a respectable 12th place, winning €5,000. 54 players in total took home a cash prize, from €1,900 all the way up to €8,200 for the final table bubbler Dawid Pikul, who took tenth place but will not get to compete for the trophy tomorrow at 2pm.
Along the way there were several pivotal pots which cemented the fortune of some of the experienced players who’d made their way through most of the 424 total entrants in this year’s event, including a Jacks vs. AK race which ruined Joachim Buch’s hopes of making it a triple final table appearance. Jan Skampa, the active young Czech player, was responsible for eliminating a number of others with decent stacks, building a huge one of his own. Included in his bust-list were Sidsel Boesen, the runner up in this year’s WSOP Ladies’ Event, and right near the end of the day one-time chip leader Daniel Gomez Anadon, who added his enviable chip towers to Skampa’s with an AK vs. AA cooler six-handed.
As the tables dwindled to two, it was Perica Bukara along with Skampa who’d built stacks which were far ahead of the field, and both looked like they could top the million mark before the final nine were determined. Three players exited within five minutes of each other (Rene Baranck, Simeon Naydenov and Lukasz Swiecki taking the 21st-19th spots respectively) which made it seem as though the rich would just simply continue to get richer while the shorter stacks would retain their double-or-bust mentality. The pace was indeed maintained all the way to the pseudofinal (the Second Bubble where ten players are pooled on one table to play to nine), at which point a whole level was needed to finally see Martin Staszko finish in tenth and leave the final teble set for tomorrow like this:
Seat 1: Perica Bukara (Serbia) – 505,000
Seat 2: Michal Maryska (Czech Republic) – 330,000
Seat 3: Nino Ryschawy (Germany) – 250,000
Seat 4: Benjamin Jensen (Denmark) – 527,000
Seat 5: Joost Mengerink (Netherlands) – 366,00
Seat 6: Jaroslav Vajgl (Czech Republic) – 323,000
Seat 7: Jan Skampa (Czech Republic) – 984,000
Seat 8: Henri Ojala (Finland) – 449,000
Seat 9: Laur Sibold (Estonia) – 580,000
Join us tomorrow at 2pm when the final gets underway and one of these players will become the new Unibet Open Prague Champion, and take home €157,000 in prize money!
