Prague Tournament Updates; PokerStars to Buy Casino

Poker in Prague

Day 2 of the WPT’s Prague event ended agonisingly close to the money bubble yesterday with just 60 players remaining.

After welcoming a total of 527 entrants, the prizepool was finally announced and when the numbers were published they revealed that a total of 54 players would take home at least €5,000.

That left yesterday’s surviving players just six away from the money and within touching distance of the €325,000 top prize.

Of those making it through the day it was Marco Lang who held the largest chip stack. Despite a host of surrounding talent, including Toby Lewis (417,000), Kevin MacPhee (312,000) and Jason Mercier (295,000), Lang managed to rise to the top of the field and bag 694,000 chips at the end of the day.

Today’s session is currently in full swing and has already sent the likes of Tomas Gomilla, Nicolas Levi and Dimitry Grishin to the rail. Indeed, it was Grishin who became the most popular player in the room after his exit signalled the start of the tournament’s payouts.

Elsewhere in Prague, PokerStars’ Eureka main event whittled down its opening field of 652 to just 175 players.

With 72 players getting paid and €140,000 on offer for the winner, today’s action has already been enthralling. Indeed, one player who is still in contention (at the time of writing) is Ana Marquez.

In case you missed our exclusive interview with Ana, click here and here.

PokerStars to Buy US Casino

PokerStars are set to grow even stronger in the near future as they’ve moved to purchase another land based casino.

Having recently acquired shares in London’s Hippodrome Casino, the online outfit has now invested in the Atlantic Club Casino in Atlantic City.

Before the acquisition is completed PokerStars will need to have their casino license application approved; something which seems likely thanks to Atlantic City’s senator, Raymond Lesniak, being a supporter of online gaming.

It’s believed the takeover is a pre-emptive move by PokerStars ahead of proposed intra-state online poker licensing, which will likely require operators to be attached to a live venue.

The news is certainly a good sign for both PokerStars and the industry overall. Indeed, if they can establish themselves as a credible vendor in the US it may well help the fight for federal poker legislation.

A Mad Man Leads Genting Finale

The finale of Genting’s Poker Series got underway yesterday with 68 players anteing up £2,500  inside London’s Fox Poker Club.

At the end of the day the man out in front was circuit regular, Yucel Eminoglu.

Known as the “Mad Turk”, Eminoglu bagged a stack of 175,200 to finish the session ahead of Mo Kavi (166,000) and Elliott Panyi (150,800) and 24 other players.

Also making it through to Day 2 was some familiar faces, including: Neil Channing, Chaz Chatta and Ross Boatman.

Today’s second stating day  has already kicked off and is expected to top yesterday’s number of entrants.