Kevin MacPhee triumphed during Day 2 of the 2015 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Prague €10,300 High Roller event. He became the chip leader holding a total of 1,576 million in chips. Despite the tough competition, MacPhee managed to defeat all opponents. Now, there are only 18 players who have the chance to conquer the first place.
The second day of play lasted about 13 hours and during that time, MacPhee had to compete against proven poker pros including Vanessa Selbst, Daniel Cates and Davidi Kitai who occupied 6th, 10th and 13th places, respectively.
What makes this year’s High Roller event different from last year’s one is the impressive number of entries as well as the created prize pool of €3.15 million. As many as 47 places were paid, but some poker pros including Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Jason Mercier were knocked out at a very early stage and did not get anything from the accumulated prize pool. Henrik Hecklen, Jeff Rossiter, Frederik Jensen were also eliminated too early and did not get paid for their participation.
Former EPT champions also took part in this year’s competition. Anton Wigg and Andrew Chen were knocked out in 33rd and 31st places and captured €19,550 and €22,300, respectively. Vojtech Ruzicka, the last Czech in the competition, finished in 30th place and collected the amount of €22,300.
Fans and game analysts defined the table between Selbst and Cates the most intriguing one. The two pros played several hands one of which took 15 minutes or so. During the second half of the day, Selbst and Cates exchanged the chip lead on multiple occasions.
However, Stephen Chidwick busted to Cates and sent him to 23rd place. Cates was paid €28,420 for his efforts. Soon after Mike Watson was knocked out in 20th place and he collected €31,480 of the generated prize pool.
Felix Bleiker from Switzerland was the one to challenge the chip lead of Vanessa Selbst. Bleiker doubled through Alexandru Papazian and the latter was sent to 19th position. However, the double up for MacPhee determined his leadership and ensured Bleiker’s runner-up position.
The final day is expected to be exciting not only because MacPhee holds just 1,000 more chips than Bleiker, but also because of the presence of poker pros such as Italian Rocco Palumbo and Ihar Soika from Belarus. As for Canadian Luc Greenwood, he is currently occupying the 8th position after he showed superior skills to his brother Sam Greenwood.
