EPT12 Dublin: Dominik Nitsche leads final high roller of the festival

As I’m sure you know by now the EPT Dublin Poker Festival is the biggest of its kind to be held on the Emerald Isle. As is the custom at PokerStars’ EPT festivals the third and final high roller kicks off three days from the end of proceedings. Already this week we’ve seen big names with prior high roller success win the big events. On Sunday Mustapha Kanit took down the €25,000 High Roller and a day later Charlie Carrel triumphed in the ‘Single-Day €10K’.

After Day 1 of the ‘Three-Day €10K’ it’s a player who’s having an incredible festival who flew highest of all during the opening 10 levels. Dominik Nitsche finished runner-up to Carrel in the €10,000 Single Day High Roller. That result came just 24 hours after he’d won the UKIPT €2,000 High Roller. Those results combined earned him almost €300,000. That figure’s just shy of the 305,600 chips he accrued today, he was the only player to break the 300,000 chip mark. He leads the 80 players who’ll be back tomorrow. Given that reentry is open until the start of play we expect that number to swell considerably before another card is dealt.

Nitsche’s great week continuesIt’s not surprising that an event of this magnitude attracted a stellar field dripping with poker talent. There was a slight delay in play but by the time the first level ended the likes of Jared Jaffee, Timothy Adams, Sam Greenwood, Daniel Dvoress, Joao Vieira, Christoph Vogelsang, Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari, and EPT12 Dublin €25K High Roller runner-up Chance Kornuth had taken their seats.

Anton WiggThey were joined throughout the day by players busting out of the Main Event with Nick Petrangelo, Artem Litvinov, Pierre Neuville and Anton Wigg among those who immediately put €10,000 of their winnings back into play.

By the time the dinner break approached it was Connor Drinan who had risen to the top of the chip counts, he was the first player past the 200,000 mark and he led from the likes of Shyam Srinivasan, Luuk Gieles, Jason Wheeler and Jason Mercier.

Mercier doing what Mercier does bestThe American was one of just two Team Pros who entered the fray today and he enjoyed another good day at the felt. He won a big pot against Sam Greenwood to get his tournament moving in the right direction and steadily built throughout the day, he’ll be back for Day 2 with plenty, 189,300 to be precise.

Andre Akkari completed the duo and it was a mixed day for the Brazilian. By level three he was on his second bullet (he wasn’t alone). By the start of the final two levels though he had over 100 big blinds and was one of the big stacks. It doesn’t take long for a tournament to unravel and with 30 minutes left on the clock he had his coat on and was heading for the exit after jamming into Or Hedad’s made straight on the river.

Good day for GreenwoodWhen play restarts tomorrow they’ll be a chasing pack of poker sharks breathing down Nitsche’s neck challenging for the chip lead. Mark Radoja (280,000), Jerry Odeen (250,600), Sam Greenwood (248,300) and Ben Heath (240,300) finished just a few big blinds shy of Nitsche’s haul.

Swing and a miss twice for McDonaldBecause this is a single reentry tournament we can’t be sure that many of those who busted today are out for good as they still have the option to reenter. However we know for sure that as well as Akkari, Pratyush Buddiga, Jean-Noel Thorel, Ivan Luca, Jeff Rossiter, Max Silver and Mike McDonald are out of bullets.

By the time the bell tolled to signal the end of level 10 roughly 84 players from the 181 players (139 uniques and 42 reentries) had made it through to Day 2. A full list of end-of-day-1 chip counts can be seen here, but the seat draw will not be available until play has started due to reentry still being open.

Join us tomorrow starting at 12:30 GMT when Day 2 of the €10,000 High Roller continues.