European Poker Tour Snowfest -- Day 3Day 3 Witnesses Loss Of Many Big Names Leaving 24 Hopefuls Standing |
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The PokerStars European Poker Tour Snowfest had to lose a total of 57 players on day 3 to get down to three tables, but the field only had to lose nine to reach the money.
The slopes and chalets of Saalbach-Hinterglemm acted as a backdrop to a crucial day for many. Firstly, the hopes for a double winner were sliced in half when Team PokerStars Pro player Sebastian Ruthenberg hit the rail just outside of the money bracket.
It was Pontus Nima Khosravi who did the job nobody wanted to do and popped the money bubble, leaving in 73rd place with a consolation prize from Florian Wolf, co-owner of the Alpine Palace Hotel. Khosravi can now only look forward to the distraction of a helicopter ride around the Austrian Alps, that is unless he hops into a side event.
Not too long after his departure, when the event had lost just six players, the chance of a double title, and in fact a back-to-back title, was lost. After attempting to recover from a damaging run-in with Vladimir Geshkenbein and his A-K, Michael Tureniec found himself up against A-K once again after a four-bet shove all in, this time it was versus Morten Mortensen. Tureniec turned over Q
J but the board brought no love and he busted in 65th place for a €5,250 min-cash.
Fatima Moreira de Melo followed the Swede out shortly after when her A-Q missed the board versus Philip Meulyzer and his pocket deuces, which were enough to put the PokerStars Team pro out in 56th place for €6,000, her first EPT main event cash.
Many had high hopes for her fellow team-mate Luca Pagano with the Italian kicking off the day seventh in chips, however he was knocked out in 51st place for €6,000, which also means he falls just short of reclaiming the top spot of the EPT All-Time leader board, which currently belongs to fellow team pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.
Pagano bet 15,000 from early position and the big blind Domantas Klimciauskas moved all in. Pagano thought about it and eventually moved the rest of his stack in. It was A-K that fired the fatal shot once again in the event, as Pagano’s K
Q could not improve. Pagano can celebrate one thing however, his record-smashing 18th EPT cash.
The sole Team PokerStars pro left among the 24 heading into day 4 is Alex Kravchenko. The Russian’s deepest run on the Tour was at EPT Baden in 2007, so it could be said he is extremely hungry for the €390,000 first-place prize he has managed to close in on so far. He sat in 16th place in chips at close of play with 379,000. His neighbour on the leader board is day 1A chip leader Martins Adeniya. The Brit ended the day in 15th place with 402,000.
But that’s a long way off the stack of the player making the most waves throughout the day. Giacomo Maisto caught Domantas Klimciauskas bluffing on the river of a board reading 5
5
3 J 8. Klimciauskas moved all in for the best part of 300,000 and after some thought, Maisto called with Q J. It was an important pot for the Italian as he improved his stack to 1.4 million.
Not too long after this big hand, Maisto was at it again. This time against Pieter Druif. The Italian held A-10 and was up against the pocket jacks of Druif, who he had well covered. All the money went in on the 10 7 5 flop, but it wasn’t to be for Druif as the turn came the 10 and the river brought the icing on the cake, the A.
Play came to an end soon after and Maisto was confirmed chip leader with just over 1.5 million.
Here is the top 10 going into day 4:
Giacomo Maisto (Italy) 1,548,000
Iulian Ruxandescu (Romania) 1,281,000
Cristian Tardea (Romania) 983,000
Hans Erlandsson (Sweden) 930,000
Cristian Dragomir (Romania) 895,000
Vladimir Geshkenbein (Russia) 889,000
Kevin Vandersmissen (Belgium) 803,000
Koen De Visscher (Belgium) 768,000
Philip Meulyzer (Belgium) 762,000
Morten Mortensen (Denmark) 674,000
Follow CardPlayer’s recaps to find out who has made it to the final table and catch the action as it happens live via the PokerStars blog feed. Be sure to check back shortly for the EPT Live video.
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