EPT: London Day 3

Day 3 at the PokerStars European Poker Tour London stop was business as usual as the players took their seats at 1:30 p.m. GMT. The final 32 players in the £5,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event were all looking to make the final table of eight, with hopes of winning the £1,000,000 first-place prize tomorrow. Although, as it has become the custom on the EPT, there was a prolonged period of play on the telelvision table bubble to end the night.

Many shorts stack of note got their chips in early in the day, and they hit the rail just as quickly. Those players were as follows:

27: Sorel Mizzi (USA) -- £13,052
28: Ramin Henke (Germany) -- £13,052
29: Tyler Reiman (USA) -- £13,052
30: Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) -- £13,052
31: Beth Shak (USA) -- £13,052
32: Scotty Nguyen (USA) -- £13,052

Michael Martin was responsible for knocking two of the above players (Rabe and Mizzi) out of the tournament, but he was just warming up. The young American star tangled with Max Pescatori a short time later, and sent him home by winning one of he largest hands of the day to jump into the lead. It wasn’t until some time later that Anthony Lellouche joined Martin in the millionaire club.

While some players cruised with large stacks, most of the field was left in a no-man’s land where if they decided to raise, they might as well move their whole stack into the middle of the table and risk their tournament life as play approached the final table and the end of the night. This worked out well for some, mainly Alan Smurfit, Michael Tureniec, and Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki, who all parlayed short stacks into a final table appearance by the end of the night, and not so well for others, whose names you can read on the elimination list below.

9: Erik Sjodin (Sweden) -- £50,574
10: Frode Gjesdal (Norway) -- £50,574
11: Peter Busch (USA) -- £35,891
12: David Benyamine (France) -- £35,891
13: Christopher Wolters (Canada) -- £26,102
14: Gualter Salles (Brazil) -- £26,102
15: Max Pescatori (Italy) -- £19,576
16: Joseph Elpayaa (USA) -- £19,576
17: Robert Firestone (USA) -- £16,313
18: Peter Eastgate (Denmark) -- £16,313
19: Huseyin Yilmaz (Turkey) -- £16,313
20: Brian Green (Costa Rica) -- £16,313
21: Jonas Molander (Sweden) -- £16,313
22: Alexia Portal (France) -- £16,313
23: Carter Gill (USA) -- £16,313
24: Justin Truesdell (USA) -- £16,313
25: Ian Frazer (UK) -- £13,052
26: Joao Barbosa (Portugal) -- £13,052

Play ended for the night at 11:45 p.m. and the players bagged up their chips with an eye on tomorrow. Michael Tureniec turned his rally from a short stack into the chip lead by the end of the night, and he will be chased by an international lineup of strong professional players. Be sure to watch what happens at the final table live on the EPT Live video feed tomorrow on CardPayer.com, where you can also follow all of the action in live updates, chip counts, and photos.

Here is a look at the final-table seating chart with chip counts:

Seat 1: Eric Liu -- 1,308,000
Seat 2: Johannes Strassmann --434,000
Seat 3: Philippe D'Auteuil -- 476,000
Seat 4: Antony Lellouche -- 1,022,000
Seat 5: Michael Tureniec -- 1,331,000
Seat 6: Alan Smurfit -- 396,000
Seat 7: Marcin Horecki -- 309,000
Seat 8: Michael Martin -- 718,000

Here are the highlights of the day featured in CardPlayer.com’s live updates:

Erik Sjodin Eliminated in Ninth Place (£50,574)

Sjodin: A J
Liu: K K

Board: 6 5 3 10 J

Sjodin is eliminated on the hand in ninth place, and he will take home £50,574 in prize money.

Marcin Horecki Doubles Up

Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki moves all in preflop and Johannes Strassmann quickly makes the call. Their cards:

Horecki: Q 9
Strassmann: A A

Board: 7 4 2 9 9

Horecki hits a miracle in the form of running nines to stay alive and day 3 continues.

Max Pescatori was all in against Huseyin Yilmaz with pocket eights in the hole, and he needed some help as Yilmaz had made a pair of queens on a board of Q-10-2-A. Pescatori spiked a third 8 on the river and he doubled up to survive in the tournament and grow a large stack. Yilmaz was decimated after the hand, and the blow eventually led to his elimination in 21st place.

Pescatori Gets Coolered Big Time

Michael Tureniec Doubles Up Twice

Michael Tureniec has doubled up twice against Eric Liu to bring Liu back down to earth. First, the Swede spiked a king on the river, with J 6 6 7 sitting on the board, and K Q in the hole. Liu had held the lead with A 5 until that point.

A few minutes later Tureniec was all in once again against Liu, this time with K J in the hole. Liu held 8 8, and the board ran out K J 3 K 10. Tureniec was up to 333,000 after this sequence, while Liu was down to 438,000.

Sorel Mizzi Elimination Hand

With blinds at 3,000-6,000 with a 500 ante Michael Martin raised to 16,500 preflop from the button with a stack of 710,000 behind. Sorel Mizzi then reraised all in from the big blind for 71,500. Martin made the call and the players turned up their hands:

Mizzi: K Q
Martin: 7 7

Board: 5 4 3 4 9

Martin takes down the hand to take the chip lead, and Mizzi is sent to the rail in 27th place. He will take home £13,052 in prize money.

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