PokerStars EPT London Main Event -- Day 3

We were four days into the 2009 PokerStars EPT London main event, yet for the first time, the players were finally getting a taste of the money.

The day began squarely on the bubble, with 111 players fighting to squeeze into the final 104 spots. The process proved to be far more painless than originally anticipated. Within minutes, the field was done to 105, and it only took a few rounds of hand-for-hand play before the bubble finally burst.

The unfortunate soul was a very short-stacked Piero Mormina, who moved all in from the cutoff for his last few big blinds. German pro Benny Spindler made the automatic call with J 8 and was racing against Mormina’s pocket threes. The board gave Spindler a rivered straight, and Mormina was sent off into the rainy London afternoon with nothing to show for his efforts.

Take a look at the bubble with PokerStars TV:

Watch EPT 6 London Day 3: Popping the bubble on PokerStars.tv

News spread quickly throughout the room, and the remaining players rejoiced at the notion that they were instantly at least £7,500 richer. While some were happy with the min-cash, others set to work, building their stacks into contention for the ultimate prize of £850,000, which will be awarded to the champion on Wednesday.

The first to make a big move up the leader board was Annette Obrestad. (pictured above left) The young Norwegian induced a huge overbet from Harri Suni just after the bubble and instantly called with a dominating A-K to Suni’s A-J. That pot gave the former WSOP Europe champion more than enough to survive and thrive on the day. She finished with 730,000, good for 16th place on the leader board.

While some moves came early, others managed to chip up very late in the day. WSOP champ Peter Eastgate (pictured right) fought hard all day on the short stack, but doubled through and later eliminated Tamas Lendvai to give his chances a nice jumpstart heading into Tuesday. Eastgate ended the day with 988,000, putting him in 10th place.

Those two notables got the job done, but it was an unlikely PokerStars freeroll winner who really shined throughout the day. It was clear to most who played with Michael Berry (pictured below left) that he was a bit green to the game. The biggest thing that stood out was that Berry had trouble counting his own chips and ended up keeping most of them in stacks of five, equally spaced out in front of him.

Nonetheless, the just-happy-to-be-here Berry won the biggest pot of the tournament when he doubled through Martin Gudvangen in a rather odd situation. Berry raised to 35,000 on the button and Gudvangen reraised to 96,000 from the small blind. Berry then reraised to just 175,000, and Gudvangen moved all in.

Here’s were things got a little odd. Berry, clearly indecisive and stressed about the decision facing him, flashed pocket kings to the crowd of media standing behind him and then started in on his opponent, asking questions and coming up with his own conclusions.

“Are we racing?” he asked. “Do you have queens? Big pair, then? Ace king? Ah, it’s the bullets, isn’t it? Will you show me? I’m going to have to call if you won’t show me.”

To be fair, this was clearly not a slow-roll situation. Berry simply overvalued his opponent’s hand. After a bit more time in the tank, he made the call and his hand held against Gudvangen’s suited A-Q, giving him a massive pot of 1.8 million, which is where he finished the day, sitting atop the field with the chip lead.

Other notables that still remain include Vivek Rajkumar, Theo Tran, Andrew Lichtenberger, Benny Spindler, and November Nine member Kevin Schaffel.

All 24 players will return on Tuesday at noon local time to battle down the final table of eight. In addition to Card Player’s regular live-updates coverage, we’ll be streaming EPT Live throughout the day, providing a televised look at the action.

Here are the chip counts heading into day 4:

Related Articles

Mandara Wins EPT Cyprus $10k For $709,285

Weis Continues Career Year With EPT Cyprus Triumph

EPT Cyprus: Gutierrez Wins Second High Roller Title

Most Viewed Articles