The final stop for the European Poker Tour before its season ending Grand Final reached its crunch point on Thursday with the final 17 players being determined at the Grand Hyatt in Berlin, Germany.
At the start of action on Thursday afternoon, 55 players still held out hopes of taking home one of the bigger titles on the EPT tour. The man who had been at the helm of the ship for the past two days, Aku Joentausta, was slightly ahead of Emil Ohlsson and Pascal Vos, while such better known players as Olivier Busquet, Kevin Stani, Liv Boeree and former tennis champion and Team PokerStars Pro Boris Becker all lurked behind. After a Day Three that saw the field cut by nearly two-thirds, it was expected that the action would not let up as the final table approached.
Coming in as a short stack, former EPT champion Sandra Naujoks was one of the first players to go after pushing her K-J off suit into Ramil Yusupov’s trumping K-Q off suit. The board would come ten-high, pushing Yusupov’s Queen into action and sending the German champion to the sidelines within minutes of the opening bell.
Boeree would have a tough time of it during the early action also. She would try to push out Daniel-Gai Pidun on a flop and turn of 8-K-6-J with a bet but, after Pidun moved his stack to the center of the felt, Boeree had to give up her hand. Still sitting on slightly more than 210K, the news would continue to get worse for Boeree.
A few hands later, Boeree would open up the action only to see Natalie Hof move all in for around 150K herself. After some thought, Boeree made the call and found she was racing Hof, Boeree’s A-K against Hof’s pocket eights. The board never provided much hope for Boeree, coming down J-7-7-3-Q and, left with scraps from her start of day stack, went out two hands later when Stani’s 9-4 found a nine against her K-10.
As Boeree and Becker left the action, it seemed the rich got richer. Joentausta would eliminate Day 1A chip leader Ronny Voth from the tournament to push his stack to the 1.2 million mark, only to give some of those chips to Philippe Barouk to make him healthier. Joentausta would continue to bleed off chips before he was eliminated from the tournament by the man who would go on to finish off the day as the chip leader, Roman Herold, in what some might call a bit of a bad beat.
After Joentausta opened up the betting, Pidun called from the small blind and the big blind Herold three bet the action to 79K. After both Joentausta and Pidun made the call, an A-6-5 flop hit the felt, bringing another bet from Herold and just calls from Joentausta and Pidun. On the nine turn, Pidun checked again and Herold fired a second bullet for 267K, but Joentausta stunned many with an all-in move for 560K. That was enough for Pidun, but Herold looked him up to put Joentausta’s tournament life on the line.
The news wasn’t good for Joentausta; his A-J, which he could conceivably think was the best hand, was behind the flopped two pair of Herold’s A-6 going to the river. Looking for a nine or a Jack, the river seven failed to bring any help, eliminating Joentausta from the tournament and catapulting Herold to the lead.
Save for a few moments over the remainder of the evening’s action, Herold was at the top of the ladder of the Day Four play and will start in that position comfortably on Friday, although there are some challengers that might be within striking distance.
1. Roman Herold, 4.485 million
2. Dashgyn Aliev, 3.931 million
3. Khiem Nguyen, 2.788 million
4. Alexander Helbig, 2.04 million
5. Robert Haigh, 1.659 million
6. Yasar Guden, 1.619 million
7. Julian Thomas, 1.4 million
8. Robert Auer, 1.38 million
9. Daniel-Gai Pidun, 1.191 million
10. Roman Korenev, 1.186 million
Below the Top Ten, Stani (862K) and Busquet (736K) are still in the mix, while Barouk will start the day from the short stack at 531K.
The players will come back on Friday afternoon in Berlin (early morning Eastern Time) to play down to the final table. Each player left in the event is guaranteed to walk out with at least €27,000, but all eyes are set on the €880,000 that will be awarded on Saturday along with the latest championship on the EPT’s Season Nine schedule.