The European Poker Tour is, like its counterpart in the World Poker Tour, also playing out their next to last event of their Season Ten schedule. The 2014 PokerStars.it EPT Sanremo Main Event has completed its Day Three play earlier this afternoon (U. S. time) with Spain’s Raul Mestre holding down the top slot over the 39 players that remain.
115 runners came to the line on Thursday afternoon, looking to crack the money bubble (79 players) and get down to a reasonable number for Day Four’s play down day. Lukas Berglund was in the lead for the start of action on Thursday, but he faced challenges from Mestre, Olivier Busquet, Alessandro Meoni and Dimitar Danchev, among others. With 36 players leaving Italy empty-handed, the players went to battle quickly.
Some of the casualties from the early play were among some of the most notable names in the game. Mickey Peterson, Paul Berende, former World Champion Pius Heinz, former EPT Grand Final champion Nicolas Chouity and Mark James were among the departed, with James ending up as the “bubble boy” once Mitch Johnson’s pocket nines bested James’ A-Q after flopping another nine for a set.
Following a break after James’ elimination, one of the more entertaining players to watch was the lone female left in the field, former EPT champion Vicky Coren. She would get a key double up through Ariel Celestino to push her stack near the 200K mark and would double again through Dan Murariu when her A-Q hit on the flop against Murariu’s pocket Kings. At that point, Coren was sitting on 350K in chips and in good shape.
A couple more hands against Murariu and Michael Telker kept the roll going, but she would sacrifice some chips to Tom Alner when his A-Q caught up to her Big Slick. That didn’t seem to deter Coren – who has cut back a bit on her tournament play – as she continued to power on in besting Mestre with a nut flush to crack the 500K mark. She would ride that stack to eventually end up the day at 455K in chips and the potential to become the only two-time winner in EPT history.
Although he might have come up short once against Coren, Mestre was otherwise dominant throughout the day. Stacking up 942,000 in chips by the end of the night, he is able to rest knowing that he is in the driver’s seat as Day Four looms on the horizon.
Raul Mestre, 942,000
Andrija Martic, 885,000
Jorma Nuutinen, 852,000
Lukas Berglund, 851,000
Olivier Busquet, 806,000
Andrea Benelli, 721,000
Eros Nastasi, 711,000
Jeffrey Hakim, 651,000
Andreas Goeller, 643,000
Jordan Westmorland, 638,000
While these final 39 are going to take the lion’s share of the prize pool, such notables as Jan Sjavik, Victor Ramdin, Roberto Romanello, Johnny Lodden, Alex Bilokur and Dominik Nitsche have already collected at least €8434 for their efforts.
Day Four should prove to be an exciting one. Along with Coren, Danchev and Michael Tureniec are also looking to become the first two-time champion in EPT history. Coren and Mestre will once again be on the same patch of felt (the duo battled it out for the first-ever International Federation of Poker’s “The Table” championship in 2011), while Danchev will have to watch out for Alex Kravchenko and Turneiec has to contend with Stephen Chidwick. It sets up for what could be a long Day Four of action as the 39 players have to play down to the EPT final table of eight for Saturday’s conclusion.