In what turned out to be a rather quick day (considering the number of players that were involved), Day Four of the European Poker Tour’s stop in Sanremo, Italy is in the books with Jordan Westmorland holding court over the final two tables in the event.
Day Four kicked off on Thursday afternoon (early morning U. S. time) with Raul Mestre in the pole position for the festivities. He was joined by a host of contenders that included Jorma Nuutinen, Lukas Berglund, Olivier Busquet and three players who were in contention to become the first player to win two EPT tournaments, Vicky Coren, Dimitar Danchev and Michael Tureniec. Unfortunately, several of these names would be among the departed as the day’s action wore on.
The first to feel the sting was Mestre, who went to battle against Westmorland for a monstrous pot. Westmorland three-bet the action after a Mestre raise and, once Mestre called, the 2-8-6 rainbow flop brought another bet out of Westmorland of 55K. Mestre would call that and, after a Queen showed on the turn, called another bullet out of Westmorland’s gun. On a five river, Westmorland slowed a bit in checking but, after Mestre sent 260K chips to the center of the felt, Westmorland called and showed pocket Kings. Mestre, completely on a bluff, could only muster 10-9 (missed double gut shot straight draw) as the chips and the lead transferred to Westmorland.
Another early battle brought a double elimination and a new contender to the leaderboard. Dan Murariu pushed all in from early position and Alex Kravchenko, holding more chips, made the call. It got more interesting when Danchev decided that he wanted a piece of the action also, calling Kravchenko’s all in. When the cards were on their backs, it was obvious to see what the action was all about:
Murariu: A♣ Q♣
Danchev: A♥ K♥
Kravchenko: K♦ K♣
The board never brought anything of interest (other than a three way split pot) in coming down 4-6-5-3-4, earning Kravchenko the double knockout and pushing his stack up to 900K.
Busquet’s issues began in a showdown with Giacomo Fundaro. After battling back and forth with pre-flop raises, Fundaro got his chips in the center with pocket tens against Busquet’s A-Q. There was nary an Ace or a Queen on the eight high board, sending a sizeable pot to Fundaro and knocking Busquet down to 350K. Prior to the end of the level, Coren would chop a few chips out of Westmorland’s stack to bring him back to the pack a bit.
As the action moved onto the second level of the day, the players continued to drop. Busquet was unable to recover from his battle with Fundaro as he exited in 27th place. Kravchenko continued to paste his opposition in ousting Tureniec from the tournament after his pocket eights held up against Tureniec’s Big Slick. Once Westmorland continued to rout the field with his defeat of Dinesh Alt in 25th place, the players were down to three tables.
It was at this point that the tournament took a turn to a more glacial pace. It would take almost two hours before the field got down to 20 players with the elimination of Federico Cipollini by Coren and, after another two hours, Stefan Garbarino would leave in 20th place. After Rocco Palumbo (by Stephen Chidwick), Eros Nastasi (by Westmorland) and Ludovic Riehl (by Fundaro) were dispatched over about an hour of play, the final 16 survivors could bag their chips and book their tickets to Day Five with Westmorland holding a dominant lead.
1. Jordan Westmorland, 3.074 million
2. Raul Mestre, 1.776 million
3. Jorma Nuutinen, 1.564 million
4. Giacomo Fundaro, 1.46 million
5. Andrea Benelli, 1.34 million
6. Lukas Berglund, 1.088 million
7. Bruno Stefanelli, 1.044 million
8. Andrija Martic, 954,000
9. Stephen Chidwick, 833,000
10. Alex Kravchenko, 743,000
11. Andreas Goeller, 693,000
12. Vicky Coren, 535,000
13. Emmanuel Pariset, 465,000
14. Jeffrey Hakim, 422,000
15. Ariel Celestino, 376,000
16. Vincenzo Scarcella, 344,000
Westmorland – the only U. S. player remaining in the field – is in a dominant position, but there are a host of contenders behind him. Mestre, Nuutinen and Berglund have been playing excellent poker throughout the event and Fundaro, on his home turf in Italy, has surged over the past two days. Chidwick, Kravchenko and Coren are all dangerous players that, with a timely break, could move into contention.
The final 16 players are all guaranteed a minimum payday of €22,575, but they all have their eyes on the top prize. When the tournament concludes on Sunday, the eventual champion will walk away with €476,100 and the latest championship on the EPT circuit.