After starting Day 4 as one of the shortest stacks left in the tournament, Great Britain’s Jack Salter has been able to rise from the ashes. Using the last two days, Salter will be at the head of the pack for the final table of the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final when play resumes on Friday.
Salter’s stunning rise on Day 4 saw him sitting in third place when the Day 5 action began on Thursday. His 1.75 million chips were behind only Martins Seilis (1.767 million) and Kenny Hicks (2.499 million) when Day 5 play began with 17 players remaining. Among those that were under the watchful eyes of railbirds was former EPT champion Mark Teltscher, looking to make it back-to-back tournaments in which a former EPT champion would win their second EPT title (of course, AFTER Vicky Coren-Mitchell took down the EPT Sanremo last week).
The action kicked off immediately as the shorter stacks looked to get back in the tournament. Steven Silverman saw Magnus Karlsson opened the betting in front of him and responded with a push for his last 315K in chips. Silverman didn’t count on Mayu Roca in the blinds calling his bet and, after Karlsson rapidly shot his cards to the muck, the race was on between Silverman’s A-J and Roca’s pocket Queens. It wasn’t much of a race, however, as the board came with two pair, 7-7-2-3-3, to keep Roca in the lead and send Silverman out in 17th place.
After a redraw for the final two tables, the casualties continued to mount. Matias Ruzzi was eliminated by Antonio Buonanno when Ruzzi’s A-Q couldn’t catch up to Buonanno’s pocket Kings on a ten high board, then Nikita Nikolaev dropped at the hands of Roca when Nikolaev’s pocket tens got coolered by Roca’s pocket Queens. When Nicholas Petrangelo was taken down by Roca in fourteenth place (putting Roca in the lead), the tournament was left with only five players to go to reach the official final table.
They should have put a revolving door on the exits of the Monte Carlo Casino as the players continued to drop from the festivities. Ivan Soshnikov was drawing extremely thin with his A-K against Vasili Firsau’s pocket Aces and, after a 3-7-3-2 flop and turn, he was drawing dead and out in thirteenth place. The dream of Teltscher of joining Coren-Mitchell in the EPT history books ended with his elimination in 12th place at the hands of Sebastian von Toperczer.
While the players continued to file out of the tournament arena, Salter began to make his move against Roca. On a 4-2-A-10-J board with over a million chips at stake, both would check the river and turn up two unlikely hands. Roca may have thought that his A-5 was good, but Salter turned up an A-6; with the six stunningly playing in the mix, Salter took down the massive pot and pulled to nearly even with Roca.
Firsau, who finished this same event last year in tenth place, would perform that feat again in getting the field down to the final table bubble. After Salter pushed out a bet in front of him, Firsau plopped his remaining stack of slightly more than a million chips in the center of the baize. Salter immediately called, turning up pocket Jacks for the fight against Firsau’s A-10. Nothing that Firsau needed came on a 4-8-Q-6-K board, sending Firsau away from Monte Carlo in tenth place for the second time in two years.
After redrawing for the final table, the players took little time in getting to the end of the day. On one of the first hands after the redraw, Seilis three-bet for his stack over a von Toperczer raise only to see Salter move all in over his three-bet. Once von Toperczer backed away from the fight, Salter’s A♣ J♣ was behind Seilis’ A-Q off suit and it initially looked as if Seilis would get back in the battle. A 3♣ K♦ 4♣ opened some more doors for Salter, but Seilis would dodge them on a 4♥ turn. He wasn’t able to get past the river, however, where the K♣ landed to give Salter the nut flush and the chip lead heading to Friday’s final table.
1. Jack Salter, 5.17 million
2. Mayu Roca, 4.625 million
3. Magnus Karlsson, 2.595 million
4. Antonio Buonanno, 2.065 million
5. Kenny Hicks, 1.875 million
6. Sebastian von Toperczer, 1.24 million
7. Malte Moennig, 1.15 million
8. Sebastian Bredthauer, 755,000
The tenth season of the European Poker Tour will conclude on Friday with one of these men becoming the next Grand Final champion. Along with that honor of joining such players as Rob Hollink, poker “Triple Crown” winner Gavin Griffin, Nicolas Chouity, Mohsin Charania and Steve O’Dwyer as EPT Grand Final winners, tomorrow’s eventual champion will take down a €1.24 million payday.
