It was a short Day 4 of action in Deauville, France, as the European Poker Tour determined the final 15 players in its Main Event.
The Day 3 action on Wednesday had whittled the field from 138 to the money bubble of 87, but that wasn’t good enough for the contenders in France. They continued on to the final 36, with Georgios Kapalas holding the chip lead for Day 4 play. Of most interest to the railbirds in attendance was former EPT champion Kevin MacPhee, who was only about 80K in chips behind Kapalas as the action kicked off on Thursday.
The plan for the Thursday action was to play down to two tables, but the rapid pace of eliminations threatened that plan early. Team PokerStars Pro lost its final player when Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, fresh off being named to Team France for the upcoming Global Poker Masters event, pushed all in and was looked up by Joseph El Khoury. El Khoury’s A-Q off suit had the edge against Grospellier’s K-J off suit and the ten-high board changed nothing, sending Grospellier to the rail in 31st place.
One of the other contenders in the early action was another former EPT champion, Ruben Visser, who was eliminated on what would be a controversial hand. After Lucas Monnier moved all in, Milan Rabsz made the call from the hijack and David van den Berg also just called off the button. Visser fired off a three bet all in over the top from the small blind, which started the festivities.
Rabsz called the Visser all-in and van den Berg then moved his stack to the center to put the pressure on Rabsz. After this occurred Monnier, thinking the action was complete, tabled his pocket pair of eights despite the protests of the dealer and the players. EPT tournament directors were called over and, after ruling that the hand remained exposed for Rabsz’ action, Rabsz folded despite have a sizeable stack of chips in the center. When the hands of Visser and van den Berg were tabled, they lined up as such:
Monnier: 8-8
Visser: K-K
van den Berg: A-J
Visser had the advantage pre-flop, but it was immediately crushed when the flop came down 10-4-A to push van den Berg into the lead. After a four came on the turn and a six hit on the river, van den Berg was the beneficiary of the double knockout of Rabsz and Visser to approach the million chip mark.
The players continued to fall after that unique hand, with several notables taking their leave. Miroslav Alilovic would depart in 22nd place and Day 1 chip leader Guillaume Darcourt would find the rail in 19th. Once van den Berg was dispatched in 17th place after Benjamin Buhr hit with his pocket sevens on a 4-8-7 flop against van den Berg’s pocket nines, the EPT officials were faced with a decision.
With more than 70 minutes on the clock and the final two tables reached, EPT officials decided to go on and play the level to its end. Over that remaining 70 minutes, only one player, Adrien Guyon, would be eliminated, leaving the final 15 positioned like this:
1. Joseph Carlino, 2.757 million
2. Carlo Savinelli, 2.565 million
3. Benjamin Buhr, 2.001 million
4. Dany Parlafes, 1.85 million
5. Matas Cimbolas, 1.621 million
6. Ognyan Dimov, 1.103 million
7. Andrius Bielski, 1.095 million
8. Benjamin Pollak, 877,000
9. Olivier Piechaczyk, 841,000
10. Massou Cohen, 641,000
11. Julien Duveau, 630,000
12. Georgios Kapalas, 585,000
13. Kevin MacPhee, 581,000
14. Joseph El Khoury, 415,000
15. Daniel Carlsson, 267,000
MacPhee was unable to get anything going during the Day 4 action, steadily watching his chip stack plummet as players stormed by him. Still, he has the proverbial ‘chip and a chair’ and bears watching on Day 5. If he is able to recover to make the final table – and win the tournament – he would join Vicky Coren-Mitchell as the only two-time champions on the EPT.
Day 5 will kick off from Deauville at noon tomorrow (in France, 6AM Eastern Time) when these 15 men will determine the six who will battle it out for the title on Saturday. Up for grabs is the latest title on the EPT and a nice payday of €543,700.