PokerStars EPT San Remo, Day 4: Galic Stays Dominant, Heads Final
When the 32 survivors trickled in to the San Remo Municipal Casino to start Day 4 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT), most of them had two things on their mind: (1) “Can I make the final table?” And (2) “Can anyone stop Dragan Galic?” For eight of them the answer to the first question was “Yes”, and the answer to the second question was a resounding “No”, as Galic regained the chip lead midway through Day 4 to storm to a commanding position at the head of the final table by the end of the evening.
Fabio Mazzarello was the first player on Wednesday to have his final-table dreams shattered when he busted in 32nd place (€21,700). Mazzarello moved all in preflop with A♥Q♣, and big blind Dennis Bejedal made the easy call when he woke up with pocket kings. The board was an unremarkable 2♥8♥4♣10♥2♠, and Mazzarello’s tournament was done. Other early eliminations included Bulent Karsli (31st, €21,700) Matias Knaapinen (30th, €21,700) and Benjamin Kang, who busted in 29th place (€21,700) when he ran pocket nines into Danilo D’Ettoris’ pocket queens. All the chips went in preflop, and although Kang flopped an open-ended straight draw, he ultimately missed the board and headed home.
The bustouts continued at a steady pace until finally Steven Silverman was eliminated in 17th place (€26,300) to set up a redraw for the final two tables. After stumbling early, Dragan Galic regained his form and started off the penultimate tables with an elimination. Galic called Stefan Raffay’s open shove with A♣K♣, which led Raffay’s A♠5♦. Galic was ahead all the way, making the nut flush on the turn as the board ran out 8♦10♣3♣J♣ to that point, and Raffay’s tournament was over in 16th place (€30,850).
Kati Jerney became the last woman eliminated from the event when she busted in 15th place (€30,850). Jerney open-shoved with A♣8♣, and William Reynolds re-raised to isolate with 6♦6♠. The two went heads up to the flop of 4♠7♦K♣, and Jerney was in need of help to stay alive. The turn brought the 6♥ to give Reynolds a set and leave Jerney drawing dead. The river was the irrelevant Q♦ as Jerney headed to the rail.
After Dragan Galic sent Gianni Giaroni packing in 10th place (€78,800), the players condensed to one table for the final elimination of the night. It took well over an hour for that elimination to come, and finally it was Pierre Neuville who was the final-table bubble boy when he busted in ninth place (€78,800). Neuville moved the remnants of his stack into the middle before the flop, backing K♣10♠, and found more action that he was looking for when Gustav Sundell re-raised. No one else came along, and Sundell tabled Q♣Q♠ to leave Neuville drawing to a king or running clubs. The flop of J♦2♣A♥ killed any hope of a flush for Neuville, but left him with outs to a straight if he could pick up a queen. The 6♠ on the river was no help, and when the river brought the 10♦, both Neuville’s tournament and Day 4 of the Main Event were done.
As the players bagged their chips it was once again Dragan Galic with a big chip lead over his nearest competitor. The seating assignments and chip stacks looked like as Day 4 drew to a close:
Seat 1: Kalle Niemi — 641,000
Seat 2: William Reynolds — 2,531,000
Seat 3: Alex Fitzgerald — 721,000
Seat 4: Danilo D'Ettoris — 686,000
Seat 5: Gustav Sundell — 2,625,000
Seat 6: Constant Rijkenberg — 932,000
Seat 7: Dragan Galic — 3,098,000
Seat 8: Ovidiu Balaj — 625,000
Join PokerNews at 2pm San Remo (Italy) time for all the live updates from the final table as Dragan Galic tries to complete a run from Day 1 chip leader to EPT winner while seven competitors try to keep him from accomplishing that amazing feat.
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