2011 PokerStars.com EPT Tallinn Day 3: Ronny Kaiser is the Chief
After five levels of play at Day 3 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Tallinn, Ronny Kaiser sits proudly atop the chip counts with 1,194,000. The day began with 63 players and ended with 24 — all still in the hunt for the €275,000 top prize.
It seemed that every time you wandered around Kaiser's table he was involved in a big pot, but none was bigger than the pot he won from the unfortunate Liutauras Armanavicius late in level 18.
Kaiser raised to 12,000 from the cut-off and Jani Sointula called before Armanavicius three-bet to 43,000 on the button. Kaiser responded by four-betting to 112,000, and after Sointula got out of the way Armanavicius moved all-in for approximately 300,000. Kaiser made the call.
Kaiser: J♦ J♥
Armanavicius: A♠ A♦
Kaiser was going to need some luck and boy did he get it.
Board: 8♣ 10♠ 8♥ 9♥ Q♥
Kaiser picked up his pocket jacks and kissed them as the dazed Armanavicius wandered off to find his pay slip.
Friday was all about the money because the top 40 spots were going to get paid. There were three all-ins before the bubble boy was finally crowned — unlucky Eric Friedmann. Stefan Jedlicka had moved all-in from the button for 84,000 and Friedmann called with a slightly shorter stack.
Friedmann: A♣ K♠
Jedlicka: J♦ J♥
Board: 3♦ 6♣ 8♠ Q♦ 6♦
The room delivered the customary round of applause as Friedmann took the lonely walk through the tournament area.
Five more people made it through to Day 4 with over half a million in chips: Grzegorz Cichocki (867,000), Jani Sointula (640,000), Sami Kelopuro (575,000), Vojtech Ruzicka (518,500) and Johan van Til (598,000). Van Til began Day 2 with a chip and a chair (albeit a yellow 5,000 chip) and in over two days he has turned that into over a half a million.
Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern and Team PokerStars Online Pro Anders Berg both failed to make the cut, but four PokerStars online qualifiers did: Michael Graydon (455,000), Stuart Fox (115,000), Oleg Epp (111,000) and Petri Vuolle (89,500). Vuolle qualified for €2 but has never played a live tournament before! Other notables to make it through were Praz Bansi (103,500) and Jeff Sarwer (156,500).
Play will resume on Saturday at 1200 EEST (0200 PDT) where 24 players will once again battle for the first prize of €275,000. Make sure you join the PokerNews team for all of the action.
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