2012 PokerStars.com EPT Sanremo Main Event Day 3: Inge Forsmo Maintains Lead
After two long days of poker, the players were treated to a relatively short day on Day 3 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Sanremo. A whole lot of excitement was packed into nearly seven hours of play. The two headline makers of the day were end-of-day chip leader Inge Forsmo, and the unfortunate player who became the bubble boy, Renaud Desferet.
Forsmo began the day as chip leader, then lost it for a while, but managed to abuse the bubble and finish strong to end the day with 1.021 million in chips. Not bad for a player who admits to having little patience in live tournaments, highlighted by the fact he was all-in with ten-high just 45 minutes into Day 1.
Chasing the likeable Norwegian are Angelo Recchia (851,000), Carmelo Vasta (844,000), Laurent Polito (717,000), David Vamplew (547,000), Alex Roumeliotis (505,000) and Isaac Haxton (488,000). The latter of these was set to be a top-three stack until he lost 375,000 from his stack on the last hand of the night.
From the cutoff seat with the blinds at 3,000/6,000/1,000, Haxton raised to an unknown amount before Eric Nhouyvanisvong three-bet to 34,000 from the small blind. Play got back to Haxton who reraised to 85,000. Nhouyvanisvong moved all in for 375,000, and Haxton called. Haxton showed the A♦K♦ for two overcards against Nhouyvanisvong's Q♠Q♣ in this flip for a 750,000 pot.
The flop was an interesting one with the Q♥7♦4♦ coming down; Nhouyvanisvong landed top set, but Haxton flopped a flush draw. The turn was the 6♠, leaving Haxton in need of a diamond on the river that didn't pair the board. The 2♣ came on fifth street, and Nhouyvanisvong won the huge pot to put an exclamation point on his day.
Also still in contention are Ludovic Lacay, Shaun Deeb, Matt Salsberg, Justin Bonomo, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Roberto Romanello.
Team PokerStars had a mixed day. The only player to make it through to Day 4, Luca Moschitta from Team PokerStars Online, will come back with 289,000.
There were three all-ins before the bubble burst, and remarkably all three players at risk had pocket aces. Michele Di Lauro, Maksim Semisoshenko and Samuel Panzica held their breaths, and all managed to survive. When Desferet made his move with A♦10♥, he was called by Michael Benvenuti with a stronger A♥K♥. The board ran out 10♣9♦6♦5♥K♦ to offer him huge hopes before the river washed all of it away.
Rupert Elder and Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree came back to Day 3 with dreams of breaking two records on the EPT — to be the first double EPT winner, and the first to claim two EPT Sanremo titles. Elder was one of the first to bust when his pocket eights failed to outdraw an opponent’s pocket tens. Boeree fared a lot better and managed to make the money before busting in 120th place when she lost a race to Mike Watson.
Those who finished outside of the money included Jude Ainsworth, Andre Akkari, Rob Yong, Pius Heinz, Sam Trickett, Jose “Nacho” Barbero, Bryan Paris and Kyle Cheong.
Players luckier than these who we will not see play on Day 4 include Chris Moneymaker (116th), Chris Brammer (115th), Ana Marquez (104th), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (91st), Fabian Quoss (86th), Stephen Chidwick (83rd), Ben Vinson (72nd) and Sam Razavi (70th).
The players will return at 1400 CET (0800 ET) on Tuesday where they will play down to 24 players are left. It is expected to be an even shorter day than Day 3 and, as always, the updates on PokerNews will be the place to be for all of the action.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
