PokerStars EPT London Main Event: Former Champs Cody, Spindler and MacPhee Reach Final 16
After a short day that saw 36 players whittled down to just 16, it was German pro Sebastian Pauli who grabbed the lead with 2,674,000 chips in the European Poker Tour London Main Event. Pauli finished slightly ahead of former EPT Deauville champion and Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, who bagged up 2,291,000.
EPT London Final 16 Leaderboard
| Rank | Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Pauli | 2,674,000 |
| 2 | Jake Cody | 2,291,000 |
| 3 | Raffaele Sorrentino | 1,968,000 |
| 4 | Artur Koren | 1,865,000 |
| 5 | Jakub Mroczek | 1,623,000 |
| 6 | [Removed:119] | 1,465,000 |
| 7 | Gino Gabriel | 1,265,000 |
| 8 | Joao Vieira | 1,117,000 |
| 9 | Pablo Gordillo | 1,077,000 |
| 10 | Kevin Killeen | 906,000 |
| 11 | Yann Pineau | 900,000 |
| 12 | Kevin MacPhee | 869,000 |
| 13 | Jonas Lauck | 840,000 |
| 14 | Simon Deadman | 732,000 |
| 15 | Ognyan Dimov | 552,000 |
| 16 | Benny Spindler | 195,000 |
At the start of Day 4 it was Francis Foord-Brown who busted out holding a pair of eights versus Jonas Lauck's ace-ten. He was followed out the door by Team PokerStars Online's Mickey Petersen who exited when his ace-jack did not hit against the sixes of Artur Koren.
Another Team PokerStars Pro Online fell in 34th place as Italian Christian Favale could not beat Marko Neumann's flopped straight. Favale got his money in with an open-ended straight flush draw but the turn and river were mere blanks. Kai Herold, Sergio Aido, Leo Nordin and Fadhil Farag all busted out in quick succession followed by one of the most interesting hands of the day.
Team PokerStars Pro Online Marc-Andre Ladouceur had doubled up right at the start of the day but it did not turn out to be the start of something great for the French Canadian. After raising to 23,000 before the flop it was Cody who three-bet from his left to 58,000 and Ladouceur called. The flop brought out deuce-four-five rainbow and Ladouceur check-raised Cody's bet from 56,000 to 130,000. The turn brought the eight of diamonds and Cody called Ladouceur's bet 90,000. Cody then moved all in on the river when the jack of clubs popped up after Ladouceur had checked, and after two minutes Ladouceur decided to call. Cody had hit two pair with four-eight of hearts and that knocked Ladouceur out in 29th place for £13,000 as he had queen-jack of spades.
Cody was in full control after this huge hand that put him on 1.2 million chips, but that could not be said for Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo. The former Olympic field hockey champion lost a coin flip for her tournament life with nines against Koren's ace-queen and she fell in 28th place. Another Team PokerStars Pro player left the tournament area in 27th place when Liv Boeree couldn't mount a comeback after doubling up Alexander Trevallion. Boeree took home £14,800 for her efforts and also became the last women standing in this EPT.
After the eliminations of Marco Caza, Sven Wendt, Simon Taberha and Mark Neumann we were down to 22 players. After a redraw Cody and Pauli were moved to the featured table and they both put on quite a show while Trevallion was knocked out in 22nd followed by the EPT Barcelona ninth-place finisher Bram Haenraets in 21st place.
EPT champion Kevin MacPhee doubled up with 20 players remaining and he will return Friday with a chance to keep his double-EPT title hopes alive. Jareth East won't be returning tomorrow and neither will Zahi Harel as they left the tournament in 20th and 19th place.
With 18 players remaining Lauck hit a miracle runner-runner flush to keep his dreams alive followed by doubling his opponent, [Removed:119], back up when his set held up. William Chattaway ran his deuces into Joao Vieira's tens to finish in 18th place and minutes later it was Daniel Erlandsson who busted in 17th place to end play for the night.
Play will resume Friday with three former champions still in the hunt for their second title. Cody has a huge stack and comes into the fifth day as a real contender while Benny Spindler, the shortest stack in the field, and Kevin MacPhee, below average as well, need some more good fortune.
Make sure to tune back into PokerNews.com at 12:00 p.m. local time for the penultimate day of EPT London Season 11 as we play down to the Final 8.
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