PokerStars EPT Prague Main Event Day 3: Bubble Bursts; Kitai and Selbst in Top 10
Day 3 of the Season 11 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event played out today after 200 players returned to action and aimed to make the money in the top 159. After five 90-minute levels of play, just 61 remained with Simon Mattsson and his stack of 1,790,000 leading the way.
Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Mattsson | 1,790,000 |
| 2 | Stephen Graner | 1,713,000 |
| 3 | Davidi Kitai | 1,364,000 |
| 4 | Jonathan Wong | 1,295,000 |
| 5 | Petr Jelinek | 1,191,000 |
| 6 | Militiadis Kyriakides | 1,178,000 |
| 7 | Bjorn Wiesler | 1,084,000 |
| 8 | Pablo Sanz Quiles | 1,075,000 |
| 9 | Francesco Grieco | 1,054,000 |
| 10 | Vanessa Selbst | 1,007,000 |
Mattsson became the chip leader in the second-to-last last hand of play when he and Miha Travnik had a raising war preflop and committed their chips. Travnik was in for around 300,000 and at risk holding the A♥K♦ against Mattsson’s 10♥10♦. The board ran out Q♥7♥5♥7♠2♣ to see Travnik miss all his outs as he was eliminated from the tournament. Mattsson would hold onto the slight chip lead with one more hand remaining in the day.
Not everyone was as fortunate as Mattsson on Day 3. Some who fell short of the money were Christian Harder, Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, and both Paul Newey and Brian Roberts, who finished second and seventh, respectively, in the €50,000 Super High Roller event that concluded earlier in the week.
When 160 players remained, the money bubble was in effect and hand-for-hand play was started. It took a fair amount of time, but eventually the bubble burst. It happened when Mustapha Kanit raised from the cutoff seat, and Christian Favale three-bet to 25,000 from the button. Kanit then bumped it up to 63,000, and the decision fell back on Favale. He tanked for a few minutes before sliding out 105,000 in chips. Favale was not too pleased when Kanit moved all in a few seconds later, but he reluctantly made the call and the cards were tabled.
Kanit showed the powerful A♥A♣, and those bullets had Favale's A♦K♦ in a world of hurt. The board ran out 3♥8♠6♥2♦J♣, and the Team PokerStars Online Pro exited as the bubble boy, ensuring the remaining 159 players a guaranteed €8,970 payday.
From there, the eliminations came in quick succession including Mickey Petersen (159th), Isaac Haxton (140th), Liv Boeree (118th), and Eugene Katchalov (63rd). Even though she didn't managed to make it to Day 4, PokerNews did catch up with Boeree to talk about her 2014 poker campaign, REG charity, and her love life:
Shannon Shorr (153rd), Olivier Busquet (82nd), Vladimir Troyanovskiy (79th), Mustapha Kanit (78th), and Thomas Muehlocker (64th) also fell as the day neared close. It was during this grind to the end of the day that others such as Davidi Kitai, Petr Jelinek, and Vanessa Selbst thrived — all three building up to over 1,000,000 in chips to finish the day.
Other notables managing to progress though to another day included George Danzer, Georgios Sotiropoulos, Dylan Linde, Sam Grafton, and Balazs Botond.
Day 4 of the EPT Prague Main Event is set to begin at 12:00 CET on Monday, and the plan is to play down to the final 24 players. Be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action straight from the floor of the Hilton Prague Hotel.
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