2016 EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 4: Sebastian Malec Ascends
With 24 players remaining, Sebastian Malec leads the field as just three tables of players head to Day 5 of the 2016 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona Main Event.
The day started with a flurry of action, bringing the field down from 98 players to 75 in the first level. We lost Van Hiep Tran, Tobias Revenas, and Padraig O'Neill before we knew it, and they were swiftly followed out of the door by players such as Jerome Sgorrano, Ping Liu and Daniel Tang, whose 7♥7♦ lost to Pavel Veksler's 10♣10♦.
They weren't the only players to exit in their droves, as big names continued to fall on Day 4. Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier and Team Online PokerStars Pro Mikhail Shalamov both took to the exits, ahead of Eugene Katchalov and Sam Grafton, who almost lasted the day before his hopeful move with A♦3♦ ran into the monster hand of Q♠Q♦ for Anthony Chimkovitch.
Chimkovitch was one of several players who looked certain to run up a huge lead only to crash into a brick wall just when the opportunity to do so arose. He was desperately unlucky not to eliminate Alexandru Baron when Baron's pocket tens spiked a set when committed pre-flop against Chimkovitch's pocket aces.
After exits for top professionals such as Byron Kaverman and local players such as Daniel Luis, who has now cashed twice in this EPT festival, we made it to 24 players. Sebastian Malec leads the way with 5,640,000, a huge chunk of chips clear of second-placed Uri Reichenstein with 3,870,000.
Tomorrow will see us bring the field from 24 players to our final eight. One of those will be crowned EPT Barcelona Main Event Champion for 2016 and pocket a cool €1,122,800!
Join us at 12 p.m local time tomorrow for all the action as the PokerNews team continue to bring you all the drama, tension, and excitement until a winner lifts the trophy on Sunday evening.
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