Day 4 Finished; Final Table Set
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
The early action was brisk to say the least, as the first hour of play saw a flurry of all ins. The majority of those confrontations would be won by the short stacks though, slowing the pace of eliminations despite the active play.
After about a half hour, the double elimination of Artem Litvinov and Michele Limongi opened the floodgates, and players would begin to make their exits at an increasing clip. After dropping four players in the first level, we would double that and send eight home in the following level. That left 20 players still in the field with Max Lykov still leading the way as the only player over 1,000,000 in chips.
We'd get down to our final two tables a short time after that with the pace of play still alarmingly quick. Americans Alex Fitzgerald and Andrew Malott would go out back-to-back in 14th and 13th positions, respectively to leave us with an all-European field. At that time, there were four players over 1,000,000, everyone chasing the 2,000,000+ stack of Alexander Dovzhenko.
By the time we hit the unofficial final table of nine, the chip disparity between the top and bottom halves of the field was becoming more pronounced as fourth-place Torsten Tent had about a 4-to-1 advantage over the fifth-place stack of Lucasz Plichta. It was shaping up to be an early night.
But it wouldn't quite turn out that way. An intense three hours of poker saw none of the nine willing to leave the table, despite an abundance of action. Finally, just less than four hours into nine-handed play, the long-suffering Michael Meyburg moved his chips in with
, racing for his tournament life against Vitaly Tolokonnikov's 
. A ten on the flop and no further drama would end Meyburg's day and send the rest of the players home to bed as well.Once again, we find Russian Max Lykov atop the pack, his stack of more than 2.5 million being well ahead of the seven men chasing him. Those last eight players standing will return tomorrow at high noon for the conclusion of this opening event of the PokerStars tournament season. We'll be here for every flopped straight, busted draw, and backdoor flush, so get some sleep and join us tomorrow as we crown our first-ever champion here at the EPT Kyiv!
Until tomorrow, we wish you a pleasant night from Ukraine.