Day 4 Complete; One Table Remains
At precisely 2:00pm-or-so local time this afternoon, the cards went in the air, and there was no shortage of action right from the word "go". Before his chair had even gotten warm, [Removed:197] became the first player eliminated when his was dominated at the hands of chip leader Allan Baekke's . Baekke tallied the first knockout of the day, and that was a sight we'd get used to as the day progressed.
Day 1a chip leader David Wintersberger parlayed his quick start into a deep run this week, but his Main Event was cut short in 22nd place after running an ace into Brent Wheeler's pocket kings. Lee "Bill Ivey" Gaines followed him right out the door after taking into Johannes Holstege's .
The pace only quickened from there with the eliminations of Jim Collopy (18th place) and Richard Toth (17th place) in quick succession. EPT Kyiv champion Max Lykov was in the hunt for an unheard of double dip, but 13th place was as far as he could run his good fortunes this time around.
When Alexander Debus ran his into Johannes Strassmann's , his 10th-place exit forced the field to combine around the TV table and play for one more knockout to set tomorrow's official final table.
The unfortunate wooden spoon has gone to Dutchman Huub Verdonschot. In a tangle with Brent Wheeler, Verdonschot four-bet shoved with , and was met with bad news as Wheeler instantly called with the dominating . A rather dramatic board of signaled the end of Verdonschot's tournament and the end of Day 4.
The final eight are set, then, and among them is Team PokerStars Pro Johannes Strassmann. We've also got three online qualifiers left, looking to turn their small investments into a big payday by this time tomorrow. Everyone's looking up at the Danish juggernaut Allan Baekke, though. He started the day with the chip lead and never relinquished it, and he'll begin the final table in that same familiar position. Here's how the table sets up heading into the last day.
Seat 1: Russell Carson (3,463,000)
Seat 2: Alain Medesan (919,000)
Seat 3: Jonathan Schroer (972,000)
Seat 4: Johannes Strassmann (2,034,000)
Seat 5: Lukas Baumann (728,000)
Seat 6: Brent Wheeler (3,096,000)
Seat 7: Allan Baekke (4,688,000)
Seat 8: Daniel Van Kalkeren (396,000)
The festivities kick off at 2:00pm (or so) tomorrow, and we'll be right back on the floor to bring you the conclusion of this Snowfest fairy tale.