All the Duda Day... Duda Leads as 61 Make It Through Day 3
The 2012 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event continued today as the final 207 from a 1,082-player field returned to the Casino Barcelona for Day 3 action. After five levels of play, the money bubble had burst and just 61 players remained. Leading the way into Day 4 was Antonin Duda, who bagged up 1.47 million.
Duda got the vast majority of his chips by battling Guy Bachar, the Day 1b chip leader. The latter carried his starting-flight momentum into Day 2 where continued to add to his stack, and he was trending upward early on Day 3 until he hit a major roadblock when he sent over half his chips to Duda. A short time later, Duda finished the job and sent Bachar to the payout desk in 77th place.
Long before Duda went on a tear, the field was set to lose 47 players in order to get down to the money. Barry Greenstein, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Theo Jorgensen were among the Team PokerStars Pros who left empty handed. Saar Wilf, Elisabeth Hille, Ronnie Bardah and Sam Holden joined them as other notables bounced to the rail before the money.
On the money bubble, and only a few minutes into hand-for-hand play, Australian Jonathan Karamalikis called Aliaksei Boika’s all-in bet of 37,500 from the cutoff seat. Players, media and TV crew members surrounded the table to catch the action as the hands were tabled:
| Boika |   |
| Karamalikis |   |
The dealer burned the first card and put out the 
flop — nothing for Boika. The 
on the turn and 
on the river were no good, either, and he became the official 2012 EPT Barcelona Main Event bubble boy, guaranteeing the remaining field at least €8,400.
After Boika bubbled, the eliminations came fast and furious. Team PokerStars Pros João Nunes (157th - €8,400), Angel Guillen (153rd - €8,400) and Henrique Pinho (137th - €8,400) were just a few of the players to notch min-cashes, while Daniel Negreanu (118th - €9,950), Ana Marquez (115th - €9,950) and Juan Manuel Pastor (92nd - €11,550) finished with higher pay grades.
Other in-the-money finishers included Jason Wheeler (141st - €8,400), Petter Northug (136th - €8,400), Mohsin Charania (123rd - €8,400) and Jake Cody (113th - €9,950).
While many notables failed to survive, quite a few were among those moving towards Day 4 including Day 2 chip leader John Juanda (968,000), online sensation Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies (1,269,000), the 2012 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final runner-up Lucille Cailly (902,000), Day 1a chip leader Aku Joentausta (862,000), and Team PokerStars Pros Fatima Moreira de Melo (955,000) and Matthias De Meulder (116,000).
Top Ten End-of-Day 3 Chip Counts
| Player | Count |
|---|---|
| Antonin Duda | 1,470,000 |
| Samuel Rodriguez | 1,416,000 |
| Ilari Sahamies | 1,269,000 |
| John Juanda | 968,000 |
| Fatima Moreira de Melo | 955,000 |
| Zimnan Ziyard | 940,000 |
| Marcos Fernandez | 926,000 |
| Lucille Cailly | 902,000 |
| Felix Kretchmann | 867,000 |
| Aku Joentausta | 862,000 |
Day 4 of the 2012 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona Main Event is set to kick off at 12:00 CET (06:00 EST). The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand at the Casino Barcelona to bring you all the hands and eliminations as they happen as the field plays down to the final 24 players.
To hold you over until tomorrow's action, check out the latest edition of The Straddle with Kristy Arnett and Lynn Gilmartin.