Martin Kozlov Leads 45 Hopefuls After Day 3
The third day of play in the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Main Event concluded after four levels of play with Martin Kozlov as the chip leader. Just 45 players remain going into Day 4, and non of them are former winners or Team PokerStars Pros. Kozlov had all the luck on his side today as he cracked aces with a flopped set and had set over set in another big pot too. He will begin play on Thursday with 1,351,000 chips.
Near the top of the chip counts we also spotted Swedish pro Robin Ylitalo (716,000), EPT live commentator and long-time Supernova Elite [Removed:17] (1,046,000), Day 2 chip leader Tudor Purice (825,000), and Australian super star Jeff Rossiter (601,000).
Day 2 started out with 106 players and just 87 would get paid. This meant that there would be some very sad faces exiting the tournament room empty handed. Former EPT winners Frederik Jensen, Davidi Kitai and Tom Middleton, Day 1a chip leader Maximilian Senft, Jackie Glazier, Kyle Julius and Paul Volpe all failed to make the money, and once the bubble burst it was Gaelle Baumann who got knocked out right away. The eventual bubble boy was Steven Lewzey who missed a flush draw with ace-ten of clubs versus Ziv Vachar’s pocket aces.
Belgian pro Kenny Hallaert had a very impressive showing in London this year as he cashed the UKIPT Main Event and placed third in the UKIPT High Roller won by Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst. Hallaert also cashed the Main Event but busted shortly after the bubble burst in 75th place (£9,080). Other players that min-cashed included Team PokerStars Pros Theo Jorgensen and Henrique Pinho but also EPT Grand Final High Roller winner Steven Silverman and Majestic High Roller winner Mike Watson.
It wasn’t all bad news coming from London on Day 3, as there are still a ton of famous faces with good stacks on Day 4. Rossiter notched up a big double knock out with kings versus jacks and eights, which launched him towards the top. Rossiter remained among the leaders throughout the day and will be one to watch tomorrow. Others that remain are Jan Sjavik (361,000), Sebastian Blom (216,000), WCOOP TLB winner Yngve Steen (190,000), Paul Berende (193,000) and EPT London Super High Roller finalist Timothy Adams (271,000).
Martin Kozlov played one of the biggest pots of the day against the successful Brit Chris Brammer. Brammer three-bet with aces from the small blind and was called by Kozlov who flopped a set. On the turn all the money went in and Brammer was knocked out in 63rd place. Kozlov did not look back after that and also knocked out Daniel Reijmer as the Dutchman was unlucky getting set over set against him.
The last remaining EPT winner was Season 7 London winner David Vaplew. Vamplew had a day filled with swings but eventually fell when he lost a coin flip versus Richard Yong’s son, Wai Kin Yong. Yong still has a good stack heading into Day 4 and he’s on his way to make his first cash in Europe a very big one.
November Niner Mark Newhouse was also in contention but he was also knocked out towards the end of Day 3. Ludovic Geilich, who ended the Day second in chips, knocked out Newhouse.
The day will resume tomorrow at 12:00 Noon BST. A field of 16 players, or two tables, will remain at the end of tomorrow and we will once again bring you all the live updates as we get one step closer to crowning a new EPT London champion!