Koutoupas Leads, Katchalov Still in the Running
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Day 4 of the PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event started out with 41 players. The goal for the day was simple: either play down till 16 players remain, or play five full levels of 90 minutes. It took 4.5 level in the end, now just 16 remain.
Ekrem Sanioglu started out as the man to beat. The Frenchman, originally from Turkey but living in France for 41 years, had 1.3 million to play with today. That was 130 big blinds, more than enough room for maneuver. Sanioglu turned out to like the maneuvering part a little too much. He splashed around with his chips and before he knew it they were all gone. Early on he tried to bluff JP Kelly. The English pro ended up calling with ace high, which was good. Sanioglu ended up busting in 28th place which still netted him €15,950.
Long before Sanioglu busted several other players had departed. EPT Season 8 Player of the Year Ondrej Vinklarek was one of the first to leave. He couldn't win the crucial coinflip against Jeffrey Hakim with ace jack to Hakim's pocket fives.
Around that time Sotirios Koutoupas made his first moves climbing up the leaderboard ladder. He busted Frenchman Michel Pomaret in a remarkable hand where he made a gutsy call. It turned out to be a great call, one of many on Day 4.
One time chip leader Dario Sammartino fell early on as well. His headsman was Tatu Maenpaa, another player, like Sotirios Koutoupas, that made a name for himself on the fourth day of play. The Finnish player busted Sammartino in a standard cooler situation where his ace-queen was good for the nuts on a board including a king, jack and ten. Sammartino had pocket kings for top set so that wasn't a particular showing of craftsmanship. Anybody who has watched Maenpaa play knows he knows his poker though, the Scandinavian turned out to be an ice cold killer at the table.
Ludovic Geilich got a horendous bad beat to finish in 34th (€14,010), Aurelien Soutchkov and Jonathan Abdellatif couldn't win their flips, and one crazy Iranian player limp reraise folded queens.
Not much later the biggest pot of the tournament commenced. Worth 2,535,000 (at that time four times the tournament average) played out on the feature table and it was a brutal exit for Robert Szecsi and made Tatu Maenpaa the overwhelming tournament chip leader.
Eugene Katchalov opened to 25,000, Maenpaa three-bet to 75,000 from the small blind only for Szecsi to four-bet to 185,000 from the big blind. Katchalov folded, but Maenpaa went into the tank. Both players started the hand with over hundred big blinds and Maenpaa elected to call.
On the 
flop Maenpaa checked to Szecsi who continuation bet 145,000, Maenpaa took a look at his cards, then announced all-in for 1,101,000 total and Szecsi snap-called. He was all-in for 1,063,000.
Maenpaa: 
Szecsi: 
According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator Szecsi was a 67% favourite to win the hand, however the 
turn meant that Maenpaa was now a 75% favourite to win the huge pot. Szecsi had some outs but missed them all on the 
river. Maenpaa had Szecsi covered but only just and the shell shocked Hungarian exited stage left; 30th for €15,950.
Last years 8th place finisher Jeffrey Hakim had to leave in 24th place. His ace king couldn't outrun Oliver Price's pocket fours.
EPT Loutraki winner Zimnan Ziyard was eliminated not much later. No two time European Poker Tour winner thus this tournament. He was crippled in a hand against Alexandre Amiel. On an 
board he called a 100,000 river bet from Frenchman Alexandre Amiel. Amiel showed 
, Ziyard mucked his 
in a cutoff versus button situation.
With just under 90,000 left he open raised some hands later to 85,000. Behind him was Carlo De Benedittis who shoved all in. The other players quickly folded and Ziyard made the call for a few 1,000 more. Ziyard showed his 
first. Again De Benedittis looked for some seconds to his cards. Again he made a checking motion with them, giving Ziyard a couple of seconds of hope. Hope of a flip, or even maybe the best hand? Nope... De Benedittis finally showed his 
and the dealer could start dealing a board. The fours of Ziyard found no help anywhere: 
. And just like that the EPT Deauville 2014 Main Event was free of former EPT winners.
With the elimination of Russian player Konstantin Tolokno in 17th place (€27,680) the tournament was done for the day. 16 players remain and we'll be looking to lose 8 more on Day 5 to make a final table.
Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov is still in. On Day 3 he was able to crush and dominate. On Day 4 not so much, he ended the day with slightly less than he started with. JP Kelly was able to grind his way up and besides the hero call we mentioned earlier, didn't do anything super spectacular. Both have enough big blinds, so look for them on the live stream tomorrow. Or will the television crew pick the table with chip leader Sotirios Koutoupas? The Greek finished runner up to Ramzi Jelassi in EPT Prague last season, and went deep last December there as well. Now he has 2,695,000 in chips, can he win it here?
The table draw is as followed:
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Tatu Maenpaa | Finland | 1,921,000 | 80 |
| 1 | 2 | Eli Heath | UK | 1,191,000 | 50 |
| 1 | 3 | Eugene Katchalov | Ukraine | 1,002,000 | 42 |
| 1 | 4 | Bahram Chobineh | Iran | 327,000 | 14 |
| 1 | 5 | Anthony Lerust | France | 839,000 | 35 |
| 1 | 6 | JP Kelly | UK | 1,807,000 | 75 |
| 1 | 7 | Rustem Muratov | Russia | 548,000 | 23 |
| 1 | 8 | Chun Ho Law | UK | 2,679,000 | 112 |
| 2 | 1 | Alexandre Amiel | France | 1,174,000 | 49 |
| 2 | 2 | Sotirios Koutoupas | Greece | 2,695,000 | 112 |
| 2 | 3 | Carlo De Benedittis | Italy | 417,000 | 17 |
| 2 | 4 | Dimitri Holdeew | Germany | 637,000 | 27 |
| 2 | 5 | Jean-Yves Malherbe | Belgium | 476,000 | 20 |
| 2 | 6 | Florian Ribouchon | France | 1,719,000 | 72 |
| 2 | 7 | Alex Goulder | UK | 1,365,000 | 57 |
| 2 | 8 | Oliver Price | UK | 1,275,000 | 53 |
Blinds will start at 12,000/24,000 with a 3,000 ante. Bahram Chobineh is the shortest stack, but he's having the time of his life. PokerNews' Felicia Field talked to him in one of the breaks:
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