Malte Moennig Leads the EPT Grand Final into Day 4

Day 3 of the 2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €10,600 Main Event saw the levels increased from 75 minutes to 90 minutes as the number of players involved decreased from 123 to just 41. It was an action-packed day for the EPT as the bubble was burst and numerous stars were sent to the rail while others were able to amass huge stacks with a €1.24 million first-place prize on offer.

Malte Moennig is the chip leader with 1,150,000. Moennig, a 27-year old from Cologne in Germany, won his seat in a 25,000 FPP EPT-Grand Final Qualifier online on PokerStars.com. After the end of play, he briefly spoke to PokerNews about how he'd finished at the top.

“At the early tables I had a really tough set up with tough competition, but it was quite easy going. I chipped up constantly. I won a big one with ace king but that was without showdown. And I won one with ace-queen suited against ace-jack right after I moved here. He hit a jack on the turn, but I hit a queen on the river.”

Elsewhere Ville Wahlbeck (283,000) and David Williams (253,000) are the last two players flying the flag for Team PokerStars Pro. Williams hit crucial double ups against both Philipp Gruissem ( against ) and then later when he flopped a straight draw against Talal Shakerchi's top pair and managed to turn a straight. Wahlbeck was not involved in as much open action, instead gradually chipping up throughout the day.

They did fare better than their fellow pro Andre Akkari, who had queens cracked early on and was unable to recover, while both Angel Guillen (86th) and Johnny Lodden (73rd) had to content with the min-cash of €19,200 – still a sizable sum. Lodden was surprisingly the only player from last year's final to make it into Day 3.

The bubble itself went on for around 45 minutes and while there were two players in the tournament with just a single big blind left, both would survive the bubble as on two different tables much bigger stacks clashed. On one of them, a player would bust, and it wasn't pretty. Kenny Hicks shoved all in on the turn of a board reading and Aghsin Rasulov called all in for less.

Hicks:
Rasulov:

Rasulov could only hit an ace on the river to survive, but a king arrived instead. Rasulov was eliminated as the bubble boy and everyone else went into the money.

With the bursting of the bubble, the exits came quickly and a multitude of big names were quickly making their way to the payouts desk. They included Salvatore Bonavena, Stephen Chidwick, Niall Farrell, Jason Duval, Sam Trickett, Philipp Gruissem, Talal Shakerchi, JC Alvarado, Nick Maimone, Igor Kurganov and Johannes Strassmann. EPT10 Player of the Year Ole Schemion was also knocked out, eliminated in one of thelast hands of the night.

Stacks who did make it through included [Removed:17] (599,000) on yet another deep EPT run; the experienced Dani Stern (454,000); and Scott Clements (797,000), who is looking for the title to complete poker's Triple Crown. Meanwhile, Noah Boeken (200,000) and Mark Teltscher (350,000) are the only former EPT champions still in the hunt.

Tomorrow the tournament will either play down to the final 16 players or five levels, whichever happens sooner. The €25,000 High Roller Event will also be starting tomorrow with another big field expected for the three-day event. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will return tomorrow to cover both events as the EPT Grand Final continues at noon while the High Roller will begin at 1pm (both local times). Be sure to join us then!