Marcin Chmielewski Leads EPT Grand Final Main Event After Day 3
When play resumed for Day 2 of the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €5,300 Main Event, 196 players from a field of 1,098 entries returned to the tables at the Monte-Carlo Bay Resort and Pierre Calamusa was leading the survivors. Only the top 159 spots were guaranteed a payday of at least €8,890 and the bubble burst at the very end of the second level of play.
Aaron Gustavson raised on the button and Jinfeng Huo defended from the big blind. Huo open jammed 100,000 on the 
flop, and Gustavson called with the 
for a baby flush. Huo's 
for two pair had outs, but both 
turn and 
river blanked.
Just prior to Huo's bubble-bursting exit, John Juanda soft-bubbled after running ace-king into the pocket aces of Juan Etcheverry. Other big names to bust before the money included David Peters, Salvatore Bonavena, Mike Watson, Ilan Boujenah, and Javier Zarco.
Once the money was reached, the seats began to empty, as one by one players hit the rail and headed to the payout window. Jake Cody and Max Silver had to settle for a min-cash, Dominykas Karmazinas joined them, and Dimitar Danchev also busted.
Erik Seidel lost a flip with king-queen against the deuces of Vanessa Selbst, and then Davidi Kitai also went out. Other notables to exit before the end of the day included Paul Hoefer, Dermot Blain, Steven van Zadelhoff, Sam Chartier, John Gale, and Yucel "Mad Turk" Eminoglu.
After five levels of 90 minutes each, the field was reduced to just 74 players, and leading the pack was Marcin Chmielewski. The Pole, who finished 21st in the France Poker Series High Roller a few days prior, bagged up 1.314 million to claim the overnight lead.
Natan Chauskin with 1.107 million and Roman Korenev with 1.091 million were the only other players to bag seven-figure stacks.
Despite not hitting seven figures, there were plenty of big stacks still left, including Dario Sammartino (902,000), Thiago Nishijima (848,000), Erwann Pecheux (818,000), Adrien Allain (810,000), Fatima Moreira de Melo (807,000), Govert Metaal (704,000), Antoine Saout (626,000), Vanessa Selbst (616,000), and Randy Lew (455,000).
Day 4 will commence Wednesday at 12 p.m. local time with another five 90-minute levels scheduled. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there to cover all the crucial action, so make sure to tune back in when history is being written on the French Riviera.
Day 4 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Paolo Compagno | Switzerland | 241000 |
| 1 | 2 | Iacopo Brandi | Italy | 436000 |
| 1 | 3 | Antonio Rutigliano | Italy | 110000 |
| 1 | 4 | Benjamin Pollak | France | 486000 |
| 1 | 5 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | 195000 |
| 1 | 6 | Diego Zeiter | Switzerland | 183000 |
| 1 | 7 | Thiago Nishijima | Brazil | 840000 |
| 1 | 8 | Gun Taljo | Sweden | 388000 |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastien Lebaron | France | 99000 |
| 2 | 2 | Oren Rosen | Israel | 525000 |
| 2 | 4 | Fatima Moreira de Melo | Netherlands | 807000 |
| 2 | 5 | Neil Strike | UK | 156200 |
| 2 | 6 | Thi Xoa Nguyen | France | 670000 |
| 2 | 7 | Roman Korenev | Russia | 1091000 |
| 2 | 8 | Erwann Pecheux | France | 818000 |
| 3 | 1 | Kyle Frey | USA | 495000 |
| 3 | 2 | Pascal Faivre | Canada | 105000 |
| 3 | 3 | Loc Tu | Canada | 330000 |
| 3 | 4 | Ihar Soika | Belarus | 258000 |
| 3 | 5 | Marco De Vincenti | Italy | 134000 |
| 3 | 6 | Alexios Zervos | Greece | 700000 |
| 3 | 7 | Vanessa Selbst | USA | 618000 |
| 3 | 8 | Andrei Boghean | Romania | 476000 |
| 4 | 1 | Fabio Sperling | Germany | 800000 |
| 4 | 2 | Samu Riihela | Finland | 30000 |
| 4 | 3 | Jan Bendik | Slovakia | 576000 |
| 4 | 4 | Nikolas Menke | Germany | 85000 |
| 4 | 5 | Mohamed Aissani | France | 926000 |
| 4 | 6 | Erik Van Hoek | Netherlands | 376000 |
| 4 | 8 | Georges Hallak | Canada | 169000 |
| 5 | 1 | Juan Etcheverry | Argentina | 489000 |
| 5 | 2 | Ariel Celestino | Brazil | 311000 |
| 5 | 3 | Chris Dowling | Ireland | 493000 |
| 5 | 4 | Ruediger Weber | Germany | 137000 |
| 5 | 5 | Antoine Saout | France | 626000 |
| 5 | 6 | Tomas Jozonis | Lithuania | 233000 |
| 5 | 7 | Apostolos Bechrakis | Greece | 492000 |
| 5 | 8 | Hani Bahna | Canada | 285000 |
| 6 | 2 | Andjelko Andrejevic | USA | 181000 |
| 6 | 3 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 1107000 |
| 6 | 4 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 902000 |
| 6 | 5 | Albert Daher | Lebanon | 566000 |
| 6 | 6 | Omar Lakhdari | France | 230000 |
| 6 | 7 | Jimmy Guerrero | France | 750000 |
| 6 | 8 | Michel Abecassis | France | 151000 |
| 7 | 1 | Marcin Chmielewski | Poland | 1314000 |
| 7 | 2 | Asan Umarov | Kazakhstan | 301000 |
| 7 | 3 | Rintaro Kagawa | Japan | 580000 |
| 7 | 4 | Randy Lew | USA | 455000 |
| 7 | 5 | Andrea Rocci | Italy | 388000 |
| 7 | 6 | Nicolas Cardyn | France | 131000 |
| 7 | 8 | Oleh Cherepianyi | Ukraine | 234000 |
| 8 | 1 | Markus Durnegger | Austria | 226000 |
| 8 | 2 | Pierre Tilmant | Belgium | 271000 |
| 8 | 3 | Pierre Calamusa | France | 580000 |
| 8 | 4 | Koichi Nozaki | Japan | 383000 |
| 8 | 5 | Joseph Mouawad | USA | 205000 |
| 8 | 6 | Paul-Francois Tedeschi | France | 661000 |
| 8 | 7 | Ivan Soshnikov | Russia | 372000 |
| 8 | 8 | Aaron Gustavson | USA | 458000 |
| 9 | 1 | Benjamin Philipps | UK | 376000 |
| 9 | 3 | Fady Kamar | Lebanon | 103000 |
| 9 | 4 | Albert Sebag | France | 159000 |
| 9 | 5 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 461000 |
| 9 | 6 | Evangelos Terzoudis | Greece | 985000 |
| 9 | 7 | Jan Bengelmann | Germany | 667000 |
| 9 | 8 | Kiryl Radzivonau | Belarus | 331000 |
| 10 | 1 | Youssef Finianos | Lebanon | 112000 |
| 10 | 2 | Jason Gray | Australia | 287000 |
| 10 | 3 | Matthew Davenport | UK | 617000 |
| 10 | 4 | Adrien Allain | France | 810000 |
| 10 | 5 | Enver Abduraimov | Germany | 235000 |
| 10 | 6 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 313000 |
| 10 | 8 | Govert Metaal | Netherlands | 704000 |