From early position, Dmitry Yurasov came in with a raise to 26,000. It was folded to Daniele Colautti on the big blind. He threw in a three-bet to 76,000 and Yurasov made the call.
The flop came and Colautti moved all in. Yurasov had to make a decision for all of his chips as Colautti had him covered. The Russian made the call and the cards were on their backs.
Daniele Colautti:
Dmitry Yurasov:
Colautti had an overpair but was way behind against Yurasov's aces. The turn and river didn't change anything and Yurasov doubled up.
Davidi Kitai opened to 27,000 from the cutoff. Louis Cartarius three-bet to 71,000 on the button. Kitai shoved 242,000 all in and Cartarius called.
Davidi Kitai:
Louis Cartarius:
It was safe for Kitai after the flop and , but the dreaded fell on the river. His dream of winning a second EPT title came to an end, and Kitai let out an audible sigh. The Belgian mastermind finished in 22nd place.
Brian Altman had only just 130,000 left in chips. From the button, he pushed everything over the line. Elie Saad folded, but big blind Louis Cartarius quickly made the call.
Brian Altman:
Louis Cartarius:
Altman was on the brink of elimination. The flop did give him some extra outs, as he now had straight outs to go with the aces.
He paired up with the on the turn, but Cartarius improved to a straight. The river was a blank and Altman was on his way out. Cartarius scored his second knockout in quick succession.
At the feature table, Sergey Sergeev got it preflop all in for 584,000 against Ole Schemion. Sergeev was on the button in the hand and four-bet shoved against Schemion, who had three-bet him out of the small blind.
Sergey Sergeev:
Ole Schemion:
The Russian found himself in a massive hole from the start, and the flop made things even bleaker. The on the turn left Sergeev drawing dead, making the Barry Greenstein-esque on the river just for the show.
The field is on their second 20-minute break of the day. Three more players need to bust out before the day comes to a conclusion.
The last level caused another flurry of bust outs. Sarah Herzali, who started the level with only one big blind, was gone in the first hand after the break. Her nine-four suited failed to improve against Tomas Macnamara's queen-nine.
The redraw that followed did slow down the bust outs for a while and even Dominik Panka managed to survive. He was short after he doubled up Sergey Sergeev in the previous level.
Panka doubled up through Konrad Abela and Guillaume Diaz to get back to a healthy stack. Abela was left short and the last local hero busted in 24th place. It was Mats Karlsson that got the final chips of the last Maltese in the field.
Chi Zhang was the next one to go. He lost most of his chips to Ole Schemion and was knocked out by another German, Bastian Dohler. Zhang's pocket tens couldn't hold up against Dohler's ace-queen when the latter paired his queen on the flop.
Davidi Kitai finished 22nd in this EPT Malta Main Event. He got it in with pocket queens against Louis Cartarius' ace-ten, but an ace on the river ended his shot at a second EPT title.
Brian Altman followed him to the rail shortly after. Again, it was Louis Cartarius who pulled the trigger. Altman's ace-eight proved to be no match for Cartarius pocket jacks.
Sergey Sergeev was the last one to go. Just before the break, he ran his king-queen into Schemion's kings and finished in 20th place.
Ole Schemion is now the chipleader and has around 1,600,000 in chips.
Tomas Macnamara raised to 35,000 from middle position and Dmitry Yurasov defended his big blind. On the flop, Yurasov check-called a 40,000 from Macnamara. Both players checked the on the turn.
On the river, Yurasov checked, prompting Macnamara to bet 97,000. Yurasov spent nearly three minutes in the tank, before coming up with a check-raise to 310,000.
Macnamara saw no option but to fold, leaving the pot to the dangerous Russian.