Day 3 of the inaugural PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Cyprus Main Event has reached a conclusion, with 53 players having advanced from the 155 that started the day. After five more 90-minute levels, Nathan Tetart has emerged as the chip leader and is the only player to have bagged more than three million, finishing the night at 3,465,000.
Tetart was under the radar early in the day but went on a tear in the last two levels, at one point knocking out Ege Guven with pocket-aces in a colossal pot that saw him surpass Jose Gonzalez Sanchez, who bagged the second-largest stack of the night (2,665,000) after enjoying the chip lead for most of the day.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Nathan Tetart | France | 3,465,000 | 231 |
| 2 | Jose Gonzalez Sanchez | Spain | 2,665,000 | 178 |
| 3 | Bart Lybaert | Belgium | 2,000,000 | 133 |
| 4 | Gilles Simon | Netherlands | 1,455,000 | 97 |
| 5 | Gerard Carbo | Spain | 1,380,000 | 92 |
| 6 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | 1,330,000 | 89 |
| 7 | Ricardo Tannoury | United States | 1,300,000 | 87 |
| 8 | Casimir Seire | Finland | 1,240,000 | 83 |
| 9 | Renat Bohdanov | Ukraine | 1,120,000 | 75 |
| 10 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russian Federation | 1,030,000 | 69 |
Sanchez started the day with an above-average stack but quickly skyrocketed up the counts after eliminating Benjamin Tessier, who had rivered a straight only to run into the nut-flush from Sanchez. From there Sanchez never looked back, eliminating at least five different players over the course of the day including PokerStars team Pro Parker Talbot. Sanchez has a previous career-best score of $19,689, coming 23rd in the €2,200 high roller at the 2023 EPT Barcelona. With all remaining players being guaranteed at least $18,700, Sanchez will simply have to make one pay jump during tomorrow’s Day 4 to surpass that record.
Bart Lybaert rounds out the top three, bagging exactly 2,000,000 to end the night. Lybaert began the day with an above-average stack and was on the right side of a brutal cooler later in the evening where Andrei Vavilonskii ran his pocket-kings into Lybaert's pocket-aces in a pot worth over one million chips. Lybaert is no stranger to success in EPT events, having recently made the final table of the €2,200 at the 2023 EPT Barcelona, ultimately bowing out in eight place in that event for just over $80,000. Lybaert has a career-best score of $432,856 and will require a top three finish or better to surpass that in this event.
Other notable players to find a bag for Day 4 include Kenny Hallaert (1,330,000), Carl Shaw (895,000), Dario Sammartino (855,000), Nicolas Chouity (745,000), Day 2 chip leader Gary Miller (640,000), Anton Wigg (300,000) and Day 1a chip leader Milos Skrbic (175,000).
Day 3 Action
EPT Barcelona champion Simon Wiciak was one of the early casualties of the day after running his flush draw into Kubanychbek Abakirov, who had flopped a set of kings, and failing to improve. Carl Shaw, who is coming off of a recent third place finish at the 2023 EPT Barcelona main event, also got off to a hot start today, at one point taking down a four-bet pot by overbetting the river in another early highlight. Shaw would later score a knockout on previous EPT Champion Steve O'Dwyer after the latter had become short-stacked.
Francisco Benitez hit the rail not long after O'Dwyer, getting the last of his chips in with an overpair only to run into Marc Foggin's flopped set of sixes. Not long after, Alex Kulev would hit the rail after moving in with a small pair and straight draw only to be snap-called by Gerard Carbo, who had flopped top pair and held to score the knockout.
Sammartino maintained an above-average stack for nearly the entire day, but in the last hand of the night ran into an unfortunate situation where he had turned a full house only for Bjorn Kozenkai to river quads. Sammartino correctly assessed the situation and managed to find a fold, with both players showing what they had after the hand, confirming Sammartino's fold had been correct and he had effectively lost the minimum.
The remaining 53 players are guaranteed $18,700 out of the $6,402,000 prize pool, with the eventual champion taking away $1,042,000, the gold-plated trophy, and the title of EPT champion.
The action on Day 4 kicks off at noon local time on Level 21 with blinds of 10,000/15,000 and a 15,000 big blind ante. The plan is to play an additional five levels as the field continues to whittle down towards the final table here at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow providing live updates from what has already been an historic event here in Cyprus.
