With the tournament on break in real-time, the 30-minute delayed live stream was still in full swing.
Ramon Colillas put his last 5,000 chips in the middle in early position with A♥K♣ and Arunas Sapitavicius raised to 35,000 in the hijack with 10♥9♥. Markkos Ladev reraised to 105,000 on the button with 10♣10♦ and Sapitavicius called.
The flop came K♠8♦6♠ and Sapitavicius check-called a bet of 60,000 from Ladev. The 2♦ rolled off on the turn and both players checked to the 7♣ on the river. Sapitavicius rivered a straight and led out with a bet of 250,000 into the side pot. Ladev made the call and Sapitavicius took down both the side and main pot to eliminate Colillas.
Arnaud Enselme opened to 35,000 from the hijack and Stefan Huber three-bet jammed a stack of 315,000 from the small blind. Enselme used a time bank and called with a bigger stack.
Stefan Huber: A♣J♦
Arnaud Enselme: 7♣7♠
Huber was out of his seat as the dealer showed a seven in the window as the flop landed 2♣K♥7♥ and the board finished out 4♥Q♣ to confirm Huber's elimination.
Jason Wheeler opened to 35,000 in early position and Nicola Grieco defended out of the big blind.
Grieco checked dark on the K♣3♠6♠ flop and Wheeler continued for 40,000. Grieco called. Grieco checked again on the 10♥ turn and Wheeler checked back.
Grieco led out for a small 25,000 on the 9♦ river and Wheeler raised to 140,000. Grieco called. Wheeler showed just ace-high with A♣J♦ and Grieco happily slammed down 9♣3♣ to take the pot with two pair and began celebrating loudly in Italian.
"Brick river, you go bye-bye," Wheeler said in a fake Italian accent. "Two pair and you're going to talk shit? I'll bust you like I did last year."
"We are even now," said Grieco.
"Except that was a 1.1 million-chip pot," replied Wheeler. "I spanked you like a puppy."
Maduka Meragal raised it up from the cutoff and Mark Teltscher defended from the big blind. The flop came 6♦5♣4♣ and both players checked to the 5♥ on the turn.
Teltscher checked again and Meragal fired out a delayed continuation bet. Teltscher called and the 7♣ hit the river. Teltscher shipped all in for around 200,000 on the river and Meragal flicked in a chip to call.
Teltscher sat in his seat stunned while Meragal flipped over 3♥3♦ for a straight. Teltscher eventually flipped over Q♦J♣ before he exited the tournament area.
Vicente Delgado opened to 30,000 from the hijack and Patrick Beuter and Javier Gomez defended out of the blinds.
Beuter and Gomez checked on the flop of J♣2♥Q♠ and Delgado continued for 25,000. Beuter check-raised to 140,000 and Gomez folded, while Delgado called.
Beuter then checked on the 2♣ turn and Delgado checked back. The 4♥ river completed the board and Beuter led out for 140,000. Delgado sat still before announcing "all in," leading to a quick fold from Beuter to hang on to his remaining 275,000.
There are 38 players remaining heading into Day 4 of the EPT Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event as part of 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®, and there are plenty of big names among them. Notably, both the inaugural and most recent PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) winners, Ramon Colillas and Aliaksandr Shylko, are still kicking as they look for another massive score on the EPT trail.
The two PSPC champs will be joined by the likes of 2016 PCA Main Event Champion Mike Watson, 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague runner-up Jason Wheeler and 2021 EPT Socci Main Event winner Artur Martirosian, who are among the three most accomplished players in the remaining field.
Each of these players will have to compete against dominant chip leader Kenan Taylor, a newcomer to the live felt who is looking for his first ever Hendon Mob-recorded cash, as well as other big stacks including Arunas Sapitavicius, Milos Petakovic and Maduka Meragal.
End of Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
RANK
NAME
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Kenan Taylor
United Kingdom
3,650,000
243
2
Arunas Sapitavicius
Lithuania
2,220,000
148
3
Artur Martirosian
Russia
1,445,000
96
4
Milos Petakovic
Serbia
1,385,000
92
5
Maduka Meragal
Canada
1,345,000
90
6
Mike Watson
Canada
1,280,000
85
7
Pieter Aerts
Belgium
1,215,000
81
8
Samy Boujmala
France
1,120,000
75
9
Apoorva Goel
India
1,090,000
73
10
Leonard Maue
Germany
1,085,000
72
Action will pick up at noon local time on Level 21 with blinds of 10,000/15,000/15,000. Like Days 2 and 3, today's action will feature 90-minute blind levels with breaks after each level.
Mike Watson
PokerNews will be on-site providing live updates, while viewers at home can also watch the action through the PokerStars live stream. The tournament is scheduled to run for six days, so it will still be a while before the next EPT champion is crowned.
Stay tuned as PokerNews gets ready to provide all the updates on the Day 4 action.
