The 20th anniversary of the PokerStars European Poker Tour was always going to be a special occasion as the tour returned to where it all began in 2004, here in Barcelona. Simon Wiciak and Rania Nasreddine are doing their best to make it a historic one as well.
Wiciak (1,300,000) and Nasreddine (2,005,000) ended Day 4 among the 40 remaining players and on the verge of doing something nearly unprecedented, going back-to-back. For Wiciak, it would make him the first ever to win the same EPT Main Event in consecutive years. Nasreddine, who finished third in EPT Monte Carlo, is looking to join the short list of players to make it to the final table of consecutive tournaments.
They’re both looking up at Stephen Song, who ended the night as chip leader with 4,130,000. The American tournament crusher, with more than $6.5 million in live tournament earnings on his resume, was on the right side of a number of big pots over the course of the day that made him the man to beat. He coolered Matthew Gillingham with aces against ace-king, spiked a set of jacks on the river to crack Sindre Hansen’s kings, then took out Eero Rantala with a better kicker after both players flopped a pair of aces. Song has already eclipsed his previous best EPT result, a 47th-place finish in this event last year.
Day 4 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Song | United States | 4,130,000 | 165 |
| 2 | David Coleman | United States | 3,900,000 | 156 |
| 3 | Harry Lodge | United Kingdom | 3,450,000 | 138 |
| 4 | Jianwei Lin | China | 2,835,000 | 113 |
| 5 | Sriharsha Doddapaneni | India | 2,730,000 | 109 |
| 6 | Pablo Beltran | Spain | 2,640,000 | 106 |
| 7 | Yurii Zabrodotsky | Ukraine | 2,635,000 | 105 |
| 8 | Timothy Chung | Hong Kong | 2,525,000 | 101 |
| 9 | Jack Kiriakus | Sweden | 2,005,000 | 80 |
| 10 | Rania Nasreddine | United States | 2,005,000 | 80 |
Fellow American and high stakes regular David Coleman earned a massive double up when he hit a set of treys against Jonathan Sanvicens’ queens in a 3,000,000-chip pot to end up in second place with 3,900,000. Harry Lodge (3,450,000), Jianwei Lin (2,835,000), and Sriharsha Doddapaneni (2,730,000) round out the top five.
Other players still in the hunt for the title include start-of-day chip leader Timothy Chung (2,525,000), EPT veteran Govert Metaal (1,705,000), 2022 EPT London runner-up Jack Sinclair (1,575,000), 2022 EPT Barcelona finalist Fabiano Kovalski (1,460,000), Nick Palma (1,265,000), PSPC champion Aliaksandr Shylko (935,000), and Andrew Hulme (780,000).
The day began with 113 players, and along the way Alexander “Wolfgang Poker” Seibt (99th), PokerStars Team Pro Ramon Colillas (98th), EPT Monte Carlo champion Derk van Luijk (97th), Byron Kaverman (92nd), Enrico Camosci (90th), Brock Wilson (89th), and Asher Conniff (76th) were sent to the payout desk. EPT champion Mark Teltscher had his run end on the last hand of the night, when his aces were cracked by Chung’s quad eights.
Wiciak, Nasreddine Chasing History
The attention Friday, however, will mostly be on Wiciak and Nasreddine. Wiciak was a massive chip leader at this point in last year’s tournament on his way to conquering a field of 2,120. He ended Day 4 in 17th place on the leaderboard today and recognizes that, while this feels so similar to last year, it will be a much different experience.
“It feels amazing because, at the same time, I’m the last French. So that’s a bit special. Unfortunately, it’s not in the same position as last year. I’m in the middle of the pack so I have to fight back. Last year I had heaps at this time. So it’s really interesting to recreate the same deep run but under different conditions,” he said upon bagging up his chips for the night.
Wiciak would join a short list of players with multiple EPT titles, but none have ever done it in the same event, let alone in back-to-back years over such massive fields. It would be an accomplishment fitting for the 20th-anniversary edition, but Wiciak isn’t looking too far ahead.
“It’s a bit too soon to say. Two or three days to battle is pretty big. It feels like a lot, but at the same time there is still a lot to accomplish. So I’ll take it step by step. We’ll see where it goes,” he said. “Right now I’m really tired so I have to recompose myself. When we start fresh tomorrow, I will be angry as always.”
Nasreddine almost didn’t make it through the day. She was left with just over 200,000 after running queens into Lin's aces in a massive pot. She then flopped a set of nines to double off Pablo Beltran, then hero-called Chung with second pair to double up again near the end of the night. In 2011, the late Max Heinzelmann finished runner-up in two consecutive EPT Main Events, but both of those fields had fewer than 1,000 players. What Nasreddine is trying to accomplish, like Wiciak, stands apart.
They and 38 others have made it this far out of a starting field of 1,975. Everyone remaining is guaranteed €23,350, with the eventual champion earning €1,512,000. The action Friday picks up at 12 p.m. local time with 48 minutes in Level 23 with blinds of 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante.
It's already been a special week here at the Casino Barcelona, but there is still so much to come as PokerNews returns tomorrow to provide live updates as play continues toward the final table.
