Yuan Xu Leads Final Eight in Eureka Main Event
After nearly a week of action at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus, a field of 2,803 entrants has been reduced to just eight in the Eureka Main Event. Leading the way is EPT newcomer Yuan Xu, who bagged up 15,100,000. His next-closest competitor is Frenchman Samuel Fournier, who held the lead at various points late in the day, but slipped toward the end to finish with 13,725,000.
This will be the first recorded cash for Xu from an EPT event and also marks his largest live-cash ever, regardless of where he places tomorrow. However, Xu is in pole position to take down the title and $386,210 first-place prize, which represents the lion's share of the $2,662,850 prize pool.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuan Xu | China | 15,100,000 | 38 |
| 2 | Samuel Fournier | France | 13,725,000 | 34 |
| 3 | Guoliang Wei | China | 12,350,000 | 31 |
| 4 | Aleksandr Razinkov | Russia | 11,125,000 | 28 |
| 5 | Frederick Anastasiades | Cyrpus | 11,050,000 | 28 |
| 6 | Leo Worthington-Leese | United Kingdom | 10,775,000 | 27 |
| 7 | Recep Aydemir | Turkey | 7,550,000 | 19 |
| 8 | Alexey Badulin | Russia | 2,400,000 | 6 |
Day 3 Action
Over a third of the remaining field was eliminated before the first break of the day, including Michael Wang (51st - $5,780), Martin Zamani (39th - $6,660) and Marle Spragg (35th - $6,660) — who was the last standing American but ended up busting after running pocket jacks into pocket kings preflop and failing to improve.
Marian Virlanuta entered Day 3 as the chip leader and only player with over 100 big blinds, however, Virlanuta got off to a rough start after Mihai Trofim nearly doubled through him in a cooler situation early on. Things only got worse for Virlanuta as Matthias Lipp doubled through him a while later to leave him as the short stack. Virlanuta exited shortly afterwards in a disappointing 29th place ($7,670) after shoving queens into Lavrentiy Ni's kings.
EPT Sanremo 2011 champion Andrey Pateychuk came in with a top-ten stack and sailed to the final three tables before taking a significant hit to his stack against Mehmet Demirkol, who doubled through him with ace-king. Pateychuk managed to outlast several other players before ultimately bowing out in 14th ($19,120) after shoving preflop with ace-deuce and losing out to Vytautas Milbutas, who called and made trips with queen-ten.
The action slowed to a snail's pace with ten remaining, with players being extra deliberate before taking any action facing a large pay jump and the final table. Nearly two full levels went by before the next elimination, which occurred after Sebastian Ting made a stand with ace-ten for his last 10 big blinds, but ended up shoving preflop into Xu's ace-king.
The action remained slow at the final table, but escalating blinds eventually forced the player's hands. The final elimination of the evening occurred when Ni shoved for just seven big blinds with pocket queens and lost a race against Recep Aydemir's ace-king
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $386,210 | ||
| 2 | $241,290 | ||
| 3 | $172,060 | ||
| 4 | $132,120 | ||
| 5 | $101,390 | ||
| 6 | $78,770 | ||
| 7 | $60,850 | ||
| 8 | $46,600 | ||
| 9 | Lavrentiy Ni | Kazakhstan | $35,840 |
The final eight players will return tomorrow at 12 p.m. local time and play down until a winner. Action will resume on Level 35, which features 200,000/400,000 blinds with a 400,000 big-blind ante. All breaks will be discretionary on players and staff.
The stakes have never been higher as just a handful of players remain to battle it out for the coveted Eureka Main Event title. Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action right up until the final card is dealt and a new champion is crowned inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa.