Brian Moore raised to 600,000 in the cutoff before David Tous made it 1,700,000 to go on the button. Vidmantas Beliauskas then committed his final 1,400,000 chips from the small blind and Moore tossed in a call as well.
Moore and Tous checked through the K♥9♣3♦7♥A♦ runout and all three players had to show their cards.
Moore took down the small side pot with his A♣Q♣ against Tous' 8♠6♠, but Beliauskas was the big winner as his 7♦7♣ made a set and tripled him up.
Mark Johnston opened for 450,000 chips from the cutoff before Tero Laurila made it 1,100,000 to go from the small blind. Johnston responded with a four-bet to 2,300,000, but that was not enough for Laurila, who jammed all in for 8,000,000 chips.
Johnston quickly folded and Laurila showed the table the 10♣ while he stacked up his newly acquired chips.
On the second to last hand of the day, Aidan Quinlan raised to 400,000 from the cutoff before facing a three-bet to 1,800,000 from Tero Laurila on the button. Quinlan went into the tank but eventually said "Go on then" and slammed in a call.
However, he instantly turned over his A♥J♣, but still had 1,425,000 chips behind. It was ruled that the hand would continue as normal, with Quinlan's cards left exposed.
The flop was then dealt 6♣9♦K♠ and Quinlan checked after a few minutes in the tank. Laurila then bet 300,000 and Quinlan folded his cards.
To add to his injury, Quinlan was given a three-hand penalty for exposing his cards. He will miss the first two hands of the final day of the Main Event, as the players bagged and tagged one hand later.
After a grueling 13-hour day, 14 players found a bag after the penultimate day of the €1,150 Irish Open Main Event, sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker. Leading the final 14 to the final day is Finnish player Tero Laurila. Laurila will be in prime position to capture the €415,615 top prize which will be awarded to the champion on Day 4.
Laurila spent much of the day among the average stacks, but his preflop aggression got him a big stack in the final level of the day. He then cemented his chip lead in a crazy pot where his opponent exposed his cards preflop, ending up with 13,075,000 chips when all said was done, good for 52 big blinds at the start of Day 4.
Second in chips is Spanish regular David Tous, who is an often-seen face on the European circuit and qualified for the Irish Open online. He had the chiplead throughout much of the later part of the day and bagged 12,125,000 at the end. Meanwhile Ninh Van Hiep was the best performing Irishman, completing the podium with 9,700,000 chips.
Also in the top ten are Day 2 chipleader Konstantinos Vatseris (8,875,000), last American standing Brian Moore (8,000,000), and Irish old-school legend Padraig Parkinson (4,800,000).
End of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 4 Big Blinds
1
Tero Laurila
Finland
13,075,000
52
2
David Tous
Spain
12,125,000
49
3
Ninh Van Hiep
Ireland
9,700,000
39
4
Stephen Groom
United Kingdom
9,050,000
36
5
Konstantinos Vatseris
Greece
8,875,000
36
6
Brian Moore
United States
8,000,000
32
7
Mark Johnston
United Kingdom
6,950,000
28
8
Oliver Boyce
Ireland
6,400,000
26
9
Georgios Tsouloftas
Cyprus
6,100,000
24
10
Padraig Parkinson
Ireland
4,600,000
18
Day 3 Action
The day started with 109 hopefuls returning to the Royal Dublin Society, who all had secured a portion of the €3,152,175 prize pool already by besting a field of 3,233 entries. There was a steady pace of eliminations throughout the day, and the likes of PokerStars AmbassadorSebastian Huber, Ankit Ahuja, Adam McKola, David Hu, Kully Sidhu, Dara O'Kearney, and David Lappin all busted before the tournament reached the final three tables.
Once there, bracelet winnerTobias Peters, online phenom Conor Beresford, and Irish grinder Simon Wilson said their goodbyes, while Mitchell Hynam was the last player to bust, in 15th place.
The 14 remaining players will start Day 4 at noon local time tomorrow, April 1. The final day of the Irish Open Main Event will begin in Level 33: 100,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante, and will end only when a winner has been crowned.
Tune back in to PokerNews then to find out who will win the biggest Irish Open Main Event in history.