Romain Nardin Leads After Day 4

After another day in Monaco, rich man's paradise, just 16 players remain in the 2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® Main Event.

Frenchman Romain Nardin leads the pack, with plenty of familiar faces still in contention. The most recognizable name to return on Day 4 is Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. The French Team Pro hasn't been lifting trophy's on the regular in recent years, can he make a definite comeback here in Monte Carlo?

Position	Player	France	Big Blinds	Chip Count
1	Romain Nardin	France	165	3,956,000
2	Michael Kolkowicz	France	124	2,983,000
3	Diego Zeiter	Argentina	77	1,848,000
4	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	73	1,759,000
5	Raffaele Sorrentino	Italy	68	1,622,000
6	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	64	1,536,000
7	Andrey Bondar	Russia	53	1,283,000
8	Marius-Catalin Pertea	Romania	46	1,110,000
9	Maxim Panyak	Russia	45	1,082,000
10	Andreas Klatt	Germany	44	1,059,000
11	Dmytro Shuvanov	Ukraine	36	887,000
12	Sergio Aido	Spain	29	695,000
13	Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier	France	27	653,000
14	Douglas Ferreira Souza	Brazil	22	536,000
15	Moritz Dietrich	Germany	19	451,000
16	Stefan Schillhabel	Germany	15	354,000

Just 45 players returned for Day 4 of the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo. Minutes after play got underway, Chebli Chebli became the first casualty. Shijirbaatar Sanjaasuren, Shakhabiddin Muradov and Karim Souaid didn't last long either. Play was anything but tight, chips flew in left and right and most hands where drie-bet before a flop was seen.

Title defender Jan Bendik, who won this event last year when it was still called the EPT Grand Final, was one of the next players getting scalped. He got his chips in good with ace-queen suited against ace-nine off, but his opponent flopped a nine to make things a bit more difficult. While Bendik had a flush draw to go along with his queens as outs, none of them would appear on the turn or river. Last year the Slovakian player went home with €961,800 for first, this time he had to settle for €15,420 for his 36th place.

Another former EPT champion, Remi Castaignon, followed Bendik out the door. Castaignon got it in with a pair and a flush draw against two-pair and didn't improve.

Dan Smith started the day short and never ran up a stack. In his last hand, he got it in with queen-eight against ace-king. A king on the turn ended it all for Smith.

Hossein Ensan, another player with a PokerStars EPT trophy on his chimney, was evenly unlucky on Day 4. He got himself involved in some big confrontations and never came out on top. In his last hand, pocket nines were dead on the turn against pocket tens.

Like the tournament hadn't lost enough former champs just yet, it was Sebastian Malec out next. He too lost some big pots and eventually got it in with ace-nine to Vicente Delgado's ace-jack and did not improve.

The majority of other recognizable names departed early as well. Vicente Delgado lost ace-king to aces, Stefan "IamSound" Huber found no help with queen-three against ace-five, Paul Tedeschi lost king-jack to nines and Jeff Hakim didn't improve with ten-nine against ace-ten.

Luckily for the poker fans, an interesting field remains. Spanish high roller Sergio Aido, German experts Mortiz Dietrich and Stefan Schillhabel, and Belgian bracelet and EPT winner Davidi Kitai are all still in.

And, like we mentioned earlier, "ElkY" still has chips, Bertrand Grospellier returns on Day 5 with 27 big blinds and a dream.

Table	Seat	Name	Country	Chip Count
1	1	Sergio Aido	Spain	693,000
1	2	Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier	France	653,000
1	3	Marius-Catalin Pertea	Romania	1110,000
1	4	Diego Zeiter	Switzerland	1,848,000
1	5	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	1,759,000
1	6	Maxim Panyak	Russia	1,082,000
1	7	Andrey Bondar	Russia	1,283,000
1	8	Dmytro Shuvanov	Ukraine	887,000

2	1	Stefan Schillhabel	Germany	354,000
2	2	Moritz Dietrich	Germany	451,000
2	3	Andreas Klatt	Germany	1,059,000
2	4	Douglas Ferreira Souza	Brazil	536,000
2	5	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	1,536,000
2	6	Raffaele Sorrentino	Italy	1,622,000
2	7	Michael Kolkowicz	France	2,983,000
2	8	Romain Nardin	France	3,956,000

When play resumes, 41 minutes are left in level 23 (12,000/24,000 with 4,000 ante). The plan is to play down to 6 players. PokerNews will be on the floor from the start until the end.

Player	Chips	Progress
Romain Nardin	3,956,000 324,000	324,000
Michael Kolkowicz	2,983,000 383,000	383,000
Diego Zeiter	1,848,000 139,000	139,000
Alexandru Papazian	1,759,000 -7,000	-7,000

Raffaele Sorrentino	1,622,000 147,000	147,000
Davidi Kitai	1,536,000 -46,000	-46,000

Andrey Bondar	1,283,000 -67,000	-67,000
Marius-Catalin Pertea	1,110,000 20,000	20,000
Maxim Panyak	1,082,000 26,000	26,000
Andreas Klatt	1,059,000 141,000	141,000
Dmytro Shuvanov	887,000 -45,000	-45,000
Sergio Aido	695,000 -200,000	-200,000

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier	653,000 -113,000	-113,000

Douglas Ferreira Souza	536,000 -124,000	-124,000
Moritz Dietrich	451,000 36,000	36,000

Stefan Schillhabel	354,000 -245,000	-245,000