Less than six hours after Day 4 began, the final three tables are set, and the PokerStars.it EPT San Remo is down to its final 24 players.
The day began with 66 runners still in contention, everyone hoping to get themselves into a good spot to pick up the €1.25 million top prize a couple days from now. Just as was the case two nights ago, Russian Dmitry Stelmak has worked his way to the top of the overnight leader board, bagging up somewhere around 2.2 million chips. That puts him just behind Irishman Dermot Blain, and the two of them would be the chip leaders if not for the final pot of the night.
Don't look now, but EPT Snowfest champion Allan Bække is in the familiar position of chip leader once again; it's almost hard to believe. The last knockout of the night moved the Dane up to 3,483,000, and that puts him comfortably out ahead of the pack going into tomorrow's penultimate day. We probably don't have to tell you this, but going back to back in two EPT events would be equally unheard of and legendary.
Some of our other familiar faces had a bit more trouble getting things rolling today though. Joe Serock was one of the first men out, and he was followed out the door by Yury Kerzhapkin, Nick Schulman, Harrison Gimbel, Alfio Battisti, and Team PokerStars Pros Pierpaolo Fabretti and Matthias de Meulder. De Meulder's exit means that we're out of Team Pros here in San Remo, though we still have a smattering of online qualifiers and PokerStars players in the mix.
There's not much else to say about Day 4. Things happened so quickly, it was almost a blur. The final 24 will be back in the building at the later start time of 2pm tomorrow, and we'll play it out until we set a final table of eight.
While both Claudios were wondering what to do on the other table, Gijs Verheijen was getting knocked out in 25th place.
Verheijen:
Allan Bække:
Board:
"So nice to get paid when I actually have a hand," said Bække. Yes, must be nice. In fact it must be nice to be Allan Bække all round, as the EPT Snowfest winner is now chip leader heading into Day 5.
Claudio Rinaldi raised to 68,000 under the gun and Claudio Piceci called. But big blind Paul Valkenburg shoved for around 400,000 and forced both Claudios to make a decision.
Rinaldi folded with just a minute or two's thought, but it took Piceci rather longer. Eventually he folded pocket fours face up, and Valkenburg showed him .
But this had already been declared the last hand of the day, as elsewhere there had already been an exit, meaning that we were down to 24...
Ondrej Vinklarek was short stacked all day, but finally found a spot to push with from the blinds. There was just one small problem with his plan, Atanas Gueorguiev was in the big blind with .
Harrison Gimbel took down the 2010 PCA in January, and he was well on course to add an EPT title to his mantle until a few sour pots spoiled his chances late this afternoon. Before his untimely exit, Harrison took a few minutes with Glo for a little chat. Check it out:
The day is winding down, but you can watch all of our videos from EPT San Remo at your leisure over on PokerNews TV.
Michel Abecassis was the last Frenchman standing in this tournament, but he's just surrendered that title. Abecassis reraised preflop against UTG raiser Mohsen Tayfeh but the latter pushed and Abecassis committed his stack.
Dmitry Stelmak made it 65,000 from the button but Erik Tamm in the small blind had other ideas and made it 175,000 to go. Thang Duc Nguyen unexpectedly flatted in the big blind. Stelmak called and they saw a flop.
Flop:
Tamm checked it, but Nguyen promptly bet 300,000. Once both his opponents had folded, he proudly tabled. .
Some curiousness indeed as Mohsen Tayfeh opened for 71,000 and Allan Bække made it 175,000 behind. Over to Ronny Kaiser in the small blind, who made it 320,000 to go. Tayfeh asked how much Kaiser had left, but folded. Bække however made the call and they saw a flop.
Flop:
Kaiser promptly bet out 400,000 - and that was the end of that. Bække passed, and Kaiser took the pot.