PokerStars EPT Budapest Day 3: Hungary's Zoltan Toth Heads Final

October 31 2008, John "Falstaff" Hartness

It was a relatively short day at the Casino Las Vegas in Budapest, site of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour's first-ever Hungary stop. The 42 remaining players wasted no time thinning the field down to the final table of eight, as several former chip leaders fell by the wayside through the day. When the dust settled on Day 3, Zoltan Toth was the lone Hungarian still in the field, with the chip lead going into the final table.

After George McKeever became the first player eliminated on Day 3 (42nd place, €6,834), Szabolcs Attila Saskoy quickly busted in 41st (€6,834). He moved all in for the second time in three hands with , and was called by Alex Kravchenko. Kravchenko was ahead with , but the flop hit Saskoy, coming down . However, Kravchenko reclaimed the lead on the turn, and the river was no help to Saskoy as he headed to the rail.

Mauro Corsetti was one of the former chip leaders to bust on Day 3, as he was eliminated in 28th place (€8,512). He ran pocket jacks into Pantelis Pavlis' pocket aces, and his tournament was over. Other notable eliminations on Day 3 included Lukas Benkovic, Casey Kastle and Alex Kravchenko. Sebastian Saffari busted in tenth place (€32,984) to set up the unofficial final table after a tough hand with Gino Alacqua. Saffari flopped two pair on a K-8-7 board, but Alacqua held pocket sevens for a set, and Saffari was crippled. He moved the last of his chips in preflop on the next hand with and found one caller in Zoltan Toth with . The board ran out , and Saffari was done.

Nine-handed play continued for quite a while as the players swapped the lead and fought for final-table supremacy. Finally, after an hour and a half of nine-handed play, Ivo Donev busted in ninth place at the hands of Ciprian Hrisca to set the final table. Donev raised preflop with , and Hrisca re-raised. Donev called, and the flop came down . Donev quickly moved all in, and Hrisca snap-called with . Donev picked up one king on the turn, but the on the river wasn't enough to keep his tournament hopes alive, and he collected €32,984 for ninth.

At the end of Day 3, the final-table seating assignments and chip stacks looked like this, with Toth narrowly ahead of Romania's Hrisca and Danish star Albert Iversen, with Italy's Gino Alacqua and the Stars-sponsored Norwegian star Johnny Lodden also in the mix:

Seat 1: Marino Serenelli (Italy) - 357,000
Seat 2: Will Fry (UK) - 572,000
Seat 3: Ciprian Hrisca (Romania) - 1,038,000
Seat 4: Gino Alacqua (Italy) - 466,000
Seat 5: Martin Jacobson (Sweden) - 306,000
Seat 6: Albert Iversen (Denmark) - 1,017,000
Seat 7: Johnny Lodden (Norway) - 500,000
Seat 8: Zoltan Toth (Hungary) - 1,059,000

Join PokerNews at 1PM Budapest time on Saturday for all the live updates as the eight remaining players fight for the first-ever EPT Budapest title.

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