European Poker Tour Prague Day 3: Eyal Avitan Commands Chip Lead

December 04 2009, Dana Immanuel

EPT Grand Final winner and entertaining Dutchman Pieter de Korver took the chip lead for a while during the day but eventually fell afoul of Israel's Eyal Avitan, who cemented his chip lead and held on to it for the rest of the day.

Avitan (1,938,000), the monstrous chip leader by a very wide margin, will be looking to improve on the second place he managed in a side event a couple of days ago.

Day 3 of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour at the Prague Hilton followed the super-fast Day 2, with 95 players returning to battle for chips. With only 80 places paying out, the heat was very much on.

Young Frenchman Yann Brosolo led the pack as the players kicked off and instantly increased his stack when he made a flush to crack Kimmo Kurko's aces.

Sandra Naujoks lost her payday when she smacked her pocket tens into Bruno Launais' aces and flopped a set. He, however, turned a higher set and she hit the rail.

Once the bubble had burst, the exits came quickly. Arnaud Mattern was one notable in-the-money bustee, losing most of his chips to Avitan in what may have been a bluff he didn't show. A few hands later, Avitan finished him off, propelling himself to a top-five stack halfway through the day.

Rui Cao, second in chips going into the day, had already lost most of his chips to Anthony Roux by the time he ran his K-Q into Jakob Carlsson's A-J, which turned a flush, so it was ciao Cao.

This was when de Korver took the chip lead for a while but eventually lost it to Avitan. The crucial hand came when Avitan rivered a lucky broadway straight to outdraw de Korver's two pair. Not long after, Avitan cracked de Korver's aces with to send him home and shatter his dreams of another EPT victory.

Other notables who made the money but missed out on any Day 4 action include Pierre Neuville, Nicolas Levi, Marcin Horecki and Florian Langmann.

Among the 24 players still in the running: Luca Pagano, Jan Skampa, Antony Lellouche and Anthony Roux.

Although Avitan is way out in front, anything can happen, so join us back at PokerNews.com tomorrow from noon CET (Central European Time) (6 a.m. EST) when we'll be playing right down to a final table.

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