Main Event
Day 3 Completed
2013 PokerStars.com EPT Berlin
Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2013 PokerStars.com EPT Berlin
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€4,560,000
Entries
912
Level
34
Blinds
120,000 / 240,000
Ante
30,000
Joentausta Maintains His Lead Into Day 4
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
The third day of the European Poker Tour in Berlin was action packed and just 55 players remain after five levels of play. It was a race for first place between Aku Joentausta and Anaras Alekberovas, which was won by the the former, who signed off on 1,039,000 chips at the end of the day. Emil Ohlsson finished in second place with 1,011,000 - the only other player with a seven-figure stack - and Alekberovas bagged 805,000.
One of the biggest stories of Day 3 was that of defending champion Davidi Kitai. The Belgian Triple Crown winner started the day with a very healthy stack but nothing went his way. After running jacks into kings early on he lingered around for a bit before busting in 129th place for €8,000. Kitai did not repeat his amazing feat from last year, but at least he managed to finish in the money. In total 32 players that started the third day of play went home empty handed.
Among the players that did not reached the money were Philippe Ktorza, Erik van den Berg, a very unlucky Ami Barer and our bubble boy Team Pro Martin Hruby. The money bubble lasted for just over an hour and on the very last hand the level it was Hruby who ended up all in with a set against Theodoros Aidonopoulos' straight and flush draw. Hruby's opponent rivered a straight and that ended the Team Pro's tournament. At this point in the tournament many eyes were already on Aku Joentausta. The young Finnish pro was tearing it up with his agressive style and he kept adding to the chip lead he started the day with.
A crazy all-in fest started after the money bubble burst, and players were eliminated left and right. Team Online member Mickey Petersen was among the first to be eliminated together with Team Pro Jan Heitmann. Heinz Kamutzki, John Eames, Tim Ulrich, Todd Terry, Adam Levy and Alexander Zayonts. The latter played an enormous pot against fellow countryman Ramil Yusupov in a good old slow-play battle. A river check-raise induced a shove from Yusupov who had a higher set than his opponent. Zayonts smiled as he exited the tournament area as there was nothing he could've done about this set-over-set cooler.
Former EPT winner Salvatore Bonavena was eliminated in 95th place which leaves us with four former winners on Day 4. There still hasn't been a double EPT winner, and Thang Duc Nguyen - 779,000 (Baden, Season 3) - Team Pro Sandra Naujoks - 202,000 (Dortmund, Season 5) - Team Pro Liv Boeree - 279,000 (San Remo, Season 6) - and Kevin Stani - 681,000 (Tallinn, Season 7) - are all still in the running for that achievement. Dominik Nitsche, owner of the unorthodox Triple Crown (LAPT, WSOP and WPT) cashed in Berlin, but his first EPT title will have to wait a bit longer. After losing a big pot to Team Pro Theo Jorgensen he was knocked out against Denis Sagorski when his tens didn't hold up against ace-queen.
The joy for Jorgensen and Sagorski didn't last long as both players were eliminated before the day ended. Jorgensen, coming off of a fourth-place finish in London, re-shoved seven-deuce into ace-deuce and finished in 60th place. Sagorski's elimination was perhaps the most exciting hand of the day as he played a massive pot against chip leader Joentausta.
"I was hating myself when he said all in," Joentausta said after the hand. "Maybe it's because of the way I look because nobody ever believes me," the young Finn added as he went up to 1.5 million after this huge hand.
Sagorski called off a five-bet shove for more than 50 big blinds with king-ten suited. The other big stack, Anaras Alekberovas, won his chips by busting Manig Loeser and picking up a ton of smaller pots.
Long-time EPT regulars Barny Boatman and Juha Helppi were knocked out in the final level, as was London finalist Tamer Kamel. Other survivors include Bryn Kenney, Pratyush Buddiga, Calvin Anderson, Natalie Hof and Daniel-Gai Pidun, who cashed EPT Berlin for the third time in a row this year. German tennis legend and Team SportsStar Boris Becker is still in the race with 116,000 chips. This is his deepest run in an EPT Main Event.
Play will resume tomorrow at noon local time as we play down to the final 16. All the players that made it to Day 4 are guaranteed to make at least €15,000, while surviving tomorrow would mean they've secured a €33,000 payday. The big money will be handed out on Saturday when a new EPT Berlin winner will be crowned who will take home €880,000.
Make sure to tune back into PokerNews.com as we bring you all the live updates tomorrow of both the Main Event and the €10,000 High Roller. For now good night from Berlin and auf wiedersehen!
Official End-of-Day Counts (full)
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,039,000 | -236,000 |
|
1,011,000 | -39,000 |
|
958,000 | 38,000 |
|
|
938,000 | 7,000 |
|
816,000 | 513,000 |
|
805,000 | -395,000 |
|
781,000 | 333,000 |
|
779,000 | 169,000 |
|
761,000 | 121,000 |
|
744,000 | 224,000 |
|
721,000 | 270,000 |
|
719,000 | 143,000 |
|
|
690,000 | -140,000 |
|
681,000 | 161,000 |
|
668,000 | 68,000 |
|
640,000 | 260,000 |
|
626,000 | 91,000 |
|
622,000 | -78,000 |
|
617,000 | 17,000 |
|
615,000 | 29,000 |
|
568,000 | 17,000 |
|
531,000 | 281,000 |
|
505,000 | 245,000 |
|
499,000 | -61,000 |
|
496,000 | -134,000 |
Nor-way! Scandis overtake Lebanon in chase for Country of the Year
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
With a sensational showing from Norwegian players in the German capital, the chase for EPT Country of the Year seems set to go to the wire. PokerStars Blog investigates.
Four More Hands
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
The clock is paused with 10 minutes remaining, and there will be four more hands.
Huge River Bets
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Roman Korenev checked to Pascal Vos on a board of 
. Vos fired 77,000 into a pot of around 88,000, only for Korenev to check-raise to 234,000.
Vos went deep into the tank, thinking for over 90 seconds before calling. Korenev instantly mucked, and Vos was shipped the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,175,000 | 305,000 |
|
|
535,000 | -250,000 |
Naujoks Doubles
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Sandra Naujoks open-shoved for 100,000 from under the gun, and Pal Koppegodt either called or re-shoved on her direct left. All of the other players folded.
Naujoks: 
Koppegodt: 
Naujoks missed the flop (
), and the turn (
), but the 
spiked on the river. Naujoks doubled to 220,000 chips, while Koppegodt dropped down to around 305,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
305,000 | -145,000 |
|
220,000 | 60,000 |
Alekberovas Continues Upward Trend
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Anaras Alekberovas opened to 18,000 from late position only to be three-bet by Oleksii Khoroshenin. It was 18,000 back to Alekberovas and he decided to flat call.
The duo looked down at a flop of 
and Alekberovas tapped the table. Khoroshenin checked right behind. Fourth street brought the and Alekberovas cut out a sizable bet of 78,000.
Khoroshenin went into the tank for well over one minute before he finally kicked it into the muck. Alekberovas scooped up the pot and is now sitting on 1.2 million.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,200,000 | 115,000 |
|
325,000 | -20,000 |
Just the Trisch
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Sebastian Trisch had a storming start today before he had to weather the storm later on. It looks like he'll be book-ending his day nicely after a double up.
The pot was opened with a mid-position raise from Jose Maria Galindo Lopez and a flat call before Trisch three-bet all in for 149,000 from the button. Galindo re-shoved and isolated his German opponent.
Trisch: 
Galindo:
The board ran 
failing to improve either player.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
330,000 | 130,000 |
No Back-To-Back Final Table for Kamel Either
Level 19
: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Tamer Kamel was seen wandering around outside the tournament room and the signs didn't look good. He confirmed that he followed fellow EPT London finalist, Theo Jorgensen, to the rail.
Down to around 90,000 he shoved with king-ten and was called by an opponent holding pocket sevens. The board ran 
to confirm his demise.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |