2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®

Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info

2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aa
Prize
€466,714
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,300
Prize Pool
€3,525,950
Entries
727
Level Info
Level
32
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
25,000

ElkY Among Top Stacks After Day 3; Negreanu, Antonius and Petrangelo eliminated

Level 18 : 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Advances to Day 4 With a Top Five Stack
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Advances to Day 4 With a Top Five Stack

Day 3 of the 2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino €5,300 Main Event® was an exciting day that saw a field of 134 players being reduced to just 45 hopefuls. Each of them will be back tomorrow with €15,420 already locked up, although all eyes will be set on the first-place prize of €500,800. The massive amount of money will be handed out to the victor of the first European PokerStars Championship Main Event this Friday night in "Le Sporting" at Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.

The 45 survivors are led by Michael Kolkowicz, who ended Day 3 on top with 1,445,000 in chips. Stefan Schillhabel is second with 1,380,000, Belgian crusher Davidi Kitai sits in third with 1,087,000. Other notables that made it through include Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (771,000), Alexandru Papazian (670,000), Jeff Hakim (511,000), Sebastian Malec (509,000), Arne Coulier (394,000), Manig Loeser (350,000), Stefan Huber (235,000) and last year's champion Jan Bendik (223,000). Dan Smith starts Day 4 as the short stack with 99,000 in chips.

Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius failed to make it to Day 4. They were joined on the rail by start-of-the-day chipleader Nick Petrangelo, who had to bow out early after losing a couple of big hands in short succession.

Top 10 stacks after Day 3

PlaceNameCountryChips
1Michael KolkowiczFrance1,445,000
2Stefan SchillhabelGermany1,380,000
3Davidi KitaiBelgium1,087,000
4Maxim PanyakRussia921,000
5Marius-Catalin PerteaRomania860,000
6Moritz DietrichGermany821,000
7"Bertrand ""ElkY"" Grospellier"France766,000
8Sergio AidoSpain719,000
9Hossein EnsanGermany718,000
10Alexandru PapazianRomania670,000

At noon local time, 134 players took their seats with money already in the bag. Early exits that received the minimum cash of €7,580 included Alex Luneau, Preben Stokkan, Rocco Palumbo, Usman Siddique, Tsugunari Toma and Viliyan Petleshkov.

Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree also left with the minimum amount. Short stacked, Boeree shoved king-nine into Sebastian Malec's ace-queen and failed to catch up. Shortly after, Maria Ho busted as well after losing a coin flip situation with king-jack against pocket eights.

During the second level of the day, Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin flipped out with ace-queen against pocket tens. It was also the level that spelled the end for Nick Petrangelo. The American high roller found his nemesis in Romain Nardin and shockingly hit the rail early on. Nardin first got lucky with ace-eight against Petrangelo's ace-king, then won a massive confrontation with ace-king against Petrangelo's pocket jacks which also saw 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson bite the dust. Just like that, Petrangelo was out.

Patrik Antonius, Mark Teltscher, Luke Schwarz, Andreas Hoivold, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Jason Wheeler and Fabrice Soulier joined Petrangelo soon after. Nicolas Fuentes Vidal joined them as well with a story to tell: a lost pot of more than one million chips with kings against Stefan Schillhabel's aces ended Vidal's run in one big blow.

Team PokerStars Pro's Daniel Negreanu and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier were seated at the feature table the entire day. ElkY had a fantastic day and ran his stack up to 771,000 in chips, courtesy of two massive hands with pocket aces. In the first, he doubled through Daniel Negreanu's king-queen, only to double again later on through Hossein Ensan, who misstepped with ten-seven.

After losing some of his chips to ElkY, Negreanu found himself on the downward slope. With queen-jack, his last chips went in on a jack-six-five board against Ensan. Unfortunately for the Canadian superstar, Ensen held pocket fives for bottom set and forced Negreanu out the door.

The remaining players will return tomorrow at 12 p.m. noon local time to play five scheduled levels of 90 minutes each with a 20-minute break after every level. Play will resume in level 19 with blinds of 5,000/10,000 and a running ante of 1,000. Follow PokerNews for all the live reporting action from the floor until the PokerStars Championship Main Event winner is crowned on Friday night.

Day 4 Seat Draw

TableSeatPlayerCountryChip Count
11Diego VilelaBrazil358,000
13Moritz DietrichGermany821,000
14Raffaele SorrentinoItaly197,000
15Diego ZeiterSwitzerland476,000
16Remi CastaignonFrance142,000
17Vicente DelgadoSpain501,000
18Peyman LuthGermany533,000
     
21Lukasz KubickiPoland315,000
22Marius-Catalin PerteaRomania860,000
23Sergio AidoSpain719,000
24Sergei PetrushevskiiRussia541,000
25Hossein EnsanGermany718,000
26Arne CoulierBelgium394,000
27Jeffrey HakimLebanon511,000
28Maxim PanyakRussia921,000
     
31Dan SmithUSA99,000
32"Bertrand ""ElkY"" Grospellier"France766,000
33Sebastian MalecPoland509,000
35Paul TestudFrance100,000
36Alexandru PapazianRomania670,000
37Marius GierseGermany383,000
38Dmytro ShuvanovUkraine604,000
     
41Lee Hon CheongHong Kong637,000
42Michael KolkowiczFrance1,445,000
44Stefan SchillhabelGermany1,380,000
45Shijirbaatar SanjaasurenMongolia145,000
46Paul-Francois TedeschiFrance560,000
47Krisztian FejerdiHungary130,000
48Douglas Ferreira SouzaBrazil428,000
     
51Andrey BondarRussia180,000
52Jerome BrionFrance406,000
53Chebli ChebliLebanon291,000
54Stefan HuberSwitzerland235,000
55Manig LoeserGermany350,000
56Gianluca SperanzaItaly347,000
57Jan BendikSlovakia223,000
58Diego VenturaPeru371,000
     
61Philipp KoberAustria149,000
62Davidi KitaiBelgium1,087,000
63Romain NardinFrance577,000
64Karim SouaidFrance510,000
65Luiz DuarteUSA204,000
66Andreas KlattGermany254,000
67Shakhabiddin MuradovLatvia170,000
68[Removed:43]France477,000

Tags: Alexandre LuneauAlexandru PapazianAndreas HoivoldArne CoulierBertrand "ElkY" GrospellierCelina LinDaniel NegreanuDavidi KitaiFabrice SoulierHossein EnsanIgor YaroshevskyyJason WheelerJeff HakimLiv BoereeMaria HoMark TeltscherMartin JacobsonMichael KolkowiczNick PetrangeloNicolas Fuentes VidalPatrik AntoniusPreben StokkanRocco PalumboRomain NardinSebastian MalecStefan HuberStefan SchillhabelTsugunari TomaUsman SiddiqueViliyan Petleshkov