Dario Sammartino Leads Final 14 of 2019 WSOPE Main Event
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After another six 90-minute levels, play has halted for Day 4 of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe €10,350 Main Event.
Day 4 saw a total of 42 players return to the tables of the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, all with the hopes of retaining their shot at the €1,133,678 top prize. However, the field was whittled down to only 14 hopefuls at the end of the night.
Bracelet Winners Chasing Sammartino
Dario Sammartino is the favorite heading into Day 5 with 7,430,000. He started the day second in chips and took over the lead when he took down a monster pot after flopping a set of tens in a three-way preflop all in to eliminate both Alex Foxen who held ace-nine and Georgios Vrakas who had king-queen suited.
The Italian professional has $9,545,240 in live earnings at the WSOP. He has a lot of experience being at the final tables of the biggest poker tournaments in the world. Earlier this year, he reached five WSOP final tables including the final table of the WSOP Main Event, where he finished as the runner-up for $6,000,000.
Despite all that, he's still looking for his first bracelet, and he's put himself in good position at King's.
“After making the final table of the WSOP Main Event, I now believe that everything is possible," he said. "The tournament is really long and there are a lot of good players left, but I will play my game and see what happens. I feel very calm.”
Indeed, the stakes are high as many notables remain in contention including five bracelet winners.
David “ODB” Baker closely follows Sammartino with 7,305,000 and Anthony Zinno sits in third (6,950,000). Zinno and Baker each claimed their second bracelets this summer.
Baker started Day 4 as one of the shorter stacks but he caught fire during the last two levels of the night. He managed to double up through Sammartino with trip queens against Sammartino’s flush draw and kept building until the end of the day.
Other champions still in the Main Event include bracelet winners Rifat Palevic, Julien Martini, and Jan-Peter Jachtmann.
| Seat | Table 38 | Chip Count | Big Blinds | Seat | Table 40 | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Daniel Rezaei | 3,675,000 | 36 | 1 | Dario Sammartino | 7,430,000 | 74 |
| 3 | Alexandros Kolonias | 1,835,000 | 18 | 2 | Christian Rudolph | 1,875,000 | 19 |
| 4 | Jakob Madsen | 1,460,000 | 15 | 3 | Anh Do | 4,175,000 | 42 |
| 5 | Julien Martini | 4,520,000 | 45 | 4 | Jan-Peter Jachtmann | 2,835,000 | 28 |
| 6 | Anthony Zinno | 6,950,000 | 70 | 5 | Rifat Palevic | 5,160,000 | 52 |
| 7 | David "ODB" Baker | 7,305,000 | 73 | 6 | Marek Blasko | 1,635,000 | 16 |
| 8 | Claas Segebrecht | 3,920,000 | 39 | 8 | Mykola Kostyrko | 1,425,000 | 14 |
Day 4 Action
The eliminations were fast at the beginning of the day as multiple players got their chips in early with the hope of scoring an early double to continue their Main Event journey. Seven players were eliminated during the first level of the day but action slowed after the early flurry.
Some of the big names who returned today but couldn't secure a deeper run include Martin Kabrhel, Dragos Trofimov, and Gianluca Speranza.
Kabrhel was the second elimination of the day. He needed to find a spot to double up and open-shoved with ace-ten only to get called by Sergio Ruiz who woke up with kings. The board was of no help to Kabrhel and he headed to the payout desk in 41st place for €20,424.
Trofimov also hit the rail during the first couple of levels. He was all in for his last 20 big blinds with jacks against Christian Rudolph, who also had jacks. However, Rudolph flopped a flush draw and got there on the river, sending Trofimov to the exit in 28th place for €26,986.
Speranza, who was the runner of the WSOPE Main Event in 2017, was aiming for the victory this time but couldn't make it. He pushed his last 22 bigs with jacks and got called by Daniel Rezaei who was ahead with queens, and couldn't improve. He finished in 35th place for €23,238.
All remaining 14 players will return to the tournament area tomorrow at noon local time to fight for their spot in the final six. Action will resume at Level 26 which features a small blind of 50,000, big blind of 100,000 with a 100,000 big blind ante. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide all the action.
