2010 PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest

2010 EPT Snowfest Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info

2010 PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
77
Prize
€445,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€3,500
Entries
546
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
0

Day 4 Seating Assignments

Table 1
Seat 1: [Removed:197] (546000)
Seat 2: Allan Baekke (2687000)
Seat 3: Johannes Holstege (683000)
Seat 4: Cyril Naim (380000)
Seat 5: Lee Gaines (594000)
Seat 6: Huub Verdonschot (769000)
Seat 7: Jonathan Schroer (685000)
Seat 8: Alain Medesan (166000)

Table 2
Seat 1: Max Lykov (1205000)
Seat 2: Russell Carson (495000)
Seat 3: Brent Wheeler (1361000)
Seat 4: Richard Toth (414000)
Seat 5: Lukas Baumann (615000)
Seat 6: Jim Collopy (758000)
Seat 7: Bernhard Perner (279000)
Seat 8: David Wintersberger (229000)

Table 3
Seat 1: Marcel Koller (752000)
Seat 2: Alexander Debus (908000)
Seat 3: Johannes Strassmann (1001000)
Seat 4: Daniel Van Kalkeren (281000)
Seat 5: Luca Cainelli (542000)
Seat 6: Florian Döhnert (602000)
Seat 7: Bertrand Husiaux (235000)
Seat 8: Robert Haigh (435000)

2010 EPT Snowfest Main Event

Day 3 Completed

Day 3 Extinguished

Allan Baekke has himself quite a chip lead
Allan Baekke has himself quite a chip lead
Well, that was quite a day of poker.

The final 86 players returned to the Alpine Palace for today's Day 3, and the first six of them eliminated went home hungry. The bubble popped at 80, and things rolled right along nicely from there.

Less than a half hour into play, Alfio Battisti offered himself up as a bubble sacrifice, though he probably didn't have that in mind when he moved in with {A-Diamonds} {A-Hearts}. Evgeniy Zaytsev gave him action with {3-Diamonds} {3-Spades}, and things initially looked very promising for the young Italian. A back-breaking board of {J-Spades} {A-Spades} {2-Spades} {10-Spades} {5-Spades} rolled out, though, and Battisti became the last non-paid finisher thanks to that ugly beat.

Casper Toft just managed to sneak into the money with his short stack, taking home a minimum cash for his 80th-place showing. Also among the small cashers today were Nicolo Calia, Bryan Paris, Zachary Hall, and Team PokerStars Pros Alexander Kravchenko and Lex Veldhuis. Christophe de Meulder, Johannes Steindl, and Vadim Markushevski managed to tread water for a bit longer, but they too slipped under the surface before night's end.

That leaves Richard Toth (Hungary) and Johannes Strassmann (Germany) to carry the torch for the Team PokerStars Pros. They're both chasing a few "PokerStars Players" though. Allan Baekke absolutely destroyed his table in the latter stages of the day, and he managed to bag up a very impressive 2.867 million chips. We'll have to wait for the rest of the official counts, but it looks like he has a nearly 2-to-1 chip lead over Brent Wheeler and Max Lykov, his nearest rivals. Not too shabby for Mr. Baekke!

Lykov deserves a second quick mention for another fine performance here. You may or may not remember that he won EPT Kyiv earlier this season. Or that he took third in the $5,000 Shootout event at the 2009 WSOP. Or his win in the $1,000 side event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January. That lack of name recognition will surely change, though, if he can manage to add this victory to his stat sheet. Two EPT wins (let alone two in the same season) is the stuff of legends, and Lykov is well in contention to pull off that feat with two days of poker left to be played.

That's about all we have for you from Saalbach-Hinterglemm for tonight. The 24 who bagged up chips are headed to bed or to the bar, and they'll be back here at 2:00pm CET tomorrow for the race to the final table. We'll be here too, and we hope you'll join us again!

Tags: Allan Baekke

Baekke Bashes Valkenburg

Paul Valkenburg
Paul Valkenburg
Bernhard Perner opened to 31,000 under the gun and Paul Valkenburg re-raised to 81,000 in the cutoff. Allan Baekke four-bet to 200,000 from the big blind and sent Perner into the tank. He kicked it in and action was back on Valkenburg.

After a minute, he went all in for about 800,000. Baekke snap-called and tabled {A-Spades}{A-Diamonds}. Valkenburg sunk in dejection, turning over {K-Spades}{K-Hearts}. Fans and media alike swarmed the table to watch the biggest pot of the tournament play out.

More drama came on the flop when it rolled out {A-Clubs}{K-Diamonds}{8-Clubs}, leaving Valkenburg just one out to survive. The {2-Spades} turn card was no help to Valkenburg and the river was the ultimate tease, the {Q-Clubs}.

Valkenburg is out in 25th place and Baekke is up to a whopping 2,687,000.

Tags: Allan BaekkePaul Valkenburg

Ehne Elimination Will Do

We picked up the action just as the chips were all going into this pot. There was a flop on board showing {Q-Clubs} {A-Spades} {2-Hearts}, and Simon Ehne was all in and at-risk. He turned over a reasonable {A-Clubs} {J-Clubs}, but he was in bad shape when Dan Murariu tabled his crushing {A-Spades} {Q-Clubs}.

The turn {2-Diamonds} added a few chop outs for the all-in Ehne, but the river would fail to find him. The {6-Spades} filled out the board, and we've lost another player.

Simon Ehne is out in 25th place, and we're one elimination away from the conclusion of Day 3.

Tags: Dan MurariuSimon Ehne

Berendsen Busted

Russell Carson raised and then quickly and quietly called the push from Day 1b chip leader [Removed:39] behind.

Berendsen: {A-Clubs} {Q-Clubs}
Carson: {K-Clubs} {K-Hearts}

Board: {7-Diamonds} {2-Clubs} {6-Clubs} {10-Spades} {9-Diamonds}

"Ship!" called out a pro-Carson railer standing directly behind Berendsen, then looked a bit sheepish when Berendsen stood up to start the long walk to the cash desk.

Tags: Russell Carson

Glo and Jo

Earlier in the day, Gloria caught up with the start-of-day chip leader Johannes Strassmann to talk about his run-good on Day 2, and his plans for domination today. He's not the leader anymore, but he's one of only a handful of players over a million chips, still well above average. Things have slowed a bit, so take a couple minutes to hear what Strassmann had to say:

Tags: Johannes Strassmann

Breaking News: Baekke Loses a Pot

N. El N.
N. El N.
Our count had Allan Baekke winning twelve pots in a row, but #13 was the unlucky one for the Dane.

[Removed:197] is the only man at his table that seems willing to tangle with Baekke, and this pot was heads up between the two of them once again. On a flop of {6-Clubs} {10-Clubs} {9-Spades}, [Removed:198] fired out a bet of 34,000. Baekke came over the top with a small raise to 70,000 only to see [Removed:198] move all in for a total of 402,000.

Baekke took a long soak in the think tank as the chips were counted down, and he eventually decided to end his streak at twelve and concede this one.

Despite that loss, the Danish juggernaut is up to about 1.88 million and well out in front of the field.

Tags: Allan Baekke

Vadim Markushevski Eliminated

Vadim Markushevski - Eliminated
Vadim Markushevski - Eliminated
From the hijack, Team PokerStars Pro Vadim Markushevski raised to 27,000. Alexander Debus re-raised to 75,000 from the cutoff and action folded back to Markushevski. He moved all in for about 330,000 and Debus made the call.

Markushevski: {4-Hearts}{4-Clubs}
Debus: {7-Hearts}{7-Clubs}

The board ran out {3-Clubs}{10-Spades}{3-Hearts}{Q-Hearts}{3-Diamonds} and Markushevski was sent away in 28th place.

Debus is up over 800,000.

Tags: Alexander DebusVadim Markushevski

Baekke the Big Bully

Allan Baekke is on an absolute tear.

We just witnessed him win, quite literally twelve small pots in a row at his table. None of them were particularly notable, just lots of chip-chipping up the board.

Okay, we'll give you one. From middle position, [Removed:197] opened to 26,000, and Bakke was the lone caller with position. Both men checked the flop of {4-Hearts} {4-Clubs} {3-Hearts}, and the {3-Clubs} hit fourth street. That drew a tiny bet of 14,000 from [Removed:198], and Baekke quickly called. Once again, they check-checked the river {8-Clubs}.

"Queen-high," said [Removed:198]. Baekke quietly tabled {K-?} {J-?}, looking a bit surprised to have the best of it there.

That was Pot #10 in this string of victories, and he won two more small ones on the next two hands.

Tags: Allan Baekke