Main Event
Day 3 Started
2011 European Poker Tour Grand Final Madrid
Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2011 European Poker Tour Grand Final Madrid
Buy-in
€10,000
Prize Pool
€6,860,000
Entries
686
Level
31
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000
PokerStars.com EPT Madrid Day 3 Set to Commence
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
At midday today the remaining 104 players in the Grand Final of the European Poker Tour will reconvene at the felt to play down to 24. While everyone returning does so guaranteed of a cash prize (minimum €15,000 for the first player to bust today), the ultimate goal is one of the most prestigious titles around and €1,500,000.
Leading the field is Norwegian Ole Kristian [Removed:332] with 726,000, closely followed by Kristoffer Thorsson (701,500). In all 686 players started here at the Gran Casino Madrid - a tough group to fight through by anyone's standard - and these 104 will no doubt provide as entertaining a demonstration of tournament poker as any we've seen on the tour.
Still in the running are some of yesterday's mid-day leaders Melanie Weisner, Surinder Sunar, Ben Wilinofsky and Team Pro Victor Ramdin, as well as SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo on a short stack.
The cards will be in the air at midday local time - join us for live coverage from the eight-handed tables.
Level: 16
Blinds: 2,500/5,000
Ante: 500
Allen Bar-es His Teeth
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Sarah Grant scooped up Allen Bari on his way into Day 3 to discuss why he may not win this thing, but he will certainly keep some other 'expletives' from doing so.
Day 3 Go Go Go
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
By the by, there was the usual round of delays caused by having the TV company here, meaning that we started a little late, at around 12.20. Also, although we got most of the way through Level 16 last night when we were waiting for the bubble to burst, the TD has rolled the clock back to the start of the level - giving the shorter stacks just a little more leeway with their shoving opportunities.
Shuffle up and deal!
Ole, Ole, Ole
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Ole Kristian [Removed:332] has started as he clearly means to go on, after Torsten Brinkmann raised to 11,000 on the button the young Norwegian immediately made it 30,000 from the big blind and Brinkmann quickly folded.
Grad Glad; Hakim and Wu Blue
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Jason Grad, coming back as one of several stacks worryingly similar to the Day 1 starting stack of 30,000, has douhled through taking a punt with 
, called by Lucien Cohen with 
. He made a straight on the board and now has around half average.
Cohen, meanwhile, simply restocked his chip fridge by busting Raymond Wu moments later, raising on the button with 
and snapcalling when Wu shoved on the big blind for 40,000. Wu missed the 
board with his 
and takes a mincash - of a respectable €15,000.
On the other side of the room, Jeffrey Hakim made a quiet exit, pitting 
against Raemon Sluiter's . 
was the board - Hakim is 102nd.
Making a Pierre
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
After cracking aces with ace king on Day 1, then making quads against the nut full house on day 2, we were wondering what Shander de Vries had in store for us today on Day 3.
"Royal flush?" he said hopefully as he began to stack his now unbagged chips. It did not take long for him to get involved in the action...
The Dutchman had raise to 10,000 preflop with Pierre Neuville moving all in for 115,000 behind, a quick recheck of the cards and de Vries called with 
only to find himself dominated by the Belgian's 
. The flop came 
and Neuville did a weird little dance and although the 
turn brought chop outs, the river was the 
and the latter doubled up to about 240,000.
Thor-elimination
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
The short stack success story of last night - Jean-Noel Thorel, who bubble dodged the very last hand of the sixth level picking up kings with 10bb - is no more. Now with 100,000+ in front of him, Thorel saw a heads up flop of 
with Simon Higgins. Higgins led 12,000 and Thorel made it 25,000. Quickly Higgins set him all in and he snap-called.
Higgins:
Thorel: 
Turn: 
River:
Thorel made a sound like, "Achhh," and took his leave while the British online qualifier sits with a stack of 650,000. Addressing Kristoffer Thorsson, he said, "You're the best player on this table - did you expect when he snap called he had ace-nine?"
"No," said Thorsson.
Quickest. Call. Ever.
Level 16
: 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Georges Yazbeck has received a double up (to 200,000) after flopping a set of sevens on the button, turning a full house, and having Hugo Lemaire with aces in the cutoff. Lemaire had check-called Yazbeck's 12,000 on the 
turn, and called instantly when Lemaire set him in on the 
river. Yazbeck showed and Lemaire gave the table a flash of the useless high pair.