2012 PokerStars.net EPT Prague

Day 3 of the Season 9 PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Prague, the largest tournament in Czech Republic history, played out today as 161 players returned to action and aimed to make the money at the top 128. After five 90-minute levels of play, just 55 players remain with Ramzi Jelassi and his stack of 1.238 million leading the way.

Jelassi became the chip leader after eliminating Sirzat Hissou in a huge pot. The latter got his stack of 330,000 all in on a flop holding only to discover that his Swedish opponent held . The turn and river completed the board and Jelassi vaulted to over a million in chips.

Unfortunately not everyone was as fortunate as Jelassi on Day 3. Some who fell short of the money were Lardo Leheste, Mike Watson, Jacob Toole, Kent Lundmark, Ari Engel, Ignat “0Human0” Liviu and PokerStars Team Pro Pier Paolo Fabretti.

When 129 players remained, the money bubble was in effect and hand-for-hand play was instituted. It took a fair amount of time, but eventually the bubble burst. It happened when Rasmus Agerskov three-bet to 24,500 from the button and Andreas Berggren four-bet to 62,000 from the small blind. The original raiser folded and the action was back on Agerskov, who thought for a solid five before moving all in. Agerskov made a quick call and the cards were turned up:

Showdown
Agerskov:
Berggren:

The board ran and Agerskov exited as the bubble boy, ensuring the remaining 128 players a guaranteed €8,000 payday.

From there the eliminations came in a flurry including 2012 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event runner-up Sergey Baranov (116th - €8,000); Day 1b chip leader Vadim Belov (106th - €8,000); PokerStars Team Pros Juan Manuel Pastor (113th - €8,000) and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (100th - €8,000); Petr Jelinek (96th - €10,000); John Eames (87th - €10,000); Marc-Andre Ladouceur (77th - €10,000); Shannon Shorr (65th - €12,000) and Vincent van der Fluit (57th - €12,000).

While 106 players hit the rail on Day 3, a few notables managed to punch their ticket to Day 4 including Todd Terry, Roger Hairabedian, Robert Peltecci, Fabrice Soulier, Johnny Lodden, Jeff Sarwer, Mark Herm and Chris Brammer. In addition, Roberto Romanello, who won the EPT Prague back in Season 7, is looking for his second title in three years.

End-of-Day-3 Top Ten Chip Counts

Day 4 of the EPT Prague Main Event is set to begin at 12:00 CET tomorrow and will play down to the final 24. Join us then as we bring you all the latest and greatest from the Czech Republic.

The clock has paused and each table will play three more hands before play concludes. Stay tuned for a full recap of the Day 3 action.

When we reached the table, the board was and there was about 100,000 in the middle. By looks of things, Manuel Bevand had led out on the river for 38,000, and Jose Manuel Nadal Sordo had raised to 118,000.

The action was back on Bevand who tanked for a very, very long time. During the first three minutes, he was silent. Taking his eyes off of Sordo for only seconds at a time. Then, after roughly three or four minutes, Bevand started to talk to Sordo.

"Good bet," he said smiling.

Sordo said nothing. About 30 more seconds passed.

"Give me something," Bevand begged. "Give me a reason."

About another minute passed, and then Bevand called the clock on himself. When the tournament director arrived, the Frenchman started grinning like a school boy.

45 seconds.

"There are so many people watching," Bevand said. "I almost have to call now."

30 seconds.

Suddenly, Bevand slammed a stack of blue T5,000 chips down across the line. Sordo turned over for ace-high, and Bevand spiked onto the felt.

With that hero call, Bevand is up to 575,000 chips. Sordo dropped to around 230,000.

Roger Hairabedian, who is chasing down Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in a French leaderboard, has just doubled up through Aleh Plauski and increased his chances of catching the Team PokerStars Pro.

Hairabedian got his short stack into the middle of the felt with and was up against the of Plauski. Hairabedian stood from his seat as the dealer put out the flop, but he sat straight back down when the showed up on the turn as it locked up the hand for him. The fell on the river and Hairabedian doubled up.

Vincent van der Fluit's ride has come to an end after he ran big-slick into the rockets of Mikhail Petrov.

We missed the action but all the chips went in pre flop.

Petrov:
Van Der Fluit:

The board ran .

A lot of fan boys back in Holland will be disappointed.

The PokerStars Blog team meet Michael Müller, the brains behind paysafecard, at EPT Prague. Find out more about by clicking through to the PokerStars Blog.

Marlek Tatar of Slovakia is helping the day pass along by drinking a few glasses of vodka. Roberto Romanello hast told Tatar that he will drink one glass to every three Tatar consumes. So far Tatar has declined Romanello's offer.

Anyway, back to the hand. Tatar opened to 17,000 in the hijack and Jorma Nuutinen called on the button. Both blinds folded and the dealer fanned out the flop.

"Vodka please!" cried Tatar as the dealer got to work.

Tatar checked, Nuutinen bet 20,000 and Tatar called. That was the last of the betting because the duo checked the arrival of the turn and river, Tatar's beating Nuutinen's .

"Don't your chips work? You had a pair of aces!" quipped Romanello.

"What would I get with his [Nuutinen] hand?" replied Tatar.

"You didn't know he had king-jack," said Romanello.

"When I drink I see everything!" claimed Tatar, before stacking his chips and draining the rest of his drink from his glass.

Ater losing a massive, 400,000-chip raise with queens to an opponent's ace-king, Jeffrey Hakim moved all in for his last 50,000 or so, and Jeff Sarwer looked him up.

Hakim:
Sarwer:

The flop was disastrous for Hakim, and it was all over after the turned. A meaningless completed the board, and Hakim hit the rail.