Joentausta Maintains His Lead Into Day 4
The third day of the European Poker Tour in Berlin was action packed and just 55 players remain after five levels of play. It was a race for first place between Aku Joentausta and Anaras Alekberovas, which was won by the the former, who signed off on 1,039,000 chips at the end of the day. Emil Ohlsson finished in second place with 1,011,000 - the only other player with a seven-figure stack - and Alekberovas bagged 805,000.
One of the biggest stories of Day 3 was that of defending champion Davidi Kitai. The Belgian Triple Crown winner started the day with a very healthy stack but nothing went his way. After running jacks into kings early on he lingered around for a bit before busting in 129th place for €8,000. Kitai did not repeat his amazing feat from last year, but at least he managed to finish in the money. In total 32 players that started the third day of play went home empty handed.
Among the players that did not reached the money were Philippe Ktorza, Erik van den Berg, a very unlucky Ami Barer and our bubble boy Team Pro Martin Hruby. The money bubble lasted for just over an hour and on the very last hand the level it was Hruby who ended up all in with a set against Theodoros Aidonopoulos' straight and flush draw. Hruby's opponent rivered a straight and that ended the Team Pro's tournament. At this point in the tournament many eyes were already on Aku Joentausta. The young Finnish pro was tearing it up with his agressive style and he kept adding to the chip lead he started the day with.
A crazy all-in fest started after the money bubble burst, and players were eliminated left and right. Team Online member Mickey Petersen was among the first to be eliminated together with Team Pro Jan Heitmann. Heinz Kamutzki, John Eames, Tim Ulrich, Todd Terry, Adam Levy and Alexander Zayonts. The latter played an enormous pot against fellow countryman Ramil Yusupov in a good old slow-play battle. A river check-raise induced a shove from Yusupov who had a higher set than his opponent. Zayonts smiled as he exited the tournament area as there was nothing he could've done about this set-over-set cooler.
Former EPT winner Salvatore Bonavena was eliminated in 95th place which leaves us with four former winners on Day 4. There still hasn't been a double EPT winner, and Thang Duc Nguyen - 779,000 (Baden, Season 3) - Team Pro Sandra Naujoks - 202,000 (Dortmund, Season 5) - Team Pro Liv Boeree - 279,000 (San Remo, Season 6) - and Kevin Stani - 681,000 (Tallinn, Season 7) - are all still in the running for that achievement. Dominik Nitsche, owner of the unorthodox Triple Crown (LAPT, WSOP and WPT) cashed in Berlin, but his first EPT title will have to wait a bit longer. After losing a big pot to Team Pro Theo Jorgensen he was knocked out against Denis Sagorski when his tens didn't hold up against ace-queen.
The joy for Jorgensen and Sagorski didn't last long as both players were eliminated before the day ended. Jorgensen, coming off of a fourth-place finish in London, re-shoved seven-deuce into ace-deuce and finished in 60th place. Sagorski's elimination was perhaps the most exciting hand of the day as he played a massive pot against chip leader Joentausta.
"I was hating myself when he said all in," Joentausta said after the hand. "Maybe it's because of the way I look because nobody ever believes me," the young Finn added as he went up to 1.5 million after this huge hand.
Sagorski called off a five-bet shove for more than 50 big blinds with king-ten suited. The other big stack, Anaras Alekberovas, won his chips by busting Manig Loeser and picking up a ton of smaller pots.
Long-time EPT regulars Barny Boatman and Juha Helppi were knocked out in the final level, as was London finalist Tamer Kamel. Other survivors include Bryn Kenney, Pratyush Buddiga, Calvin Anderson, Natalie Hof and Daniel-Gai Pidun, who cashed EPT Berlin for the third time in a row this year. German tennis legend and Team SportsStar Boris Becker is still in the race with 116,000 chips. This is his deepest run in an EPT Main Event.
Play will resume tomorrow at noon local time as we play down to the final 16. All the players that made it to Day 4 are guaranteed to make at least €15,000, while surviving tomorrow would mean they've secured a €33,000 payday. The big money will be handed out on Saturday when a new EPT Berlin winner will be crowned who will take home €880,000.
Make sure to tune back into PokerNews.com as we bring you all the live updates tomorrow of both the Main Event and the €10,000 High Roller. For now good night from Berlin and auf wiedersehen!