Kamel Boukhalfa was all in pre flop with for about 320,000. His opponent was Anthony Lerust who had his countryman severely dominated holding .
No sweat at what point whatsoever for Lerust: . Unable to win from the turn on, Boukhalfa stood up from the table and wished everyone good luck before the hand was really over.
A thumb down to the camera, the tournament loses a fun loving Frenchman in Kamel Boukhalfa. He doesn't go home empty handed though, he takes €24,450 with him.
After a long period on inaction at the outer tables (even the percentage of three-bets had dropped) there was then a lightning fast all-in.
It passed to Chun Ho Law on the button, he raised to 41,000 and called when Mustapha Amaouche moved all-in for 260,000 total from the small blind. Law rolled over and it was a race against Amaouche's . The flop gave Amaouche the lead, the strengthened it but the river gave the pot to Law and Amaouche shot out of his chair, knocking it over in the process.
He soon returned to the table though and shook Law's hand before wishing the table good luck.
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Dimitri Holdeew opened the action with a raise to 40,000 under the gun. Right next to him sat Tatu Maenpaa in the hijack and he made it 100,000 to go. A couple spots down Andrew Sweeney found himself a decision. From the small blind he pushed all in and the big blind, Holdeew and Maenpaa all made quick decisions. The first two quickly folded, Maenpaa quickly called.
As a result we're not entirely sure how much Sweeney had at that point. We are sure he had and we are sure he was in trouble as Maenpaa had .
The , and on the flop weren't any good for Sweeney. "An eight for a sweat?" he asked the dealer. The dealer did not oblige, the on the turn left Sweeney drawing dead. The on the river was there just to make it official.
There had been precious little action and no showdowns on the other table for the first 30 minutes of the level but that all changed in the following hand.
It folded to Konstantin Tolonko on the button and the Russian raised to 50,000 from a stack of roughly 800,000, Chun Ho Law then three-bet to 140,000 from the small blind, Tolonko moved all-in and Law made the call.
Tolonko:
Law:
The flop gave Law the lead and he held on the turn and river. With that pot Law is going to be very close to the overall chip lead as he's moved to around 2,625,000.
With that exit play is over for the day, a full re-cap of the day's action will be forthcoming and live coverage will begin at noon local time when the 16 remaining players will play until a final table of eight is set.
Day 4 of the PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event started out with 41 players. The goal for the day was simple: either play down till 16 players remain, or play five full levels of 90 minutes. It took 4.5 level in the end, now just 16 remain.
Ekrem Sanioglu started out as the man to beat. The Frenchman, originally from Turkey but living in France for 41 years, had 1.3 million to play with today. That was 130 big blinds, more than enough room for maneuver. Sanioglu turned out to like the maneuvering part a little too much. He splashed around with his chips and before he knew it they were all gone. Early on he tried to bluff JP Kelly. The English pro ended up calling with ace high, which was good. Sanioglu ended up busting in 28th place which still netted him €15,950.
Long before Sanioglu busted several other players had departed. EPT Season 8 Player of the Year Ondrej Vinklarek was one of the first to leave. He couldn't win the crucial coinflip against Jeffrey Hakim with ace jack to Hakim's pocket fives.
Around that time Sotirios Koutoupas made his first moves climbing up the leaderboard ladder. He busted Frenchman Michel Pomaret in a remarkable hand where he made a gutsy call. It turned out to be a great call, one of many on Day 4.
One time chip leader Dario Sammartino fell early on as well. His headsman was Tatu Maenpaa, another player, like Sotirios Koutoupas, that made a name for himself on the fourth day of play. The Finnish player busted Sammartino in a standard cooler situation where his ace-queen was good for the nuts on a board including a king, jack and ten. Sammartino had pocket kings for top set so that wasn't a particular showing of craftsmanship. Anybody who has watched Maenpaa play knows he knows his poker though, the Scandinavian turned out to be an ice cold killer at the table.
Not much later the biggest pot of the tournament commenced. Worth 2,535,000 (at that time four times the tournament average) played out on the feature table and it was a brutal exit for Robert Szecsi and made Tatu Maenpaa the overwhelming tournament chip leader.
Eugene Katchalov opened to 25,000, Maenpaa three-bet to 75,000 from the small blind only for Szecsi to four-bet to 185,000 from the big blind. Katchalov folded, but Maenpaa went into the tank. Both players started the hand with over hundred big blinds and Maenpaa elected to call.
On the flop Maenpaa checked to Szecsi who continuation bet 145,000, Maenpaa took a look at his cards, then announced all-in for 1,101,000 total and Szecsi snap-called. He was all-in for 1,063,000.
Maenpaa:
Szecsi:
According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator Szecsi was a 67% favourite to win the hand, however the turn meant that Maenpaa was now a 75% favourite to win the huge pot. Szecsi had some outs but missed them all on the river. Maenpaa had Szecsi covered but only just and the shell shocked Hungarian exited stage left; 30th for €15,950.
EPT Loutraki winner Zimnan Ziyard was eliminated not much later. No two time European Poker Tour winner thus this tournament. He was crippled in a hand against Alexandre Amiel. On an board he called a 100,000 river bet from Frenchman Alexandre Amiel. Amiel showed , Ziyard mucked his in a cutoff versus button situation.
With just under 90,000 left he open raised some hands later to 85,000. Behind him was Carlo De Benedittis who shoved all in. The other players quickly folded and Ziyard made the call for a few 1,000 more. Ziyard showed his first. Again De Benedittis looked for some seconds to his cards. Again he made a checking motion with them, giving Ziyard a couple of seconds of hope. Hope of a flip, or even maybe the best hand? Nope... De Benedittis finally showed his and the dealer could start dealing a board. The fours of Ziyard found no help anywhere: . And just like that the EPT Deauville 2014 Main Event was free of former EPT winners.
With the elimination of Russian player Konstantin Tolokno in 17th place (€27,680) the tournament was done for the day. 16 players remain and we'll be looking to lose 8 more on Day 5 to make a final table.
Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov is still in. On Day 3 he was able to crush and dominate. On Day 4 not so much, he ended the day with slightly less than he started with. JP Kelly was able to grind his way up and besides the hero call we mentioned earlier, didn't do anything super spectacular. Both have enough big blinds, so look for them on the live stream tomorrow. Or will the television crew pick the table with chip leader Sotirios Koutoupas? The Greek finished runner up to Ramzi Jelassi in EPT Prague last season, and went deep last December there as well. Now he has 2,695,000 in chips, can he win it here?
The table draw is as followed:
Table
Seat
Name
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
1
Tatu Maenpaa
Finland
1,921,000
80
1
2
Eli Heath
UK
1,191,000
50
1
3
Eugene Katchalov
Ukraine
1,002,000
42
1
4
Bahram Chobineh
Iran
327,000
14
1
5
Anthony Lerust
France
839,000
35
1
6
JP Kelly
UK
1,807,000
75
1
7
Rustem Muratov
Russia
548,000
23
1
8
Chun Ho Law
UK
2,679,000
112
2
1
Alexandre Amiel
France
1,174,000
49
2
2
Sotirios Koutoupas
Greece
2,695,000
112
2
3
Carlo De Benedittis
Italy
417,000
17
2
4
Dimitri Holdeew
Germany
637,000
27
2
5
Jean-Yves Malherbe
Belgium
476,000
20
2
6
Florian Ribouchon
France
1,719,000
72
2
7
Alex Goulder
UK
1,365,000
57
2
8
Oliver Price
UK
1,275,000
53
Blinds will start at 12,000/24,000 with a 3,000 ante. Bahram Chobineh is the shortest stack, but he's having the time of his life. PokerNews' Felicia Field talked to him in one of the breaks:
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