"Why not me? I have chips, there’s 17 people left, I don’t see any reason it can’t be me."
Those are the words Jack Salter, who was recently the subject of a PokerNews feature, told us after play concluded last night, and it is no doubt a sentiment being shared by each and every one of his 16 opponents. Why not me?
Today, nine of them will have an answer. Perhaps it'll be because of a bad beat, or because they punted their stack. Whatever the case, nine more players will fall here on Day 5 before the final table of eight is set. We're not sure how long it'll take to determine the finalists, but we do know we'll be here as long as it takes. With action resuming in Level 25 (15,000/30,000/4,000), we're guessing it won't take too terribly long.
The 2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final Main Event began with 650 players, and at the time Kenny Hicks was just one of many hoping for some luck to put himself in contention for the €1,240,000 first-place prize. Well, on Day 3 he found some when he became responsible for bursting the money bubble, and his good fortune continued on Day 4 when he rose to the top of the chips counts. Hicks will begin the day with 2,499,000.
The aforementioned Salter was also quite lucky on Day 4. That is when, with 41 players remaining, he went from 40th in chips with 97,000 to 1.75 million, currently third in chips. It was a storybook day for the man from the UK, and he'll have to wait and see if his momentum carries over to the penultimate day.
Other returning to action today are big stacks Martins Seilis (1,767,000), Antonio Buonanno (1,623,000), Mayu Roca (1,500,000), Malte Moennig (1,450,000), Vasili Firsau and (1,002,000). Also joining them is the last former EPT champ remaining in the field, Mark Teltscher (802,000); EPT10 Prague High Roller winner Ivan Soshnikov (731,000), PokerStars.fr TV Stars’ Miroslav Alilovic (500,000); and inaugural World Poker Tour Alpha8 champ Steven Silverman (436,000).
The minimum anyone will take home today is €55,850, but obviously there is a lot more on the line for everyone. Action is set to kick off at Noon local time, which is about 90 minutes from now. Join us then as we bring you all the latest and greatest on the way down to a final table!
