The tournament staff just announced the remaining players will play five more levels before bagging and tagging for the night. We're headed out to capture any late action and to compile some chip counts. Stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 3 action.
2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final
Andre Akkari opened for 16,000 under the gun and action folded to Josh Prager who made it 45,000. "I'm happy to show you" Prager said with a smile, trying to convince Akkari to just lay it down.
Akkari asked how much it was, and then four-bet to 125,000. "I show you" he replied with a smile.
"Ok, I'm all in" Prager said. Akkari made the call for 296,000 total.
Josh Prager:
Andre Akkari:
The flop came and everyone held their breath. The on the turn was a blank but the on the river wasn't.
"Two tough days" Prager mumbled, "Just take it!"
Prager's chips weren't all taken by Akkari, Prager had 70,000 left after the hand.
"He's the nicest guy in poker" Akkari said, talking about Prager, "Sorry man!"
"That's a bad beat man" Prager's neighbor Ole Schemion added.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Andre Akkari |
612,000
179,000
|
179,000 |
Josh Prager |
70,000
-310,000
|
-310,000 |
On Episode 11 of the Remko Report, Dong 'donger kim' Kim joined Remko Rinkema in Seoul, South Korea, to talk about the local culture, competing against the best heads-up players in the world, and much more.
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A player opened to 16,000 in early position, and Anatoly Chen called. Juan Martin Pastor three-bet to 52,000 from the cutoff, folding out everyone but Chen, who decided to stick around. Chen stayed sticky on the board, check-calling 54,000 on the flop and 109,000 on the turn. He switched gears on the end though, jamming to put Pastor at risk. The Argentinian quickly folded.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Anatoly Chen |
700,000
22,000
|
22,000 |
Juan Martin Pastor |
272,000
8,000
|
8,000 |
Ludovic Geilich put Josh Prager all in blind versus blind, and Prager called.
Prager:
Geilich:
The poor luck continued for Prager as he had a solid hand dominated, and the board meant he was done.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Ludovic Geilich |
270,000
-30,000
|
-30,000 |
Josh Prager | Busted |
We'll have a full list of chip counts shortly, along with a recap of the day's action. Stay tuned.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Jose Carlos Garcia |
1,710,000
510,000
|
510,000 |
Connor Drinan |
1,065,000
286,000
|
286,000 |
Anatoly Chen |
987,000
287,000
|
287,000 |
Scott Clements |
909,000
149,000
|
149,000 |
Hady El Asmar |
890,000
-93,000
|
-93,000 |
Dario Sammartino |
827,000
452,000
|
452,000 |
Ole Schemion |
823,000
158,000
|
158,000 |
Johnny Lodden |
728,000
153,000
|
153,000 |
Andre Akkari |
574,000
-38,000
|
-38,000 |
Anton Astapau |
561,000
161,000
|
161,000 |
Joao Simao |
546,000
-284,000
|
-284,000 |
Jason Mercier |
539,000
-112,000
|
-112,000 |
Tom Hall |
536,000
296,000
|
296,000 |
Ryan McEathron |
521,000
-93,000
|
-93,000 |
Muhyedine Fares |
439,000
261,000
|
261,000 |
Christopher Frank |
435,000
140,000
|
140,000 |
Dmitry Ivanov |
393,000
58,000
|
58,000 |
Koichi Nozaki |
387,000
-76,000
|
-76,000 |
Stephen Chidwick |
383,000
-55,000
|
-55,000 |
Adrian Mateos |
376,000
148,000
|
148,000 |
|
||
Quan Zhou |
370,000
19,000
|
19,000 |
Markus Ross |
348,000
-176,000
|
-176,000 |
Ludovic Geilich |
346,000
76,000
|
76,000 |
Romain Paon |
332,000
25,000
|
25,000 |
Philippe Narboni |
320,000
53,000
|
53,000 |
With all of the other tables finished for the night, all eyes were on the table featuring the current chip-leader, Jose Carlos Garcia. In the last hand of the night Garcia opened from early position and Joao Simao called from the big blind. The flop was and Simao lead for 22,000, which then Garcia called.
The turn was the , but this time Simao checked, allowing Garcia to bet 68,000, which Simao called.
The river brought the , and this time Garcia bet 100,000. Simao called but mucked when Garcia showed . A big pot for the chip leader meant the ended the day just shy of 700,000 chips ahead of his nearest rival.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Jose Carlos Garcia | 1,710,000 |
Day 3 of the 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €10,600 Main Event saw 114 players from a 564-player field return for five 90-minute levels of play. By the time the last second ticked off the clock, just 34 remained in contention for the €1,082,000 first-place prize.
Jose Carlos Garcia, who was the overall Day 1 chip leader, is best positioned to make a run at the top prize as the chip leader with 1.71 million, but he faces some stiff competition that includes the only other player over a million, Connor Drinan (1.065 million); two-time World Poker Tour champ and last year's 20th-place finisher Scott Clements (909,000); and Global Poker Index Player of the Year Ole Schemion (823,000), just to name a few.
Garcia not only played well, he ran well and picked up quality hands in big spots. For instance, in Level 18 (3,000/6,000/1,000) there was 409,000 in the pot and a flop of when Bulgaria's Nikolay Tsanev got his last 217,000 all in against Garcia.
Tsanev:
Garcia:
It was a cooler for Tsanev, and no miracle lady would appear as the blanked on the turn followed by the on the river. Tsanev exited in 58th place for €20,900, though not everyone was fortunate enough to cash. Toss in a big one in the last hand of the night, and Garcia bagged up a hefty lead.
The day began with everyone intent on making the money at the top 79, but 35 players fell short of accomplishing that goal. Among those to fall in the first few levels and leave empty handed were Dan Heimiller, Randal Flowers, Mayu Roca, Charlie Carrel, Nick Petrangelo, Bryan Paris, Giuliano Bendinelli, Scott Davies, Vanessa Selbst, Ami Barer, David Peters, and Eric Sfez, who earned the unfortunate distinction as bubble boy.
It happened in Level 17 (2,500/5,000/5000 when Sfez, who had dwindled to just three big blinds, got his stack all in preflop and was at risk against Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier.
Sfez:
Mercier:
The flop gave Mercier a wheel draw, but it'd be the turn that would give him the best hand. The river failed to save Sfez, and he made the long walk out of the room while the remaining players each locked up €19,175.
From there, the in-the-money finishes came at a rapid place and included former EPT Grand Final champs Nicolas Chouity (78th - €19,175) and Steve O'Dwyer (74th - €19,175); Lasse Frost, who collapsed on Day 1b and was rushed to the hospital only to return before he was blinded off (72nd - €19,175); Americans Maria Ho (69th - €20,900) and Jason Wheeler (63rd - €20,900); Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov (64th - €20,900); and Jean Montury (43rd - €23,125), who won the EPT Malta last month for €687,400.
While many fell, plenty of big names punched their ticket to Day 4 including Team PokerStars Pros Johnny Lodden (728,000), Andre Akkari (574,000), Jason Mercier (539,000) and Isaac Haxton (112,000); EPT regular Tom Hall (539,000); German wunderkind Christopher Frank (435,000); the UK's Stephen Chidwick (383,000); former World Series of Poker Europe champ Adrian Mateos (376,000); the €50,000 Super High Roller champ Mustapha Kanit (213,000); and online star Liviu "0Human0" Ignat (211,000)
Day 4 will kick off at Noon local time on Wednesday, and the plan is to play down to either the final 16 players or the end of Level 24, whichever comes first. In addition, the three-day €25,000 High Roller event will commence at 12:30 p.m. PokerNews will be providing live updates from both events.
Until then, check out this video of Jeremy Ausmus talking about America vs. Europe:
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€10,600 Main Event
Day 3 Completed