Alexandre Luneau opened to 7,000 and then got out of the way when Kristen Bicknell shoved from two seats over. Soon after, Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes raised to 7,000 from the button and the next short stack on the table shoved. It was Massimiliano Patroncini and Lopes checked his own stack again carefully before letting go.
Albert Daher made it 6,500 and got one caller before the player second from the bottom of the chip counts coming in, one Kenneth Hicks, shipped it in for his last 20,000.
Daher called, but the flat caller folded. Daher had the versus Hicks' and the sixes held on a run out to give Hicks the double.
Fabio Cortes Gago got his stack in with ace-nine and was called by Arnaud Peyroles with the superior ace-king according to Randy Lew, who was still stacking the chips after arriving a few minutes late. The board provided no surprise and Gago was gone.
Emin Aghayev just moved all in for his last 29,600 and Fabio Cortes Gago made the call to create the following showdown.
Aghayev:
Gago:
The board ran out and Aghayev was stunned that he managed to pull off a double up after seeing the hand of his opponent. Gago was left in agony as he's now one of the shortest stacks in the room.
The 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €5,300 Main Event continues in opulent Monaco today, with Day 3 beginning just after 12 p.m. local time.
France's Pierre Calamusa leads a field of 196 players coming in, with the 160th-place money bubble in clear sight. Poland's Marcin Chmielewski, and former France Player of the Year Erwann Pecheux are closely in tow.
Team PokerStars Pros Online Randy "nanonoko" Lew, Vanessa Selbst, Jake Cody, Team PokerStars SportsStar Fatima Moreira de Melo and the legendary Erik Seidel all have healthy stacks. Plus, previous EPT winners Aaron Gustavson, John Juanda, Mike Watson, Salvatore Bonavena, Dimitar Danchev, Joseph Mouawad and Davidi Kitai also remain in the hunt.
A minimum cash is worth €8,890, but all eyes will surely be on the €961,800 first-place prize, as they go into the money and beyond on yet another perfect day on the French Riviera.
The levels increase to 90 minutes today and they are sure to be filled with tons of poker action. Of course, The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand from the call to shuffle up and deal until the survivors bag and tag, so just sit back and enjoy our coverage of Day 3 of the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €5,300 Main Event.