Dinesh Alt raised to 20,000 from the button and Demetrio Caminita was sitting in the small blind. He glanced over to Lars Koerts and then decided to shove with the biggest stack at the table. Koerts folded and Alt called for the 142,000 he had behind.
Dinesh Alt:
Demetrio Caminita:
The board ran out for Caminita to river the higher two pair to eliminate Alt and send him away from the feature table.
Andreas Boelling raised to 22,000 from the hijack with the and Demetrio Caminita three-bet to 65,000 from the cutoff with the . The action folded back to Boelling who made the call.
The flop came , Caminita continued with a bet of 55,000 which Boelling called.
The turn was the for Caminita to hit the flush. Caminita check-called the 100,000 bet of Boelling.
The river completed the board with the for Caminita to check for the final time with the best hand. Boelling shoved for 519,000 for Caminita to snap-call to bust Boelling and grab the chip lead.
The action was picked up on the flop on which Tom Vogelsang check-called a small bet by Dimitar Danchev. They headed to the turn on which Vogelsang bet 45,000 and Danchev called, having given his table neighbour a brief stare down.
On the river, Vogelsang pushed all-in for around 200,000 and Danchev snap-called with the slightly superior stack. Vogelsang flipped over his for a full house, eights full of tens but Danchev had that beat with the for tens full of eights. Both stacks were counted and Danchev's 212,000 were covering by fewer than two blinds.
In a preflop raising war involving Mario Navarro on the button and Dominik Panka in the small blind, it was the latter who ended up as the player at risk for what appeared to be 429,000.
Dominik Panka:
Mario Navarro:
The dominated pair was also covered in the suits as well and Panka found no miracle escape on the runout to see his bid for a second EPT Main Event title come up short.
Yet another preflop all-in contest saw a confrontation between Piotr Nurzynski and Alexandre Amiel with the next former EPT Main Event champion at risk.
Piotr Nurzynski:
Alexandre Amiel:
The flop gave Nurzynski the top set and he had very little to fear. However, the turn and river gave Amiel an unexpected ten-high straight and sent Nurzynski to the payout desk in 51st place.
In a three-bet pot against Roi Pereira, Paul Tedeschi flopped two pair on with and got it in against the for a flush draw. Two blanks followed on the turn and river, which sent Pereira to the payout desk.
Soon after, Tedeschi raised and called a three-bet to 140,000 by Juan Carlos Vecino. Both players agreed to get the chips in blind after the flop as Vecino had just 37,000 behind. The flop indeed provided that action with the Spaniard at risk.
Juan Carlos Vecino:
Paul Tedeschi:
The turn locked up the double and the river became a formality.
The 2021 PokerStars EPT Prague €5,300 Main Event is one step closer to crowning a champion. After five levels of 90 minutes each, the 1,190 entry strong field has been cut down to the final 42 hopefuls in the King's Casino at the Hilton Hotel Prague. Three EPT champions of the popular live poker circuit remain in contention to potentially become the third two-time winner and this also includes Hossein Ensan, who lifted the coveted trophy back in 2015.
However, it is South Korea's Gab Yong Kim at the top of the leaderboard with a stack of 2,300,000. Kim knows what it takes to run deep in the marquee event in the capital of the Czech Republic as he finished 9th for €74,770 in the last live edition back in 2019. Trailing Kim by only five big blinds is Dawid Kuliberda (2,200,000) while Demetrio Caminita follows not far behind with 1,850,000.
EPT Prague €5,300 Main Event Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Gab Yong Kim
South Korea
2,300,000
115
2
Dawid Kuliberda
Poland
2,200,000
110
3
Demetrio Caminita
Italy
1,850,000
93
4
Duco ten Haven
Netherlands
1,550,000
78
5
Teun Mulder
Netherlands
1,510,000
76
6
Leonardo Romeo
Italy
1,400,000
70
7
David Huspeka
Czech Republic
1,350,000
68
8
Erik Bauer
Netherlands
1,310,000
66
9
Jack Sinclair
United Kingdom
1,230,000
62
10
Mario Navarro
Spain
1,230,000
62
The overnight top ten also includes Dutch High Roller Teun Mulder (1,510,000) and the 2018 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Jack Sinclair (1,230,000). Dimitar Danchev leads the trio of former EPT Main Event winners with a stack of 845,000, followed by Ensan (765,000) and Adrian Mateos (495,000). Fellow former champions Dominik Panka and Piotr Nurzynski were sent to the rail in the penultimate level of the night.
Notables returning for Day 4 include Armin Rezaei, Robert Heidorn, Bruno Fitoussi, Paul Tedeschi, Antoine Saout, Luigi Shehadeh and Alexandros Kolonias. PokerStars ambassador Rafael Moraes was among the 119 returning contenders but ran out of chips early on, finishing in 102nd place for €11,140. He was joined on the rail by the likes of Jorryt van Hoof, Ana Marquez, Conor Beresford, Martin Kabrhel, Masato Yokosawa, Simeon Naydenov, and Daniel Dvoress.
Moraes lost a flip to Mario Navarro when ace-king failed to catch any help against pocket tens. Kabrhel was also among the early casualties when he was unable to solve a kicker problem with a dominated ace. The popular Youtuber and GPI award winner Yokosawa saw his hopes vanish after he flopped top pair only for Boris Angelov to turn two pair.
Eventual chip leader Kim consistently added chips to his growing stack and scored several knockouts including a memorable double elimination. The biggest pot of the day was awarded to Caminita over on the feature table when Germany's Andreas Boelling got it in with top pair and the nut flush blocker.
In the late stages of the day, the pace of eliminations slowed down. High-profile casualties included the two former EPT champions Panka and Nurzynski, who departed within a few minutes from each other. Nurzynski saw his pocket aces cracked by ace-ten when Alexandre Amiel hit running cards to a straight.
The remaining 42 contenders have locked up a payday of €17,780 so far but all eyes are set on the top prize worth €1,033,520. Another three tournament days remain to crown a champion and Day 4 will commence on Monday, March 14, 2022, at noon local time. The blinds will then continue in level 22 at 10,000/20,000 and a big blind ante of 20,000.
It is expected that Day 4 will consist of up to five 90-minute levels or stop at the final two tables while Day 5 will then play down to the official final table. PokerStars will be broadcasting the live stream action on a security delay of 30 minutes on the YouTube and Twitch channels. Furthermore, the PokerNews team will be on the floor from start to finish.