Timur Vardanian raised to 80,000 under the gun and Halil Tasyurek called in the cutoff. Jose Gonzalez Sanchez also called on the button, while Gerard Carbo defended in the big blind.
The flop came 3♠5♦9♠ and Vardanian bet 130,000. Tasyurek and Gonzalez Sanchez called, while Carbo got out of the way.
All three players checked the 4♣ turn as the 8♦ fell on the river. Action was checked through again, and Vardanian showed J♦J♣ to win the pot against Tasyurek's 10♠10♦ and the 6♥4♥ of Gonzalez Sanchez.
Only 16 players remain after Day 4 of the $5,300 EPT Main Event at PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus and a new champion will be crowned following the elimination of Anton Wigg, the last remaining EPT Main Event winner, in 18th place. Leading the final two tables is Italy's Andrea Dato with 6,155,000 chips as he looks to add to his $1.8 million in tournament earnings, while fellow big stacks [Removed:553] (4,430,000) and Victor Yugay (3,870,000) both seek their first major poker victories.
Other players still in the hunt for the $1,042,000 up top for the first-ever EPT Cyprus Main Event champion include Belgium's Kenny Hallaert, Britain's Marc Foggin and Day 3 chip leader Nathan Tetart.
EPT Cyprus Main Event Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Andrea Dato
Italy
6,155,000
154
2
[Removed:553]
Netherlands
4,430,000
111
3
Victor Yugay
Uzbekistan
3,870,000
97
4
Kenny Hallaert
Belgium
2,965,000
74
5
Nathan Tetart
France
2,725,000
68
6
Halil Tasyurek
Turkey
2,580,000
65
7
Marc Foggin
United Kingdom
2,570,000
64
8
Priit Parmasto
Estonia
2,385,000
60
9
Bjorn Kozenkai
Hungary
2,290,000
57
10
Aleksandr Faterin
Russia
2,090,000
52
11
Timur Vardanian
Russia
1,745,000
44
12
Nikita Kuznetsov
Russia
1,455,000
36
13
Yannick Schumacher
Germany
1,390,000
35
14
Jose Gonzalez Sanchez
Spain
1,155,000
29
15
Gerard Carbo
Spain
1,130,000
28
16
Alessandro Minasi
Italy
635,000
16
Day 4 Action
Players quickly dropped from the field in the first few hours of play, and among those to fall early were Carl Shaw (52nd - $18,700), Day 2 chip leader Gary Miller (44th - $18,700) and Shuang Luo, who jammed into the kings of Bjorn Kozenkai with jack-ten to fall in 41st place for $18,700.
Italy's Dario Sammartino made a deep run before running ace-jack into the Big Slick of Gerard Carbo and failing to improve to fall in 29th place for $24,700. Next out was Andrei Vavilonskii, who earlier this week finished fourth in the Eureka Main Event for $124,475 but now had to settle for $24,700 from his 28th-place finish.
Andrei Vavilonskii
2010 EPT Monte Carlo Champion Nicolas Chouity bowed out in 26th place for $28,425 as his ace-five couldn't hit against Yannick Schumacher's pocket tens to end his hopes of becoming the next two-time Main Event champion.
Harald Sammer was eliminated ahead of the three-table redraw when his ace-queen was pipped by the ace-king of Hallaert. After that, Siarhei Chudapal went out in 24th place for $28,425 as he called off with a no-good pair of aces against Kozenkai.
Day 4 wrapped up after the rapid-fire eliminations of Wigg in 18th when his fives couldn't hold against the ace-jack of Yugay, who the very next hand picked up ace-king in the big blind to dominate Atanas Malinov ahead of his elimination in 17th place.
Main Event Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
$1,042,000
8
$125,350
2
$652,200
9
$96,425
3
$465,425
10-11
$74,200
4
$358,075
12-13
$61,850
5
$275,425
14-15
$51,525
6
$211,850
16
$43,275
7
$162,925
Action will pick back up at noon local time on October 21 with 37 minutes and 12 seconds left on Level 25 with blinds of 20,000/40,000/40,000. The plan is to play down to the final six players who will make up Sunday's streamed final table.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is here on-site in northern Cyprus and will continue providing updates ahead of the next EPT Main Event champion being crowned.
