The European Poker Tour is one day closer to crowning the first-ever EPT Paris Main Event champion after five and a half 90-minute levels of play on Day 3 that saw Germany's Konstantin Held bagging a big chip lead with 2,935,000. Held's nearly 150 big blinds put him atop the remaining field of 47 players and in front of big stacks Fabrice Bigot (2,235,000), Brian Delaney (2,180,000) and Denzel Spekman (2,075,000).
The German held up better than his brother, Justus Held, who was also in the Day 3 field but bowed out in 109th place for €14,100. The other Held looks for his first major title as, Bigot, the player second in chips, seeks to continue this month's heater after he took down the €1,100 WPT Prime Paris Main Event for €177,240.
There are still plenty of big names fighting for the top prize of €1,170,000 in the €5,300 buy-in event, which drew the largest-ever EPT Main Event field outside of Barcelona. EPT champion Manig Loeser bagged a stack of 1,670,000 as he looks for a second title, while online crusher Niklas Astedt and high-stakes stars Ben Heath and Alex Kulev are also in contention after Kulev eliminated fellow high-roller Mike Watson in the final minutes of play.
€5,300 EPT Paris Main Event End of Day 3 Top Ten
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 4 Big Blinds
1
Konstantin Held
Germany
2,935,000
147
2
Fabrice Bigot
France
2,235,000
112
3
Brian Delaney
United Kingdom
2,180,000
109
4
Denzel Spekman
Netherlands
2,075,000
104
5
Niklas Astedt
Sweden
1,795,000
90
6
Harry Lodge
United Kingdom
1,775,000
89
7
Manig Loeser
Germany
1,670,000
84
8
Miroslav Alilovic
France
1,610,000
81
9
Daniel Wilson
Ireland
1,550,000
78
10
Arthur Conan
France
1,550,000
78
Stars Fall on Day 3
The Day 3 field started off sizeable enough with 174 players and, like in the days that came before it, it didn't take long for that number to drop drastically. Some of those who fell early in the day included Fabian Gumz (172nd - €10,650), Sam Greenwood (154th - €10,650), Day 1a chip leader Omar Gonzalez (148th - €10,650) and Nick Petrangelo (135th - €12,250).
Popular French poker vlogger Johan Guilbert, who was roundly criticized on social media for his excessive tanking on Day 2, had to adapt his strategy a bit on Day 3 with 30-second shot clocks coming into play. "YoH ViraL" took a tough beat on the feature table when he got it in with ace-king against the ace-nine of Alexandros Kolonias, who managed to turn a nine to eliminate Guilbert ahead of the dinner break.
Johan Guilbert
Benny Glaser was seeking another big score after the Brit finished runner-up in December 2022's WPT World Championship for $2.8 million. The recent millionaire had to settle for €18,650 this time as he went out in 69th place when he couldn't pair his ace-jack against the pocket eights of recent EPT Prague €3,000 Mystery Bounty champ Mathieu Di Meglio.
EPT Main Event champion Roberto Romanello was after his second title but fell in 62nd place before the final break of the day when his ace-four couldn't pull ahead of the queens of Murad Akhundov, despite the Welshman flopping a backdoor flush draw.
Roberto Romanello
Others who were unable to survive the day include Orpen Kisacikoglu, Jonathan Pastore, Paulina Loeliger, Andrew Lichtenberger and Masato Yokosawa.
Day 4 will commence at noon local time on Feb. 24 with blinds of 10,000/20,000/20,000 and the tournament is scheduled to play two more days after that before a winner takes home the trophy and the lion's share of the €7,708,800 prize pool.
That's all the action for Day 3, but stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow here at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile as the march continues to an inaugural EPT Paris Main Event champion being crowned.
