Oscar Mas moved all in from under the gun, Ahmed Karrim reshoved next to act, and the rest of the table folded.
Ahmed Karrim: A♠K♠
Oscar Mas: 8♠8♦
Both players were virtually even in chips and flipping for the pot as the flop came 10♠6♦5♣. The 10♣ turn was no help for Karrim, while the J♥ river sealed the pot for Mas.
The stacks were counted down and Mas had 390,000, while Karrim had 375,000 and was eliminated.
Timothy Chung raised to 50,000 in the hijack with and was called by Rania Nasreddine in the big blind, who defended.
Chung fired near pot-sized bets of 105,000 on the K♥6♥9♠ flop and 300,000 on the 4♠ turn, but was called by Nasreddine both times.
Finally, Chung emptied the clip on the 2♣ river, putting his opponent all in for 585,000. Nasreddine called well within her allocated time and turned over 10♦9♦ for second pair.
Her hero call worked out as Chung could only show J♦6♦ for third pair, losing a large portion of his stack as Nasreddine shipped the pot of over two million.
After losing that massive pot to David Coleman a few minutes ago, Jonathan Elfa Sanvicens was all in for his small blind. The table folded around to him and he was at risk against Gabriel Cunha in the big blind.
Jonathan Elfa Sanvicens: J♣9♦
Gabriel Cunha: 10♥8♠
The flop came A♠8♥4♠, pairing Cunha's eight to give him the solid lead. Following the 2♥5♣ runout, Sanvicens' day was done, leaving the field one elimination away from ending play.
Timothy Chung raised to 50,000 in the cutoff and was three-bet to 180,000 by Mark Teltscher in the small blind. Chung then put Teltscher all in for his remaining 675,000 and was snap-called.
Mark Teltscher: A♥A♣
Timothy Chung: 8♠8♣
Teltscher was in a good spot to double up, but the K♣8♦4♦ flop immediately brought bad news for the 2005 EPT London champion.
It was all over after the 8♥ turn made Chung four of a kind, and Teltscher shook hands with his former tablemates before being the final player to depart on Day 4 as the 6♣ river completed the board.
Action was on the river on a board of 6♦9♣8♥3♠Q♥ with less than 300,000 in the pot. Evgenii Sboev checked, Sriharsha Doddapaneni put out an overbet 550,000. Sboev went into the tank and then put in more than half of his stack to make the call.
Doddapaneni turned over 10♥7♦ for a flopped straight and Sboev mucked as he scooped in a large pot at the end of the day.
The 20th anniversary of the PokerStars European Poker Tour was always going to be a special occasion as the tour returned to where it all began in 2004, here in Barcelona. Simon Wiciak and Rania Nasreddine are doing their best to make it a historic one as well.
Wiciak (1,300,000) and Nasreddine (2,005,000) ended Day 4 among the 40 remaining players and on the verge of doing something nearly unprecedented, going back-to-back. For Wiciak, it would make him the first ever to win the same EPT Main Event in consecutive years. Nasreddine, who finished third in EPT Monte Carlo, is looking to join the short list of players to make it to the final table of consecutive tournaments.
They’re both looking up at Stephen Song, who ended the night as chip leader with 4,130,000. The American tournament crusher, with more than $6.5 million in live tournament earnings on his resume, was on the right side of a number of big pots over the course of the day that made him the man to beat. He coolered Matthew Gillingham with aces against ace-king, spiked a set of jacks on the river to crack Sindre Hansen’s kings, then took out Eero Rantala with a better kicker after both players flopped a pair of aces. Song has already eclipsed his previous best EPT result, a 47th-place finish in this event last year.
Day 4 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Stephen Song
United States
4,130,000
165
2
David Coleman
United States
3,900,000
156
3
Harry Lodge
United Kingdom
3,450,000
138
4
Jianwei Lin
China
2,835,000
113
5
Sriharsha Doddapaneni
India
2,730,000
109
6
Pablo Beltran
Spain
2,640,000
106
7
Yurii Zabrodotsky
Ukraine
2,635,000
105
8
Timothy Chung
Hong Kong
2,525,000
101
9
Jack Kiriakus
Sweden
2,005,000
80
10
Rania Nasreddine
United States
2,005,000
80
Fellow American and high stakes regular David Coleman earned a massive double up when he hit a set of treys against Jonathan Sanvicens’ queens in a 3,000,000-chip pot to end up in second place with 3,900,000. Harry Lodge (3,450,000), Jianwei Lin (2,835,000), and Sriharsha Doddapaneni (2,730,000) round out the top five.
Other players still in the hunt for the title include start-of-day chip leader Timothy Chung (2,525,000), EPT veteran Govert Metaal (1,705,000), 2022 EPT London runner-up Jack Sinclair (1,575,000), 2022 EPT Barcelona finalist Fabiano Kovalski (1,460,000), Nick Palma (1,265,000), PSPC champion Aliaksandr Shylko (935,000), and Andrew Hulme (780,000).
The day began with 113 players, and along the way Alexander “Wolfgang Poker” Seibt (99th), PokerStars Team Pro Ramon Colillas (98th), EPT Monte Carlo champion Derk van Luijk (97th), Byron Kaverman (92nd), Enrico Camosci (90th), Brock Wilson (89th), and Asher Conniff (76th) were sent to the payout desk. EPT champion Mark Teltscher had his run end on the last hand of the night, when his aces were cracked by Chung’s quad eights.
Wiciak, Nasreddine Chasing History
Simon Wiciak
The attention Friday, however, will mostly be on Wiciak and Nasreddine. Wiciak was a massive chip leader at this point in last year’s tournament on his way to conquering a field of 2,120. He ended Day 4 in 17th place on the leaderboard today and recognizes that, while this feels so similar to last year, it will be a much different experience.
“It feels amazing because, at the same time, I’m the last French. So that’s a bit special. Unfortunately, it’s not in the same position as last year. I’m in the middle of the pack so I have to fight back. Last year I had heaps at this time. So it’s really interesting to recreate the same deep run but under different conditions,” he said upon bagging up his chips for the night.
Wiciak would join a short list of players with multiple EPT titles, but none have ever done it in the same event, let alone in back-to-back years over such massive fields. It would be an accomplishment fitting for the 20th-anniversary edition, but Wiciak isn’t looking too far ahead.
“It’s a bit too soon to say. Two or three days to battle is pretty big. It feels like a lot, but at the same time there is still a lot to accomplish. So I’ll take it step by step. We’ll see where it goes,” he said. “Right now I’m really tired so I have to recompose myself. When we start fresh tomorrow, I will be angry as always.”
Rania Nasreddine
Nasreddine almost didn’t make it through the day. She was left with just over 200,000 after running queens into Lin's aces in a massive pot. She then flopped a set of nines to double off Pablo Beltran, then hero-called Chung with second pair to double up again near the end of the night. In 2011, the late Max Heinzelmann finished runner-up in two consecutive EPT Main Events, but both of those fields had fewer than 1,000 players. What Nasreddine is trying to accomplish, like Wiciak, stands apart.
They and 38 others have made it this far out of a starting field of 1,975. Everyone remaining is guaranteed €23,350, with the eventual champion earning €1,512,000. The action Friday picks up at 12 p.m. local time with 48 minutes in Level 23 with blinds of 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante.
It's already been a special week here at the Casino Barcelona, but there is still so much to come as PokerNews returns tomorrow to provide live updates as play continues toward the final table.
