Ding Fan raised to 30,000 under the gun and Jeffrey Sarwer called in the hijack. Mats Ullereng then moved all in for 165,000 in the big blind and Fan reraised to 300,000.
Ullereng turned over his A♥9♠ before Sarwer had a chance to act, and a tournament official had to be called over. It was ruled that Ullereng's hand would remain exposed, and Sarwer then reshoved. Fan quickly folded, saying he had two sixes.
Mats Ullereng: A♥9♠
Jeffrey Sarwer: A♣K♣
The 10♠10♣3♦ flop left open the possibility of a chop, while the turn was the 4♦. The 2♥ river kept Sarwer in the lead with his king-kicker, and Ullereng was sent to the rail.
Vasyl Pidhrusnyi opened to 30,000 under the gun, and Antonio Sciacca responded with a three-bet to 125,000 in the hijack. Pidhrusnyi clicked it back to 250,000, after which Sciacca moved all in for 745,000.
Pidhrusnyi snap-called with the covering stack, and the cards were tabled.
Antonio Sciacca: A♦K♠
Vasyl Pidhrusnyi: A♠A♣
Sciacca needed running outs to crack the aces of Pidhrusnyi after the 10♣5♥4♦ flop.
A smile appeared on his face as the K♣ turn gave him a glimmer of hope, and he could not believe his eyes as the K♦ river made him trips to best Pidhrusnyi's aces and double up.
All eyes were on Merijn van Rooij at the start of the day after he bagged just 5,000 last night. Sitting in the cutoff, he had a moment to think about which hand he wanted to go with, and it did not take long for him to decide.
On the second hand of the day, action folded to him in the hijack, and he pushed his last 5,000 into the middle. Matan Krakow limped from the small blind, and Conor O'Driscoll checked his option in the big blind.
The players checked the 7♠7♣K♠ flop, and Krakow checked again on the 3♦ turn. This time, O'Driscoll bet 15,000, and Krakow made the call.
The river brought the 6♠, and Krakow quickly check-called a bet of 55,000. The cards went on their backs.
Van Rooij showed Q♥6♥ for two pair sevens and sixes. Krakow revealed K♦8♦ for kings and sevens. But O'Driscoll had the best of it with 9♦7♥ for trips sevens, more than enough to pull in the pot and send Van Rooij to the rail.
It's crunch time in the €5,300 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague €5,300 Main Event. Today, just 45 hopefuls from the 1,224-entry field will return to the Hilton Prague for Day 4 as they continue to battle for the lion's share of the €5,936,400 prize pool.
Four days ago, Vitezslav Cech came agonizingly close to making the final table of the €1,650 PS Open Main Event, finishing in tenth place on the final table bubble for a career-best score of €41,420. Today, Cech founds himself in a great spot to make another run at an EPT final table, this time on an even bigger stage in the Main Event, coming in with the second-largest stack at 2,025,000.
But there's still a long way to go before the final table is reached, with plenty of experienced players standing between Cech and the EPT Main Event glory. Among them is start-of-day chip leader Gianfranco Iaculli, who ended the night yesterday with 2,450,000. Iaculli has already surpassed his deep run in last year's edition of this event, where he placed 52nd for €19,800. To surpass his career-best score of €70,700, Iaculli will need to make the final table of this event, where all nine players will be guaranteed at least €94,150.
Gianfranco Iaculli
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Gianfranco Iaculli
Italy
2,450,000
163
2
Vitezslav Cech
Czechia
2,025,000
135
3
Vasyl Pidhrusnyi
Ukraine
2,000,000
133
4
Ding Fan
United Kingdom
1,925,000
128
5
Eyal Maaravi
Israel
1,570,000
105
6
Filippo Ragone
Italy
1,340,000
89
7
Paawan Bansal
India
1,315,000
88
8
Roman Stoica
Republic of Moldova
1,270,000
85
9
Matan Krakow
Israel
1,065,000
71
10
Jeffrey Sarwer
Canada
1,055,000
70
Maria Lampropulos (905,000) and Lymor Davidson (400,000) return as the last two women remaining in the Main Event, each looking to become the fourth woman ever to win an EPT Main Event title, following Sandra Naujoks, Liv Boeree, and Victoria Coren Mitchell. Mitchell is the most recent woman to win an EPT Main Event, claiming her second title at EPT Sanremo in 2014. Lampropulos has plenty of experience on poker's biggest stages, and in 2018 she won the PCA Main Event for $1,081,100.
Maria Lampropulus
Other notables returning for Day 4 include Paawan Bansal (1,315,000), Fabian Bartuschk (950,000), Grzegorz Kozieja (770,000), Tobias Peters (505,000), and Fahredin Mustafov (410,000).
Action is set to resume at noon, starting at Level 21, with the blinds at 10,000/15,000 (15,000). The plan is to play five 90-minute levels or until 16 players remain. There will be either a 15 or 20-minute break after each level of play, and a possible dinner break later in the evening. All remaining players have secured at least €16,800, and the first pay jump of the day will occur when 39 players remain.
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
€ 1,019,300
12-13
€ 60,300
2
€ 636,405
14-15
€ 50,300
3
€ 454,550
16-17
€ 41,900
4
€ 349,650
18-20
€ 34,900
5
€ 269,000
21-23
€ 29,400
6
€ 206,900
24-27
€ 25,550
7
€ 159,150
28-31
€ 22,200
8
€ 122,400
32-39
€ 19,300
9
€ 94,150
40-45
€ 16,800
10-11
€ 72,400
Be sure to stay tuned to this page, as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on site to bring you all the exciting action from Day 4 of the EPT Prague Main Event.
