The entire first hand on table 18 took more than eight minutes and Tobias Peters was forced all in out of the small blind for 2,000 after having forfeited 3,000 in ante. Robin Ylitalo had raised to 44,000 from under the gun and Davidi Kitai moved all in for 62,000 before the action got to Eric Sfez in the big blind. He could not raise anymore and instead called, so did Ylitalo.
On the flop, Sfez check-called a bet of 79,000 and the turn was checked down. On the river, the Frenchman bet 105,000 and this got Ylitalo to fold his cards. Sfez showed and Kitai was eliminated with . Peters only had to have hit anything on the board to stay alive and indeed flipped over the for a pair of sixes to scoop the pot. "Show me the money," the Dutchman said and jumped up. He is guaranteed a higher payout already as of 11th place.
Only 12 players remain out of a field of record-breaking 128 entries in the PokerStars.fr €10,300 EPT Deauville High Roller event and Nikolay Komcharokov is in the lead with 1,145,000 in chips. Play resumes in one hour from now on at 12 p.m. local time in level 21 at blinds 10,000-20,000 with a running ante of 3,000. Four of the remaining participants are down to less than four big blinds after a dramatic last few hands the previous night.
One of them is Davidi Kitai (65,000) and the Belgian is third in the EPT player of the year ranking, which is now led by Vladimir Troyanovskiy after min-cashing the High Roller last night in 16th place. The other short stacks include Tobias Peters (5,000), Garret Gruener (16,000) and Josip Simunic (73,000) whereas Fady Kamar (218,000) begins the mission for High Roller fame with 11 big blinds.
Hot on the heels of Komcharokov are EPT 10 London champion Robin Ylitalo (998,000), Argentinian sensation Ivan Luca (944,000), Jean-Noel Thorel (912,000) and Joao Ribeiro (866,000). Furthermore, Day 2 chip leader Eric Sfez (619,000) and Thomas Butzhammer (475,000) are also still in contention for the first-place payout of €309,170 as well as the title, trophy and the exclusive watch worth more than €5,000 from luxury Swiss brand SLYDE.
Everyone is already guaranteed €22,210 for their efforts and with so many short stacks returning to the tables, plenty of action is guaranteed right from the start. Make sure to tune into PokerNews and follow the live reporting to find out who becomes the newest addition of the EPT High Roller champions club.