If you’ve seen any of the Shark Cage this year, you’ll know that Miss Finland is much more than just a pretty face. She’s here in Prague to play the Finnish Poker Championship, and PokerStars Blog risked turning into her latest bait.
Liv Boeree's seat was empty and last years runner up Georgios Sotiropoulos had some more chips in front of him. As Sotiropoulos was in a hand, eventually winning again, we asked Robert Schulz to fill us in on the details.
Schulz was kind enough to tell us that Liv Boeree had opened to 10,000 with a stack of around 130,000. Sotiropoulos had made it 26,000 right behind her. Action folded back to Boeree who shoved and Sotiropoulos called.
Boeree had ace-queen and was up against Sotiropoulos's pocket tens. The tens held up and Boeree exited. The British Team PokerStars Pro exited in 118th place, just enough to get the next pay out of €10,740.
Roman Pavliuk raised to 12,000 from the hijack before Gaelle Baumann moved all in for her remaining 33,000 from the button. The blinds folded their hands a Paliuk made the call shortly after.
Pavliuk:
Baumann:
Baumann was in trouble against the pair but would find no help as the board ran out to see her eliminated from the tournament.
We arrived at the table just as Anton Bertilsson raised it up to 12,000 from under the gun plus one. Idan Raviv then bumped it up to 31,000 from the hijack before Zo Karim moved all in from the cut off. Bertilsson mucked his hand, and with the decision back on Raviv, he made the call.
Raviv:
Karim:
Karim was up against the over pair and would find no help from the board.
Olivier Busquet opened to 20,000 from early position. A couple positions down sat the Swede Simon Mattsson who made it 55,000 from the cut off. The button and both blinds got out of the way and the decision was back on Busquet.
Busquet, who's last two cashes were wins (EPT Barcelona's Super High Roller in August for €896,434 and UKIPT's High Roller in October for £107,300) moved all in. We couldn't exactly count how much he shoved for, but it looked like well over 300,000. Mattsson asked how much it was roughly, soemthing we didn't catch unfortunately, and then called.
Simon Mattsson showed after Busquet tabled .
The in the window meant bad news for Busquet, and the and that accompanied the king on the flop didn't turn that around. The on the turn and on the river were blanks and Busquet was heading for the exit.
The action folded around to Vladimir Troyanovskiy in the cut off who made it 18,000 to go. Tamer Kamel then raised it up to 37,000 from the button which forced the blinds out. With the decision back on Troyanovskiy he moved all in for approximately 130,000 in chips and was snap called.
Troyanovskiy:
Kamel:
Troyanovskiy was in danger of being eliminated and it would be proven so when the board ran out to see Kamel’s pair hold up.
If you're watching the live stream, you must have seen the huge hand between Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst and high roller Mustapha Kanit.
The two super stars got their chips in before the flop with Selbst being the severe underdog holding pocket fours. Kanit was the proud owner of pocket eights but that hand would soon hit the muck face down. The flop was full of blanks but the four on the turn changed everything.
The river wasn't one of those precious eights and Kanit made his way to the exit. Selbst in the meantime plays almost 900,000.
On a board of the small blind checked, and Sam Grafton in the big blind lead for 38,000. Eugene Katchalov flatted in middle position and Georgios Sotiropoulos shoved all in right behind him for what we believe was 197,000, but the dealer counted as 207,000. The small blind quickly folded, Grafton soon realized his hand wasn't good enough and folded, Katchalov instantly called.
Eugene Katchalov:
Georgios Sotiropoulos:
The on the turn made Katchalov drawing dead, the was just insult to injury. Katchalov had 240,000 left after that hand.
In the penultimate hand of the day the tournament lost one of Team PokerStars Pro's most prolific members.
Eugene Katchalov just lost the big hand with a flopped straight to a turned flush (and rivered straight flush), and moved the remainder of his stack in before the flop not much later. His opponent was once again Georgios Sotiropoulos.
Katchalov had and was up against the jacks of Sotiropoulos. No help on the board for Katchalov and with just one hand to go the Ukrainian made his exit.
Day 3 of the Season 11 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event played out today after 200 players returned to action and aimed to make the money in the top 159. After five 90-minute levels of play, just 61 remained with Simon Mattsson and his stack of 1,790,000 leading the way.
Mattsson became the chip leader in the second-to-last last hand of play when he and Miha Travnik had a raising war preflop and committed their chips. Travnik was in for around 300,000 and at risk holding the against Mattsson’s . The board ran out to see Travnik miss all his outs as he was eliminated from the tournament. Mattsson would hold onto the slight chip lead with one more hand remaining in the day.
Not everyone was as fortunate as Mattsson on Day 3. Some who fell short of the money were Christian Harder, Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, and both Paul Newey and Brian Roberts, who finished second and seventh, respectively, in the €50,000 Super High Roller event that concluded earlier in the week.
When 160 players remained, the money bubble was in effect and hand-for-hand play was started. It took a fair amount of time, but eventually the bubble burst. It happened when Mustapha Kanit raised from the cutoff seat, and Christian Favale three-bet to 25,000 from the button. Kanit then bumped it up to 63,000, and the decision fell back on Favale. He tanked for a few minutes before sliding out 105,000 in chips. Favale was not too pleased when Kanit moved all in a few seconds later, but he reluctantly made the call and the cards were tabled.
Kanit showed the powerful , and those bullets had Favale's in a world of hurt. The board ran out , and the Team PokerStars Online Pro exited as the bubble boy, ensuring the remaining 159 players a guaranteed €8,970 payday.
From there, the eliminations came in quick succession including Mickey Petersen (159th), Isaac Haxton (140th), Liv Boeree (118th), and Eugene Katchalov (63rd). Even though she didn't managed to make it to Day 4, PokerNews did catch up with Boeree to talk about her 2014 poker campaign, REG charity, and her love life:
Shannon Shorr (153rd), Olivier Busquet (82nd), Vladimir Troyanovskiy (79th), Mustapha Kanit (78th), and Thomas Muehlocker (64th) also fell as the day neared close. It was during this grind to the end of the day that others such as Davidi Kitai, Petr Jelinek, and Vanessa Selbst thrived — all three building up to over 1,000,000 in chips to finish the day.
Other notables managing to progress though to another day included George Danzer, Georgios Sotiropoulos, Dylan Linde, Sam Grafton, and Balazs Botond.
Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
Place
Name
Chip Count
1
Simon Mattsson
1,790,000
2
Stephen Graner
1,713,000
3
Davidi Kitai
1,364,000
4
Jonathan Wong
1,295,000
5
Petr Jelinek
1,191,000
6
Militiadis Kyriakides
1,178,000
7
Bjorn Wiesler
1,084,000
8
Pablo Sanz Quiles
1,075,000
9
Francesco Grieco
1,054,000
10
Vanessa Selbst
1,007,000
Day 4 of the EPT Prague Main Event is set to begin at 12:00 CET on Monday, and the plan is to play down to the final 24 players. Be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action straight from the floor of the Hilton Prague Hotel.