ElkY Among Top Stacks After Day 3; Negreanu, Antonius and Petrangelo eliminated
Day 3 of the 2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino €5,300 Main Event® was an exciting day that saw a field of 134 players being reduced to just 45 hopefuls. Each of them will be back tomorrow with €15,420 already locked up, although all eyes will be set on the first-place prize of €500,800. The massive amount of money will be handed out to the victor of the first European PokerStars Championship Main Event this Friday night in "Le Sporting" at Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.
The 45 survivors are led by Michael Kolkowicz, who ended Day 3 on top with 1,445,000 in chips. Stefan Schillhabel is second with 1,380,000, Belgian crusher Davidi Kitai sits in third with 1,087,000. Other notables that made it through include Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (771,000), Alexandru Papazian (670,000), Jeff Hakim (511,000), Sebastian Malec (509,000), Arne Coulier (394,000), Manig Loeser (350,000), Stefan Huber (235,000) and last year's champion Jan Bendik (223,000). Dan Smith starts Day 4 as the short stack with 99,000 in chips.
Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius failed to make it to Day 4. They were joined on the rail by start-of-the-day chipleader Nick Petrangelo, who had to bow out early after losing a couple of big hands in short succession.
Top 10 stacks after Day 3
| Place | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Kolkowicz | France | 1,445,000 |
| 2 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 1,380,000 |
| 3 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 1,087,000 |
| 4 | Maxim Panyak | Russia | 921,000 |
| 5 | Marius-Catalin Pertea | Romania | 860,000 |
| 6 | Moritz Dietrich | Germany | 821,000 |
| 7 | "Bertrand ""ElkY"" Grospellier" | France | 766,000 |
| 8 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 719,000 |
| 9 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | 718,000 |
| 10 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 670,000 |
At noon local time, 134 players took their seats with money already in the bag. Early exits that received the minimum cash of €7,580 included Alex Luneau, Preben Stokkan, Rocco Palumbo, Usman Siddique, Tsugunari Toma and Viliyan Petleshkov.
Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree also left with the minimum amount. Short stacked, Boeree shoved king-nine into Sebastian Malec's ace-queen and failed to catch up. Shortly after, Maria Ho busted as well after losing a coin flip situation with king-jack against pocket eights.
During the second level of the day, Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin flipped out with ace-queen against pocket tens. It was also the level that spelled the end for Nick Petrangelo. The American high roller found his nemesis in Romain Nardin and shockingly hit the rail early on. Nardin first got lucky with ace-eight against Petrangelo's ace-king, then won a massive confrontation with ace-king against Petrangelo's pocket jacks which also saw 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson bite the dust. Just like that, Petrangelo was out.
Patrik Antonius, Mark Teltscher, Luke Schwarz, Andreas Hoivold, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Jason Wheeler and Fabrice Soulier joined Petrangelo soon after. Nicolas Fuentes Vidal joined them as well with a story to tell: a lost pot of more than one million chips with kings against Stefan Schillhabel's aces ended Vidal's run in one big blow.
Team PokerStars Pro's Daniel Negreanu and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier were seated at the feature table the entire day. ElkY had a fantastic day and ran his stack up to 771,000 in chips, courtesy of two massive hands with pocket aces. In the first, he doubled through Daniel Negreanu's king-queen, only to double again later on through Hossein Ensan, who misstepped with ten-seven.
After losing some of his chips to ElkY, Negreanu found himself on the downward slope. With queen-jack, his last chips went in on a jack-six-five board against Ensan. Unfortunately for the Canadian superstar, Ensen held pocket fives for bottom set and forced Negreanu out the door.
The remaining players will return tomorrow at 12 p.m. noon local time to play five scheduled levels of 90 minutes each with a 20-minute break after every level. Play will resume in level 19 with blinds of 5,000/10,000 and a running ante of 1,000. Follow PokerNews for all the live reporting action from the floor until the PokerStars Championship Main Event winner is crowned on Friday night.
Day 4 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Diego Vilela | Brazil | 358,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Moritz Dietrich | Germany | 821,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Raffaele Sorrentino | Italy | 197,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Diego Zeiter | Switzerland | 476,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Remi Castaignon | France | 142,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | 501,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Peyman Luth | Germany | 533,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Lukasz Kubicki | Poland | 315,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Marius-Catalin Pertea | Romania | 860,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 719,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Sergei Petrushevskii | Russia | 541,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | 718,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Arne Coulier | Belgium | 394,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Jeffrey Hakim | Lebanon | 511,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Maxim Panyak | Russia | 921,000 |
| 3 | 1 | Dan Smith | USA | 99,000 |
| 3 | 2 | "Bertrand ""ElkY"" Grospellier" | France | 766,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Sebastian Malec | Poland | 509,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Paul Testud | France | 100,000 |
| 3 | 6 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 670,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Marius Gierse | Germany | 383,000 |
| 3 | 8 | Dmytro Shuvanov | Ukraine | 604,000 |
| 4 | 1 | Lee Hon Cheong | Hong Kong | 637,000 |
| 4 | 2 | Michael Kolkowicz | France | 1,445,000 |
| 4 | 4 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 1,380,000 |
| 4 | 5 | Shijirbaatar Sanjaasuren | Mongolia | 145,000 |
| 4 | 6 | Paul-Francois Tedeschi | France | 560,000 |
| 4 | 7 | Krisztian Fejerdi | Hungary | 130,000 |
| 4 | 8 | Douglas Ferreira Souza | Brazil | 428,000 |
| 5 | 1 | Andrey Bondar | Russia | 180,000 |
| 5 | 2 | Jerome Brion | France | 406,000 |
| 5 | 3 | Chebli Chebli | Lebanon | 291,000 |
| 5 | 4 | Stefan Huber | Switzerland | 235,000 |
| 5 | 5 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 350,000 |
| 5 | 6 | Gianluca Speranza | Italy | 347,000 |
| 5 | 7 | Jan Bendik | Slovakia | 223,000 |
| 5 | 8 | Diego Ventura | Peru | 371,000 |
| 6 | 1 | Philipp Kober | Austria | 149,000 |
| 6 | 2 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 1,087,000 |
| 6 | 3 | Romain Nardin | France | 577,000 |
| 6 | 4 | Karim Souaid | France | 510,000 |
| 6 | 5 | Luiz Duarte | USA | 204,000 |
| 6 | 6 | Andreas Klatt | Germany | 254,000 |
| 6 | 7 | Shakhabiddin Muradov | Latvia | 170,000 |
| 6 | 8 | [Removed:43] | France | 477,000 |
flop, Sorrentino checked and so did L'Hostis. Kolkowicz bet 44,000 and that resulted in a fold from Sorrentino and a call from L'Hostis.
fell on the turn, and L'Hostis then checked. Kolkowicz made it 100,000 to go and faced the check-raise all in for 308,000 by L'Hostis soon after. It took more than two minutes and Kolkowicz then called while saying "I know I am behind, but there are too many chips in the middle" in French.
fell on the river to give Kolkowicz a full house and he regained the lead from table neighbor Stefan Schillhabel.
on the turn ended it all for the Canadian superstar, who received €12,080 for his 51st place. "Good luck my friend," he told Ensan as he left the table.
was a huge sweat for Schillhabel despite getting it in with the best hand, however, the 
turn and 
river both blanked. Schillhabel's stack was counted for 585,000 and Vidal had 532,000 to join the rail with a story to tell.
flop, which left him drawing very slim. The 
river meaningless. ElkY is back at 50 big blinds.
, Wheeler's queens failed to hold up, and L'Hostis became the first player to claim more than one million in chips.
and that was it for the former EPT Main Event champion.
The 
on the turn was safe as well for the American. As if it was scripted, the 
