Fifty-three players started Day 3 but only 18 of them remain in the World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Class Main Event and these are being lead by Canadian pro Erik Cajelais.
Cajelais is one of only two player to end Day 3 with over 1,000,000 chips; the other being Artur Voskanyan. Throughout the day Cajelais played well but he will also be the first to admit that a number of big hands went his way when he needed them to. An example of him running good was when he sent the dangerous Oleksii Kovalchuk to the rail when his hit a flush on the river to crack his Ukrainian opponent's pocket queens.
Another example was catching another flush, this time after calling a huge over-bet on an flop with and beating the of Mansour Khorramshani. And let us not forget him being on the right side of an aces versus kings scenario too. Poker seems like such an easy game when the cards are on your side.
Although Cajelais and the aforementioned Voskanyan both have over one million chips each, this tournament is far from a conclusion because amongst the final 18 players are some talented individuals indeed. Former WPT Amneville champion Sam El Sayed has 950,000 chips at his disposal, GSOP Grand Final winner Andrey Shatilov (686,000) has shown he knows his way around the poker table whilst Robert Mizrachi (586,000) is a proven winning player. When all is said and done Day 4 should be quite a spectacle.
Day 4 kicks off at precisely 1:00PM EEST and will continue until just the final table of six remain. Ran Azor, who is currently fifth in chips, thinks Day 4 will be completed in less than three levels whilst Robert Mizrachi has set the bar at over 4.5 hours. Whoever is correct will be treated by the other to dinner in a fine Israeli restaurant! Who will be buying the other lunch? Tune into the PokerNews Live Reporting pages tomorrow to find out!
Chino Rheem's WPT dream has disappeared in the space of just two hands.
First he'd moved all in on the river of a board against Artur Voskanyan. The latter tanking for nearly ten minutes before making the call with which shocked the table as for how long it took.
Rheem flashed what looked to be though this could not be confirmed.
The American was left with 170,000 and he raised all in on the flop of a board against Gilboa Yossi's - the worst hand he could see given that he was holding . The gave him some miracle outs but the river sent the colourful (or colorful) character to the rail.
Erik Cajelais is the first and only player to break through the one million chip barrier here in the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic Main Event. Congratulations!
The bubble has burst ladies and gentlemen and it is German pro Marko Neumann who is the unfortunate soul who popped it.
He got his chips in with against the of Kemal Sevevi. The five community cards were bringing no help to Neumann and with his exit the surviving 36 players are all in the money here in Cyprus.
Chino Rheem opened to 15,000 from the button before Kemal Sevevi moved all in for 121,500 from the small blind. Ergenyi Taranuk in the big blind thought for several minutes before he also moved all in, for 331,000.
Rheem immediately stood up, "Ok I need a count."
He then loudly announced, "I have ace-king and two guys just shoved on me..."
A crowd began to form, Rheem continued with a half-statement, half-question, "It's ok for me to say that because I'm last to act right?"
Tournament director Matt Savage shook his head and told him this was not the case. Rheem even showed his to a couple of players over his shoulder before he began to calculate the odds.
Matt Savage told Rheem he would be getting a penalty at the end of the hand but Rheem did appear to genuinely not know that he couldn't show his hand in this situation even if last to act.
Rheem, "At least one of you has to have the same hand as me...God, I want to double knock you guys out...."
Finally after a couple of minutes he folded his hand.
Sevevi turned over and Taranuk flipped .
"Wow," said a watching Robert Mizrachi.
"What can I do?" said Rheem, "This f**king guy has only played five hands."
"I'm not criticizing, I'm just saying," replied Mizrachi.
The board ran out as Sevevi doubled up to about 265,000. Rheem, meanwhile was lamenting the fact that he would've picked up 200,000 more in the side pot as Matt Savage gave him a one round penalty for exposing his cards.
We joined the action on a very wet flop, where Robert Mizrachi had bet 19,500 from the hijack. Marvin Rettenmaier was on the button and he raised to 61,500 and a huge pot started to develop.
The pot grew ever-larger when Sam El Sayed made the call in the big blind, which put the action back onto Mizrachi. He paused, eyed up his opponents before raising the action to a colossal 214,500 chips! Rettenmaier instantly folded but El Sayed shaped to call before ultimately letting his hand go.
Rettenmaier asked to see Mizrachi's hand but Mizrachi told him he would have to pay $200 to see it. Rettenmaier just laughed and went back to enjoying his massage.
Oleksii Kovalchuk has a list of poker achievements as long as his arm but he will not be adding a WP Merit Cyprus Classic score to that list just yet because he has just busted out.
We caught up with Manig Loeser (who was seated with him) to find out what happened. Loeser told us Kovalchuk and Erik Cajelais were heads-up in a raised pot and both checked the flop that had two spades on it. They then checked the turn but the river ignited the spark.
Cajelais check-raised all-in when Kovalchuk fired a bet at his Canadian opponent and Kovalchuk called with pocket queens, but was sent to the rail before the money places when Cajelais turned over for the flush.
Marvin Rettenmaier is on course for back to back WPT wins at the moment, he's the new chip leader after he just eliminated Selcuk Ayaz with against all in preflop with the board coming .
Most poker players tap the table when they want to check their option to bet but not over on Table 5.
Chip leader Sam El Sayed opened to 8,500 from under the gun and the action folded to a late-arriving Chino Rheem in the cutoff. He was busy stacking his chips into towers of 20 when he made the call. Rheem was the only caller and it was heads-up to the flop.
El Sayed checked and Rheem checked but did so by clapping his hands!
"Was that a check?" asked El Sayed
The turn was the and El Sayed clapped his hands twice and checked. Rheem checked behind in a more traditional manner. The river was the and El Sayed checked again; this time by clapping three times. Rheem also checked.
"Your queen is good," said Rheem. "I have ace-high."
"You want to see my hand? I want to see yours."
Rheem turned over for ace-high whilst El Sayed showed .
"You see my hand, I want to see yours," said El Sayed
"Just ask me what I had and I will tell you," replied Rheem.
"No. I am a poker player," came the reply.
This duo are vocal at the best of times and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in the battle to become table captain.
Just 53 players remain of the first event of Season XI of the World Poker Tour, 36 players are getting paid a minimum of $8,070 with $287,784 for first place. Sam El Sayed is the current chip leader with 375,500 ahead of former bracelet winners Erik Cajelais and Robert Mizrachi as well as Chino Rheem.
There's lots of other players involved including a squadron of Germans in Martin Finger, Manig Loeser, Marvin Rettenmaier and Dominik Nitsche, the latter of which has a history of doing incredibly well in Cyprus, can he keep this up?
Today's plan is for five levels and we'll be expecting to hit the bubble sometime this afternoon. We'll be starting at 1pm local time in just under an hour so stay tuned for all the updates!
hit a flush on the river to crack his Ukrainian opponent's pocket queens.
flop with 
and beating the 
of Mansour Khorramshani. And let us not forget him being on the right side of an aces versus kings scenario too. Poker seems like such an easy game when the cards are on your side.![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
board against Artur Voskanyan. The latter tanking for nearly ten minutes before making the call with 
which shocked the table as for how long it took.
though this could not be confirmed.
board against Gilboa Yossi's 
- the worst hand he could see given that he was holding 
. The 
gave him some miracle outs but the 
river sent the colourful (or colorful) character to the rail.
against the 
to a couple of players over his shoulder before he began to calculate the odds.
and Taranuk flipped 
flop that had two spades on it. They then checked the 
turn but the 
river ignited the spark.
.
flop.
and El Sayed checked again; this time by clapping three times. Rheem also checked.
.
