Defending Champ MacPhee, Two-Time Bracelet Winner Bicknell Among 46 Left
Day 3 of World Series of Poker Europe Main Event began with 135 players, and by the time play wrapped up after almost exactly 12 hours, the field had been reduced to 46, all of whom are in the money.
Plenty of notables are among those remaining. Start with Kevin MacPhee, the American pro who conquered WSOPE the last time it ran, winning in 2015 in a field of 313 runners in Berlin for €883,000. MacPhee did not come into the day with a ton of chips but built up during the middle stages and wound up with 653,000.
One key pot he won saw him flip for about 300,000 at 5,000/10,000/1,000 with fellow pro Anatoly Filatov. MacPhee held jacks and managed to hold and win unimproved against ace-queen suited. Had MacPhee lost that one, he would have been under 20 big blinds.
Another player who made it through: two-time gold bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell. She took down the Ladies Championship in 2013 for $173,922 and then the $1,500 Bounty in 2016 for $290,768. Bicknell busted a number of the more accomplished players in the field, including bracelet winners Asi Moshe and Dominik Nitsche, the latter of whom took down the €111,111 High Roller for One Drop just days ago.
Despite those windfalls, Bicknell found herself all in and at risk in a five-bet all in pot against Andrei Boghean. Luckily for the Canadian, she had a big edge with kings against jacks and faded any further fishhooks appearing on the board to double to 1.1 million before bagging 1,085,000.
Everyone's looking up in the counts at relatively unknown Robert Bickley, though. The British player bagged 1,431,000 to lead the way heading into Day 4. He busted Philipp Gruissem in the last hand of the night when Gruissem got it in with king-ten of clubs and couldn't overcome ace-king.
He's followed by top pros Jack Salter (1,396,000) and Rainer Kempe (1,254,000), both of whom have experience against the toughest competition that populate $100K buy-ins and other high rollers. They'll surely be considered by most observers to be among the favorites at this point.
The money bubble burst a little over halfway through the day, with the top 80 places paid. Spanish reg Javier Zarco busted in unlucky 81st place when he couldn't improve with three outs when he was all in for 11 big blinds.
Some of those who walked away from their final hand to the payout desk included Stefan Schillhabel, Dominik Panka, Julian Stuer, Pierre Neuville, Alexander Lakhov and 888poker Ambassador Vivian Saliba.
Action resumes once again at noon local time on Wednesday, with blinds and antes at 6,000/12,000/2,000 and everyone in the money for at least €20,175. Come back to PokerNews to see who collects that amount and who can best position himself or herself for €1,115,207 on Day 4.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Home Country | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Bickley | UK | 1,431,000 |
| 2 | Jack Salter | UK | 1,396,000 |
| 3 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | 1,254,000 |
| 4 | Michal Mrakes | Czech Republic | 1,245,000 |
| 5 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | 1,285,000 |
| 6 | Vlad Darie | Romania | 1,045,000 |
| 7 | Marc MacDonnell | Ireland | 895,000 |
| 8 | Vishal Maini | UK | 790,000 |
| 9 | Niall Farrell | UK | 745,000 |
| 10 | Chi Zhang | UK | 699,000 |
against the 
of Gruissem. The board ran out 
and Gruissem was eliminated. Bickley will end the day as the chip leader.
- no help for Haisiuk and he was eliminated in 50th place.
. The community came 
and Bicknell doubled.
. Mrakes had 
and flopped a wheel as 
hit. He bet 14,000 and Ho check-called. On the 
turn, Ho bet out 36,000. Mrakes made it 108,000 and Ho called. The river was the 
and both players checked, with Mrakes taking about a minute before deciding to see a showdown.
flop and got called by Chi Zhang in the cutoff. Jack Salter woke up with a check-raise to 130,000. Varnica folded but Zhang stuck around. The turn was a 
. Salter moved all in for 540,000, more than the size of the pot. Zhang got the count but ultimately folded.
flop was not a particularly good one for Zarco although he did pick up some backdoor outs. Those hopes ended when the 
for a flush and Gierse mucked. Gierse is now sitting with about 70,000 with two eliminations left until the money.
.
and Schemion went all in for his remaining 262,000. Roca De Torres snap-called and just like that Schemion was heading to the rail and Roca De Torres stacked nearly 900,000 chips.
flop and Farrell called. Both checked the 
