In what was a quick day of action, the final 24 players have been determined at the Casino de Barcelona for the inaugural event of Season Nine on the European Poker Tour, with Samuel Rodriguez at the helm of the field and several notable pros on the hunt for the final table.
61 runners came to the line on Thursday from the massive 1082 player field and everyone remaining was guaranteed something for their efforts. Antonin Duda was the chip leader at the start of the day, but Rodriguez was right behind him with only 54,000 chips separating the two. Ilari Sahamies, John Juanda and Team PokerStars Pro Fatima Moreira de Melo rounded out the Top Five as the cards hit the air yesterday.
From the start, the players were active as they looked to break the field down to the final 24 before stopping play for the day. On the very first hand, Season Eight EPT Grand Final runner-up Lucille Cailly was caught in a bluff by Joni Jouhkimainen to cut her stack down to 800K in chips. That setback wouldn’t be the only one for Cailly as, at one point, she was down to only 190K in chips. She would rebound strongly, however, to be a part of the action come Day Five.
In the first hour of the Day Four play, fifteen of the competitors were shown the door as the start of day leaders came back to the pack a bit. Marcos Fernandez and Mikolaj Zawadzki were tied for the lead with Sahamies lurking behind them in third place. Rodriguez had fallen out of the Top Ten and under a million in chips, but Duda had taken a bigger hit, dropping to 750K in chips. Over the next four hours, the players would continue to battle as the championship of the first event of Season Nine on the EPT loomed on the horizon.
As play moved into the late afternoon, some notables made their exits from the EPT Barcelona. Andrey Zaichenko was one of those unfortunate players and his elimination was in a particularly cruel fashion. Zaichenko got his final chips to the center with pocket fives and, after Alex Casals looked him up with his pocket fours, Zaichenko seemed to be primed for a needed double. The flop was a vicious one for Zaichenko, coming 7-3-4 to give Casals a set, and Zaichenko could never catch up on the turn or river to eliminate him from the tournament.
While this was occurring, Sahamies went on a rush. He was able to cut a significant stack of chips from Anaras Alekberovas to catapult over the two million chip mark, but his moves weren’t as big as those of Jonathan Karamalikis. In a battle against Felix Kretchmann, the twosome got their chips to the center of the table on a Q-6-9 flop. Kretchmann turned up an A-Q for top pair/top kicker, but Karamalikis had outfoxed him in playing his pocket Kings. Once the turn and river blanked, Karamalikis shot into the lead at 2.65 million in chips and Kretchmann, knocked down to only 140K in chips, was gone soon afterward.
Juanda would be responsible for the final elimination of the day. Ilan Boujenah moved all in from the small blind and Juanda pondered the situation from the big blind. After his deliberations, Juanda made the call and tabled pocket fives against Boujenah’s inauspicious K-5 off suit. The 9-4-6 flop offered no help but, once the board paired with another nine on the turn, Boujenah needed a King or six on the river to defeat Juanda. Alas, it wasn’t to be; a seven sealed his fate in 25th place and ended the day in Barcelona.
1. Samuel Rodriguez, 5.33 million
2. Jonathan Karamalikis, 3.085 million
3. Mikalai Pobal, 2.745 million
4. Antonin Duda, 2.054 million
5. Anton Sinel, 1.974 million
6. John Juanda, 1.644 million
7. Ole Schemion, 1.571 million
8. Lucille Cailly, 1.431 million
9. Elias Hernandez, 1.29 million
10. Javier Paizuelo, 1.256 million
Today’s Day Five action is already in progress and it could be a long one for the championship contenders. Faced with the task of working down to the EPT final table of eight, the players are adequately stacked to be able to play poker for a good while. Later today, however, we will know the final eight survivors who will vie for the first Season Nine title on the EPT.
