It was expected that Day Four at the European Poker Tour stop in London, the United Kingdom would be a short day and that turned out to be the case. Out of the 32 players who began the action on Thursday, it only took roughly six hours for that field to be cut in half and Steve O’Dwyer to lay his head on his pillow Thursday night as the man in the lead.
Those 32 players started off the day with one of the most aggressive players in the tournament, Finland’s Pasi Sormunen, atop the leaderboard with his 1.6 million in chips. There were plenty of threats behind him, however, including O’Dwyer, former EPT champs Jason Mercier, Mike McDonald and Nicolas Chouity, Annette Obrestad, Ruben Visser, Theo Jorgensen, Yuri Gulyy and Chris Moorman looking to take him down. It didn’t take long for the chips to start flying around the Grosvenor Victoria Casino (“The Vic”) as the players set about their business.
Chouity would be the first to make a significant move when he knocked off two opponents in one of the first hands of the day. Against Rumen Nanev (A-K) and Fredrik Andersson (pocket fives), Chouity went to battle with pocket Jacks. When the board came ten high with no fives, Chouity earned the double knockout which propelled him into the chip lead with 1.8 million in his stack.
Moorman would make his stack healthy in a race situation against Steven Silverman. After a bet from Moorman, Silverman would make his stand for what looked to be the remainder of his stack. Moorman made the call and tabled Big Slick against Silverman’s pocket threes and the race was on. The flop virtually took care of everything; the K-2-K flop nailed Moorman with trips to essentially give him the hand. When the turn blanked, leaving Silverman drawing dead, and the meaningless river played out, the chips were counted down. After the count, it was actually found that Moorman had been at risk, but that was no longer the case as the 500K chip pot went his way and Silverman was left with just 35,000.
By the time the first break came, there were only 25 players remaining from the day’s starting lineup. Mercier was one of the players surviving, but it never seemed that he found his traction for the day. He was on the losing end of a double up to John O’Shea to fall to slightly over 400K in chips and those chips would head to the stack of Bassel Moussa after the duo saw an 8♣ 4♥ 5♣ flop. Mercier called with his A♣ 9♣ against Moussa’s pocket sevens to hold the statistical lead, but that statistical edge disappeared with a seven on the turn. When the river failed to bring a club, Mercier was done for the day to bring the tournament to three eight handed tables.
Chouity would continue to torment the field and, in particular, Obrestad. She would try to take on the former EPT Grand Final champion with pocket Jacks, only to have Chouity river a King to go with his Big Slick to take her out of the tournament. At this point, Chouity held the lead over Jorgensen but, over the next hour, the leaderboard would change dramatically.
That change was brought about by a fight between O’Dwyer and Gulyy which left Gulyy heading to the rail. After an O’Dwyer raise, Gulyy pushed all in and was met with an immediate call from O’Dwyer. O’Dwyer’s pocket Queens were ahead of Gulyy’s pocket fours pre-flop and crushed when a Queen came on the flop. Once the turn blanked, Gulyy was drawing dead and out of the EPT London as O’Dwyer rode those chips to finish the day on the pole position.
1. Steve O’Dwyer, 2.279 million
2. Nicolas Chouity, 2.124 million
3. Tamer Kamel, 2.115 million
4. Pasi Sormunen, 1.834 million
5. Niall Farrell, 1.581 million
6. Theo Jorgensen, 1.474 million
7. Mikhail Korotkikh, 1.372 million
8. David Colin, 1.008 million
9. Chris Moorman, 1.061 million
10. Mantas Visockis, 915,000
11. Ruben Visser, 827,000
12. Christopher Frank, 821,000
13. Daniel Erlandsson, 700,000
14. Bassel Moussa, 685,000
15. Olof Haglund, 453,000
The EPT is used to an international field for its tournaments and the London stop has only exemplified that uniqueness in the poker world. Of the 15 men left in the battle, eleven countries are represented. The British have three players, Lebanon and Sweden can claim two, while Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, France, Russia, Denmark, Finland and the United States claim the other players.
Day Five action is scheduled to start at noon in London (7AM Eastern Time) and will continue until the eight handed EPT final table is determined. Everyone who comes back to the table tomorrow is guaranteed a £20,000 payday, but they all have their eyes set on the £700,000 first place prize and the prestige of being the latest EPT champion that will be awarded on Saturday.
