After two days of action at the European Poker Tour stop in Prague, the Czech Republic, there were several names that were steadfast on top of the leaderboard. By the end of Day 3 play on Sunday, that leaderboard had completely changed as the money bubble popped and players began to walk away with some cash.
With only 151 players taking home that all-important cash, about 40% of the remaining field (252) was going to be going home with nothing. Leading the way at the start of the day was Gleb Tremzin’s 610,500 chip stack, but he was facing some serious challenges from overall Day One leader Samuel Chartier and the most recent winner on the EPT, the EPT Malta champion Niall Farrell. With about 100 players to dismiss, the players set course on five levels of action for a leisurely Sunday poker game.
Christian Jeppsson was one of the first to take the long walk from the tournament room, eliminated by former World Champion Chris Moneymaker, while Ruben Visser was able to lose a small amount of chips with pocket Kings after Johnny Lodden flopped the world on a 9-A-9 flop while holding A-9. A river Ace allowed Visser to be able to fold his hand with confidence and, after Lodden showed him he had the goods, Visser flashed his Kings and both men congratulated each other on a good play.
Another player that had hovered around the top of the ladder in the early days of the event, Mustafa Biz, suffered his first huge setback in the early part of Day 3. After seeing an 8-9-3 flop and having Gavin O’Rourke lead out at him, Biz moved all in in an attempt to push O’Rourke off the hand. O’Rourke was momentarily stunned by the action but, after considering the play of the hand, warily tossed in a call for his remaining stack. It turned out to be the right move; O’Rourke’s pocket Kings were in decent shape against Biz’s A-K and, once a Queen hit the turn and a Jack came on the river, O’Rourke had a massive double up (to 536,000) while Biz sank to 120K.
After about three hours of action, the money bubble approached and the players began to either take chances (if they had some chips) and look to gain a bigger stack or hoard what they had looking to make the money. Dawid Borkowski and Arvydas Merfeldas to bring the number on the tournament clock down to 152 players, but the timer expired and sent the players onto a break before the money bubble popped. On the very next hand after the players returned, Jesus Muriel Gracia was all in for his remaining couple of chips and couldn’t hit with his 3-2 against Anton Sulymka’s A-10, sending him out in 152nd (€0) and guaranteeing the remaining 151 players a line on their Hendon Mob sheet.
Once the bubble popped, the cashier’s cage became a very popular destination. Rainer Kempe, Anton Wigg, Vitaly Lunkin, Mike McDonald, Jorma Nuutinen and Lodden would all be a part of the early parade while Chartier continued to hold the lead with almost a million chips. That changed, however, when two of the mid-stacks, Kent Roed and Hossein Ensan, clashed in what turned out to be a huge hand.
Ensan opened up the action pre-flop, only to see Roed three-bet the action out of the big blind. With his late position, Ensan made the call and saw an A-5-8 flop, for which Roed put a continuation bet on the table. Ensan made the call and, once a four came on the turn and Roed pushed his remaining stack in the center, Ensan made the call. Roed looked good with his pocket Kings, but Ensan had miraculously hit a straight with his 7-6 to leave Roed drawing dead. After the chips were counted, it was found that Roed was indeed the player at risk and, once his chips were in Ensan’s stack, Ensan sat at 1.14 million chips.
Soon after Ensan jumped to the lead, he was met with a challenger. In a pre-flop battle, Abbas Moradi and Julian Stuer pushed small raises back and forth until Moradi was all in. Stuer was able to show pocket Kings, but that was coolered by Moradi’s pocket Aces. The ten high board was quite favorable for Moradi, keeping him in the lead and allowing him to scoop up 1.067 million in chips and leave Stuer with scraps.
Moradi would use those chips to climb to the top of the table by the end of the evening’s festivities. In fact, only two of the players in the Top Ten at the end of Day 3, Ivan Deyra and Ori Miller, could say they started the day in one of those Top Ten slots.
1. Abbas Moradi, 1.384 million
2. Preben Stokkan, 1.175 million
3. Hossein Ensan, 1.12 million
4. Vlado Banicevic, 1.096 million
5. Samuel Vousden, 1.01 million
6. Ori Miller, 1 million
7. Ivan Deyra, 877,000
8. Sebastian Gohr, 868,000
9. Ka Kwan Lau, 862,000
10. Marc MacDonnell, 841,000
There is still quite some ways to go for the 67 runners still in the race. The final table isn’t to be played until Wednesday, so there will be two days of either fairly quick action – should the players drop fairly steadily – or two grinding days where every chip is fought for. The odds are on that “fight for every chip” options as the eventual champion walks off with a €921,540 payday.
