Day 3 was moving day at the European Poker Tour (EPT) London, as players were looking to make the money and position themselves for a potential run at the final table. 160 players started the day, and with 104 cashing, there was no doubt the money bubble would burst. When the dust settled at the end of the night, there were just 62 players remaining. Leading the way was Brit James Mitchell, the only player over a million chips, sitting behind a stack of 1,071,500.
The hand of the day belonged to our chip leader, who made one hell of a hero call. Squaring off against Christopher McClung, the two saw a relatively harmless looking flop of 9-8-4. Mitchell bet 35,000 chips, McClung called, and the dealer laid down another 9 on the turn. Mitchell bet again after McClung checked and McClung once again called the bet, this time for 65,000. When a second 8 fell on the river, McClung came out firing, shoving his 260,000 remaining chips into the pot. That put Mitchell all-in and with just A-Q, he made the call. McClung had to have been stunned when he saw Mitchell’s hand, as he himself only had 6-6, which was counterfeited by the river card. The big win took Mitchell up to about 600,000 chips, giving him his big leap towards the million chip mark.
In discussing the hand on the PokerStars blog, Mitchell said, “He was only representing quads really so I called him.
“It’s more a calculated maneuver. Especially now they’ve changed the rules so if you call all-in for your stack, even if you lose the hand you can’t muck; you have to show them now. If I’d got it wrong it would have been embarrassing… if he shows aces or something.”
Mitchell is no stranger to success on the live poker tournament circuit, having amassed over $1.2 million in earnings in his short career. The vast majority of those winnings came last year, when he won the 2010 paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open Main Event for $809,094 (€600,000). Mitchell also has four World Series of Poker (WSOP) cashes, including one final table appearance.
The star of the first two days, Germany’s Benny Spindler, is no longer in the top two, but he is still in 12th place going into Day 4, upping his chip stack by 100,000 to 570,000. Most of the “big name” pros who started Day 3 were eliminated, including 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson, Andrew Feldman, Jason Mercier, James Akenhead, and Vanessa Rousso.
Day 4 will pick up on Tuesday at the Hilton London Metropole as the remaining players look to advance deeper into the money. The first several players eliminated on Tuesday will take home £11,000, with the next jump in money (to £13,000) coming with the 48th place elimination.
2011 European Poker Tour London – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. James Mitchell – 1,071,500
2. Sam Macdonald – 860,000
3. Martins Adeniya – 786,800
4. Basile Yaiche – 756,500
5. Matthijs Remie – 732,500
6. Benjamin Jenkins – 721,000
7. Adria Balaguer – 710,000
8. Sandor Demjan – 691,000
9. Neil Pearce – 690,500
10. Kevin Iacofano – 623,500
