Just 16 players remain from a field of 1,565 entrants heading into the third final day of the Eurasion Poker Tour (EAPT) Grand Final here at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa.
Boris Kolev and Almas Umarov find themselves at the top of the counts with 32,400,000 and 32,800,000 respectively. Umarov has already found success on the EAPT state, with his previous best tournament score of $61,000 coming from a third place finish in the EAPT Astana Main Event in 2017. Umarov will need an eight-place finish or better to surpass that score.
Perhaps more than any other player left in the field, Boris Kolev has momentum on his side. Just a few months ago he captured his second WSOP bracelet along with $424,550, a score that brought his lifetime tournament earnings past $3,000,000.
Full Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Almas Umarov | Kazakhstan | 32,800,000 | 55 |
| 2 | Boris Kolev | Bulgaria | 32,400,000 | 54 |
| 3 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russian Federation | 26,800,000 | 45 |
| 4 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | 25,800,000 | 43 |
| 5 | Ueberton Cristian De Aquino | Brazil | 24,100,000 | 40 |
| 6 | Nikola Marcetic | Serbia | 20,300,000 | 34 |
| 7 | Vahid Motaghi | Iran | 18,000,000 | 30 |
| 8 | Dmitrii Levin | Russian Federation | 17,400,000 | 29 |
| 9 | Iurii Brechalov | Russian Federation | 17,000,000 | 28 |
| 10 | Szymon Bala | Poland | 16,200,000 | 27 |
| 11 | Adrian Strobel | Germany | 15,000,000 | 25 |
| 12 | Gabriel Akiki | Lebanon | 14,800,000 | 25 |
| 13 | Christopher Puetz | Germany | 14,000,000 | 23 |
| 14 | Amirreza Roudsari | Iran | 11,900,000 | 20 |
| 15 | Maksim Isaev | Russian Federation | 9,700,000 | 16 |
| 16 | Recep Aydemir | Turkey | 7,900,000 | 13 |
Rounding out the top three is Andrey Pateychuk who starts the day with 26,800,000. With over $5,500,000 in career tournament earnings that include wins at both the European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour, Pateychuk may be the most adept player left in the field when it comes to navigating large tournament fields. His most recent six-figure score came from a 17th place finish in last year's WSOP Main Event for $430,200.
The day will begin at noon local time with blinds at 300,000/600,000 and a 600,000 big blind ante. As always, be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action from this event from the moment cards are in the air until a winner is crowned.
