McClung Goes Wire to Wire on a Short Day 4
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Day 4 was another short one at the PokerStars.it EPT San Remo and it took less than seven hours to shrink the field from 64 players down to 24. Canada's Chris McClung came into the day atop the pack, and his lead only ballooned over the course of the four levels. At the end of the night, he's got an impressive 3,148,000 chips in his bag, and that's good enough to give him more than 150 big blinds and about a million-chip lead over his nearest challenger heading into the penultimate day.
Joseph Cheong was within striking distance to start play, and he enjoyed a good increase over the first few levels. Very late in the day, though, Cheong's chips were absorbed by McClung in a huge crusher of a pot. Before the flop, the chip leader had three-bet to 104,000 behind a Mustapha Kanit raise, and Cheong made a cold four-bet to 220,000 total. That folded Kanit, but McClung went ahead and shoved it all in, about a million effective. The call came instantly, and he snapped over his 
. Not only was he in the lead, but he'd caught McClung with a very weak hand, just 
. The dealer provided the kiss of death for Cheong, though, running out a 
board to seal his demise during the last level of the night.
Joining Cheong on the rail were two of the four Team PokerStars Pros who'd survived until Day 4. Vanessa Selbst was the first to fall, unable to get much going with her middling stack. She ended up shoving with 
on queen-high board, and Alessio Isaia's had turned two pair to usher one of the last remaining ladies out the door. Shortly thereafter, John Duthie -- the founder and creator of the EPT -- was eliminated with 
. He was short when he shoved, and Christopher Williamsson found 
to tally the knockout on a 
board.
That leaves Lex Veldhuis and Johnny Lodden to carry the torch for the Team, and both of them had productive sessions on the felt, and their advance came despite the fact that they were seated next to each other for the bulk of the day. Lodden managed to double with kings against Cheong's ace-king around dinner time, and he bagged up 1,227,000 to end the day. On his left, Veldhuis seemed to be pacing himself against an active table, and after not much chip movement, he finished with 877,000 in his bag.
Other notables still in the mix include Barny Boatman, Kevin MacPhee, Mike McDonald, Alessio Isaia, and the new WSOPE Main Event champion, Elio Fox. They'll return to the Casino di San Remo at 14:00 CET on Wedesday for the playdown day.
Next stop: Final Table.