Day 3 Done, Phomveha on Top
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Day 3 is done and just 54 of the 178 players who started this third day of the PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville Main Event remain.
The 128-player money bubble was reached midway through the day��s third level and the only thing building faster than the line-up at the cash out cage following the bubble appeared to be Ondrej Vinklarek��s stack.
The Czech National, who crushed the side events at EPT Prague this past October, quickly became the first player over the one-million chip mark using an uber-aggressive style of play and a little run-good.
However, that all came crashing down when he got in a pre-flop raising war with France's Samphane Phomveha and shoved king-five off-suit pre-flop into his pocket kings to hand Phomveha 1.471 million chips and the overnight lead.
EPT London finalist Martins Adeniya came into Day 3 as the clear chip leader and a steady day kept him near the top of the counts throughout.
After rivering the nut straight in a massive pot with Gereon Sowa, he pushed over the one-million chip mark and into the lead.
In the end, however, he bagged 893,000 in chips and will come into play within shouting distance of Phomveha.
While Adeniya was climbing relatively steadily, maniacal Frenchman Ludovic Lacay, no stranger to big moments after his 16th place finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, had the exact opposite kind of day.
At one point, he shot up to 950k and the top of the leaderboard by picking up aces against two shorter stacks jacks and tens.
But after Adeniya was moved to his table and took a chunk out of his stack, pushing him off a 200k pot on a four-flush board, Lacay seemed to spend the rest of the day hovering around the half million mark.
That is until the late stages when top ranked Pocket Fives online player Christopher Brammer rivered an ace against his pocket jacks to send him home.
Notables Joining Lacay in cashing, but busting throughout the day included 2010 EPT Vilamoura winner Toby Lewis, WPT and WSOP title holder James Dempsey, French Rap Mogul Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes, and last woman standing Lucille Cailly.
Making the money certainly meant something that group and to the handful of PokerStars.fr and .com qualifiers still in when the bubble burst, but it also marked another big occasion for the final Team PokerStars Pro left standing.
Luca Pagano guaranteed himself a record 20th EPT cash making the money here, but picked up aces to double up soon after the bubble burst to stay alive even longer. In fact, he ended with a smallish 344k stack heading into Saturday��s Day 4.
Big stacks also still in contention for the �875,000 first-place prize include Brammer, France��s Olivier Rogez, and 2011 EPT San Remo 6th place finisher Yorane Kerignard.
Play will resume at 1200 CET (0300 PST) Saturday with plans to play down to 24.
To follow all the action live, tune into PokerNews' EPT Live Updates from start to finish.