The Money Bubbles Bursts & Jelassi Vaults To The Chip Lead On Day 3
Day 3 of the Season 9 PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Prague, the largest tournament in Czech Republic history, played out today as 161 players returned to action and aimed to make the money at the top 128. After five 90-minute levels of play, just 55 players remain with Ramzi Jelassi and his stack of 1.238 million leading the way.
Jelassi became the chip leader after eliminating Sirzat Hissou in a huge pot. The latter got his stack of 330,000 all in on a 
flop holding 
only to discover that his Swedish opponent held 
. The 
turn and 
river completed the board and Jelassi vaulted to over a million in chips.
Unfortunately not everyone was as fortunate as Jelassi on Day 3. Some who fell short of the money were Lardo Leheste, Mike Watson, Jacob Toole, Kent Lundmark, Ari Engel, Ignat “0Human0” Liviu and PokerStars Team Pro Pier Paolo Fabretti.
When 129 players remained, the money bubble was in effect and hand-for-hand play was instituted. It took a fair amount of time, but eventually the bubble burst. It happened when Rasmus Agerskov three-bet to 24,500 from the button and Andreas Berggren four-bet to 62,000 from the small blind. The original raiser folded and the action was back on Agerskov, who thought for a solid five before moving all in. Agerskov made a quick call and the cards were turned up:
Showdown
Agerskov: 
Berggren: 
The board ran 
and Agerskov exited as the bubble boy, ensuring the remaining 128 players a guaranteed €8,000 payday.
From there the eliminations came in a flurry including 2012 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event runner-up Sergey Baranov (116th - €8,000); Day 1b chip leader Vadim Belov (106th - €8,000); PokerStars Team Pros Juan Manuel Pastor (113th - €8,000) and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (100th - €8,000); Petr Jelinek (96th - €10,000); John Eames (87th - €10,000); Marc-Andre Ladouceur (77th - €10,000); Shannon Shorr (65th - €12,000) and Vincent van der Fluit (57th - €12,000).
While 106 players hit the rail on Day 3, a few notables managed to punch their ticket to Day 4 including Todd Terry, Roger Hairabedian, Robert Peltecci, Fabrice Soulier, Johnny Lodden, Jeff Sarwer, Mark Herm and Chris Brammer. In addition, Roberto Romanello, who won the EPT Prague back in Season 7, is looking for his second title in three years.
End-of-Day-3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ramzi Jelassi | 1,238,000 |
| 2 | Sotirios Koutoupas | 1,049,000 |
| 3 | Chris Brammer | 1,021,000 |
| 4 | Jeff Sarwer | 963,000 |
| 5 | Dany Parlafes | 950,000 |
| 6 | Mark Herm | 916,000 |
| 7 | Mads Amot | 895,000 |
| 8 | Martin Hanowski | 893,000 |
| 9 | Andreas Berggren | 845,000 |
| 10 | Aleh Plauski | 807,000 |
Day 4 of the EPT Prague Main Event is set to begin at 12:00 CET tomorrow and will play down to the final 24. Join us then as we bring you all the latest and greatest from the Czech Republic.