Day 3 of the Season 10 European Poker Tour Vienna saw the remaining 189 players of a 910-player field return to battle it out for five 90-minute levels. During that time the top 135 players made the money, but eventually the clock expired with just 50 players remaining in contention for the €816,000 first-place prize.
The man best positioned to make a run at the top prize is Pablo Gordillo, who emerged as the chip leader with 2,111,000. Gordillo grabbed the chip lead in Level 18 (3,000/6,000/1,000) when Portuguese pro Michel Dattani tried to run a big bluff. Unfortunately for him, it cost him his tournament life as Gordillo made a good call with pocket sevens.
Others who bagged up healthy stack were Anatoly Filatov (1,500,000), Timo Pfutzenreuter (1,065,000), Simeon Naydenov (1,040,000), and Miltiadis Kyriakides (1,034,000).
Of course not everyone was so lucky on Day 3. Among the 54 players to exit short of the money were Giacomo Fundaro, Luuk Gieles, Ruben Visser, Joep van den Bijgaart, Oliver Price, Dariusz Paszkiewicz, and Ronny Kaiser.
Kaiser fell in Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500) when Frei Dilling from Denmark opened the hijack with a raise to 8,000 and Artem Metalidi from the Ukraine moved all in for 97,500. Kaiser, who was in the small blind, thought for a while before eventually calling all in for 88,000. The big blind folded and so did Dilling.
The EPT Tallinn 2011 Champion was at risk with against the of Metalidi. The flop came down , and the tournament director informed the railbirds that Kaiser needed either an ace or king. The on the turn left him just six outs, but none of them came when the completed the on the river to send the online star to the rail.
From there the in-the-money eliminations came fast and furious. Among those to fall were Sam Trickett (133rd - €8,700), Alexey Makarov (131st - €8,700), Jasper Wetemans (111th - €9,550), Jeff Rossiter (109th - €9,550), and the last EPT champion remaining in the field, Vladimir Geshkennein (81st - €10,650).
Also falling on Day 3 were Team PokerStars Pros Marc-Andre Ladouceur (124th - €8,700), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (119th - €9,550), Henrique Pinho (56th - €12,600), and Alexander Kravchenko (55th - €14,600).
Likewise, both Full Tilt Poker Professionals — Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and Gus Hansen — busted on Day 3. Blom ended up finishing in 77th place, while Hansen did a little better finishing in 71st place, which marked his first EPT cash in nearly a decade!
While many fell, there are still plenty of notables to keep an eye on heading into Day 4 including Wilfried Harig (1,005,000), Artem Metalidi (815,000), Jude Ainsworth (788,000), and the chip leader from Day 1a , Olekssi Khoroshenin. Furthermore, two Team PokerStars Pros are returning for Day 4 in Marcel Luske (512,000) and Johnny Lodden (477,000).
Day 4 action is set to kick off at Noon local time on Thursday. An hour later, the €10,000 High Roller will begin. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be bringing you updates from both events, so be sure to check back then. Until then, check out Kristy Arnett’s latest adventure where she Segways her way around the city: