King's Casino Owner Leon Tsoukernik Leads €50,000 PokerStars EPT Prague Super High Roller
After a day full of action, just six players remain in the €50,000 Super High Roller at the last ever PokerStars European Poker Tour event, in Prague.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier bubbled the event, going out in eighth place while King's Casino Rozvadov owner Leon Tsoukernik leads the star-packed final table.
Charlie Carrel, two-time EPT High Roller champion, sits in second place. Russian online player Viacheslav Buldygin comes into Day 3 third in chips. Rounding out the table are German 2013 WPT Prague winner Julian Thomas, 2014 EPT Prague Super High Roller runner-up Paul Newey and EPT Deauville High Roller champion Juha Helppi.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leon Tsoukernik | Czech Republic | 4,330,000 | 87 |
| 2 | Paul Newey | United Kingdom | 955,000 | 19 |
| 3 | Charlie Carrel | United Kingdom | 3,565,000 | 71 |
| 4 | Julian Thomas | Germany | 535,000 | 11 |
| 5 | Viacheslav Buldygin | Russia | 1,230,000 | 25 |
| 6 | Juha Helppi | Finland | 1,615,000 | 32 |
The penultimate day of the Super High Roller started with three players signing up, bringing the total to 49 entries (39 unique players, plus 10 reentries). Besides [Removed:17] and Martin Kabrhel giving it another go after having played on Day 1 already, Justin Bonomo was the sole new player in the field. Bonomo came straight from Vegas where he had made the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic final table (fifth for $345,272), but didn't last long in Prague. He spun up a stack before doubling Ali Reza Fatehi and busting to Martin Kozlov not much later.
By that time, Steffen Sontheimer and Max Silver had already fallen. They wouldn't be the only ones; Russian players Sergey Lebedev and Vladimir Troyanovskiy followed them to the rail rather quickly.
Steve O'Dwyer, who won this event last year for €746,543, doubled early in the day through Mustapha Kanit, but wouldn't put those chips to good use. Bit by bit he lost his precious stack and eventually got it in with ace-seven against the kings of Leon Tsoukernik.
While big names like Isaac Haxton (ace-nine to the ace-eight of Vojtech Ruzicka), Ben Heath (fives to ElkY's aces) and Martin Kabrhel (king-queen to Vojtech Ruzicka's ace-ten) all fell, Leon Tsoukernik was gaining chips by the dozens. The King's Casino Rozvadov owner splashed around in a lot of pots; showing big bluffs, tricky semi-bluffs and sneaky value bets. Like yesterday, Tsoukernik was the life of the party, battling with his neighbor Charlie Carrel on multiple occasions and coming out on top just as many times as going under.
Tsoukernik first busted Koray Aldemir in a huge pot to get his stack up to 1.8 million. He added another 2 million in a huge three-bet pot against Carrel and Jean-Noel Thorel. Tsoukernik got it in with a set of nines against the top pair and top kicker Thorel held with ace-king, and had his French opponent drawing dead on the turn.
That was after Charlie Carrel had taken care of Mustapha Kanit in a pot just as big. Kanit couldn't get away from his straight, only to discover upon showdown that his British adversary had the nut flush.
While Carrel and Tsoukernik took care of the big pots, most other players built their stacks by playing small ball. Paul Newey, as patient as ever, waited for his spots and got it in with big hands several times to hang in there and make the money. He finished runner-up in 2014 for €557,090, and tomorrow he'll be back on the final table to try and one-up that result.
PokerStars Team Pro Grospellier, once a staple on the EPT Super High Roller scene but absent in recent years, made his return to the big stage here in Prague. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he ended up bubbling the event. Down to just short of four big blinds, he pushed with pocket fives. Leon Tsoukernik called with nine-eight and flopped a nine to send "ElkY" packing.
With that, the remaining seven players were in the money and guaranteed €123,520. Anthony Zinno, who bubbled this event last year going out against Dzmitry Urbanovich, made the money this year, but won't be coming back on Tuesday's final day. He went out in seventh place when his jack-ten was up against Paul Newey's ace-queen. Zinno hit a jack on the flop to stay hopeful, but the river gave Newey a straight and the tournament was six-handed.
With that, and almost 50 minutes left in the 25,000/50,000-level, play was done for the day. The remaining six players return to the Hilton Hotel Prague Tuesday at noon to play down to a winner. The final table will be live streamed with hole cards up on a one-hour delay. PokerNews coverage of the final table, with every hand covered, resumes at 1 p.m. local time.