25 Remain in EPT London Main Event as Hall of Famer Seidel Chases Triple Crown
Another day of action in the PokerStars European Poker Tour London ￡5,300 EPT Main Event wrapped up after five levels of play and saw Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel bagging 955,000 chips among the 25 remaining players.
The legendary Seidel, who had a red-hot run at EPT Barcelona this summer that included a second-place finish in the €100K Super High Roller for €1,286,490, is chasing a Triple Crown with nine World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and a WPT (World Poker Tour) on his poker resume.
Seidel, who ended the day in spectacular fashion with a set-over-set double up through Day 2 chip leader Julien Sitbon, will have his work cut out for him as there were plenty of other top crushers who survived Day 3, including fellow high-rollers Ben Heath and Marton Czuczor, as well as EPT London Ladies Event champ Jessica Pilkington and ￡2,200 UKIPT High Roller runner-up Roman Hrabec, who bagged the chip lead with a stack of 1,900,000.
￡5,300 EPT Main Event Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT | BIG BLINDS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | 1,905,000 | 127 | |
| 2 | Alexandre Vuilleumier | Switzerland | 1,660,000 | 111 | |
| 3 | Nils Pudel | Germany | 1,590,000 | 106 | |
| 4 | Jordi Romero | Spain | 1,480,000 | 99 | |
| 5 | David Docherty | United Kingdom | 1,420,000 | 95 | |
| 6 | Nicolas Vayssieres | France | 1,320,000 | 88 | |
| 7 | Pedro Garagnani | Brazil | 1,315,000 | 88 | |
| 8 | Sergio Coutinho | Portugal | 1,075,000 | 72 | |
| 9 | Ian Hamilton | United Kingdom | 1,060,000 | 71 | |
| 10 | Enzo Vito | United Kingdom | 989,000 | 66 |
Plenty of Big Names Fall During Day 3
The field of 80 entries that started the day steadily dwindled down as plenty of big names dropped out of the competition.
Team PokerStars Pro Ramon Colillas was eliminated early in the day in a six-bet pot where his pocket jacks were pipped by the Ladies of Conor Beresford, who himself busted later in the evening when his pocket tens couldn't survive a flip against the ace-queen of Benjamin Pollak.
The luscious-locked Beresford has had an impressive series that included a runner-up finish in the ￡1,100 UKIPT Main Event to none other than WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson, who joined the Brit in the Day 3 field and before being eliminated in a straight versus straight cooler as the night wound down.
Other big names who fell during Day 3 include Adrian Mateos, Gianluca Speranza and Day 1 chips leaders Ole Schemion, Luis Faria and Henrik Hecklen, who is fresh off a victory in the ￡50,000 EPT London Super High Roller for ￡652,700.
Day 4 will commence on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at noon. The top prize of ￡664,400 awaits the winner in the six-day tournament that is slated to wrap up on Oct. 28.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is close by and ready to report on the rest of the event ahead of the crowning of the first EPT London Main Event champion in eight years. Check out the live reporting team's coverage of other EPT London events in the meantime.