Lodden Maintains Lead Heading into Day 4
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Day 3 of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo? Casino EPT Grand Final came and went over the course of five levels today. By the end of play just 34 players remain and a familiar name is ahead of the rest. Johnny Lodden started the day as chip leader and he ended it that way as well with 1,232,000 chips.
The big talking point of the day surrounded the bubble that actually happened sooner than thought. It took eight hands and more than half an hour to navigate the hand-for-hand period which ended with two players being eliminated. That meant Team PokerStars Pro, Chad Brown, was the real bubble boy after he ran queens into aces to bust in 82nd place.
Eightieth place money was chopped between David Vamplew and Taylor Paur after both were eliminated to the joy of all the short stacks amongst the remaining 79 players. Oleksii Kovalchuk took care of Paur in a battle of the blinds; the American's king-queen failed to come from behind to beat Kovalchuk's ace-jack.
Calvin Anderson and Vamplew were locked in battle on an adjacent table and the latter committed all his chips on the turn when drawing dead for the win. His top pair with ace-king was crushed by Anderson's jack-three that had made a wheel. Vamplew's only hope was for the board to complete as a straight. It didn't and he had to be content with €8,000 along with Paur.
That pot put Anderson up to 880,000 chips which was good for the chip lead at that point. His day from thereon in went on a downward spiral that ended in elimination at the hands of Vasili Firsau in the last level of the day. It was a straight race but he couldn't hit with ace-queen versus sixes.
Now, back to Mr Lodden. He spent the first half of the day locked away on the feature table where he just maintained his stack. His luck changed when he was out on the main floor though and he accrued some chips. Then his table broke and he quickly found himself embroiled in the biggest, and only, million-chip-plus pot of the tournament thus far. Panagiotis Gavriilidis may be wondering tonight why he turned pocket deuces into a bluff on a jack-high board. The pot was three-bet pre and four-bet on the flop before Gavriilidis made a huge shove on the turn. It put Lodden in a tricky spot but after thinking for a few minutes he made the correct call with pocket kings. For full details of the hand, click here.
It was a great day overall for those representing the red spade. Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Jake Cody, Ville Wahlbeck and Victor Ramdin will all be back for Day 4, along with Team Online's Mickey Petersen. Other big names back for more tomorrow include: Steve O'Dwyer, Paul Volpe, Freddy Deeb, Luke Schwartz, John Juanda, Noah Schwartz and Noah Boeken. Counts of all the remaining players can be found by clicking here.
To say the final four tables of the final main event of season is stacked is, for sure, an understatement. The final three days promise to be something not to miss. Tomorrow, play will resume at the delayed time of 3pm CET due to the TV set being used to film a charity celebrity sit and go tournament. The day will last as long as it takes to get down to 16 players.
The PokerNews reporting team will be back here from 12pm CET time where coverage of the €25,000 High-Roller will start. Plenty of poker action to keep you all entertained!