Final Day of European Open Special Edition Upon Us; Martin Soukup Leads Ahead of Jordan Cristos and Rex Clinkscales
Welcome back to the Wynn Las Vegas and the Wynn Fall Classic for Day 3 of the European Open Special Edition.
Sunday saw just 119 players return from the 673-player starting field to firstly play down until the money before making a run at reaching the final table. Players were eliminated at a furious rate before it would be Michael Macey becoming the tournament bubble boy when he was eliminated on the feature table by Federico Butteroni in a blind-on-blind battle with 
losing to 
.
From there, eliminations rolled out at an intense rate as multiple players shared the chip lead along the way. However, once play was abruptly halted due to security reasons of the players, it would be 2016 Unibet Open Malta Champion Martin Soukup leading the charge with 1,977,000; after one point having over 2 million in chips.
Soukup was nestled on the feature table, and fortunately for him he had direct position on the next two players on the leaderboard in Hong Zhang (1,283,000) and Jordan Cristos (1,202,000), while Day 1b chip leader Egi Adriaans sits on the feature table and is fourth overall with 1,055,000. Yngve Steen sits fifth on the leaderboard with 1,025,000 and is the only player on the secondary table that is in the seven-figure club. Federico Butteroni (876,000), Rex Clinkscales (788,000), and Joe Serock (687,000) are also still in contention as all eyes will be on the $113,059 first prize and title of European Open Special Edition Champion when the final 17 players return on Monday.
Day 3 Seating Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature Table | 1 | Jordan Cristos | USA | 1,202,000 |
| Feature Table | 2 | Martin Soukup | Czech Republic | 1,977,000 |
| Feature Table | 3 | Joris Springael | Belgium | 520,000 |
| Feature Table | 4 | Ekrem Bozkurt | Turkey | 310,000 |
| Feature Table | 5 | Andrey Plotnikov | Russia | 818,000 |
| Feature Table | 6 | Rex Clinkscales | USA | 778,000 |
| Feature Table | 7 | Egi Adriaans | Belgium | 1,055,000 |
| Feature Table | 8 | Andrew Warren | USA | 624,000 |
| Feature Table | 9 | Hong Zhang | China | 1,283,000 |
| Secondary Table | 1 | Florin Haiduc | Romania | 315,000 |
| Secondary Table | 2 | --empty-- | -- | -- |
| Secondary Table | 3 | Joe Serock | USA | 687,000 |
| Secondary Table | 4 | Mark Hagendijk | Netherlands | 555,000 |
| Secondary Table | 5 | Federico Butteroni | Italy | 876,000 |
| Secondary Table | 6 | Yngve Steen | Norway | 1,025,000 |
| Secondary Table | 7 | Ryan Readenour | USA | 788,000 |
| Secondary Table | 8 | Jim Agate | USA | 385,000 |
| Secondary Table | 9 | Henrik Tellving | Sweden | 309,000 |
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be back on the floor to provide continuous live updates of all the European Open Special Edition action once play restarts at 2:00 p.m. (PDT). So stay tuned right here to PokerNews.com as we play down until the European Open Special Edition Champion is crowned.