Glen Chorny(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
124 players returned to the felt on Day 3 of the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final in Monte Carlo. 80 of these world-class players and amateurs would earn bank in one of the richest events to ever be held on European soil. For a full three hours, the battle raged on before the bubble burst. The unfortunate person who held that position is prominent British pro, Surinder Sunar, winner of the World Poker Tour’s Aviation Club de Paris event in July 2004. Sunar’s pocket jacks were crushed by Ricardo Sousa’s pair of queens made on the flop.
Former World Series of Poker Main Event Champ, Joe Hachem, fared better. After losing a difficult pot to Woody Deck, the Aussie hit trip hooks on the turn to double up and survived the day. Also making it to Day 4 were former chip leaders Oyvind Riisem and Johnny Lodden as well as Luca Pagano, reigning WSOP HORSE champion Freddy Deeb and Raymond Rahme. Tournament mainstays Trond Erik Eidsvig and Benjamin Kang made bank, but hit the rail too early for their liking as did former chip leader Cyril Bensoussan.
Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari was on top when the day was done. A total of 39 players remained.
On Day 4, those 39 were ready to play down to 10. Each player began the day with the tasty $3.2 million top prize in his sights. Claudio Pagano, father of Italian professional, Luca, hit the rail in 22nd place. Claudio’s achievement is significant as he and Luca became the first father/son duo to make bank in the same EPT event. Daddy Claudio must be doubly proud as his son will play on in Day 5 action.
Norwegian phenom Johnny Lodden had been doing so well throughout this event. Unfortunately, Lodden lost two large pots after going all-in preflop. He did have the best of it going into the hand. However, these unlucky breaks were enough to do the Scandinavian rounder in. He took 17th place.
Lodden’s countryman and former chip leader, Oyvind Riisem, didn’t fare much better. Riisem took some hard knocks before being eliminated in fifteenth place by Canadian player, Glen Chorny. Chorny also took some chips off former chip leader Antonio Esfandiari. Esfandiari survived the onslaught and made the top ten. Chorny, a winner of a PLO tournament at the World Poker Open earlier this year, had a nice lead going into Day 5. Joe Hachem was the last elimination of the night. His eleventh place finish was good for $159,943.
Here is where the competitors stacked up at the end of Day 4 play:
- Glenn Chorny - 3,370,000
- Isaac Baron - 2,365,000
- Michael Martin - 1,570,000
- Maxime Villemure - 1,220,000
- Denes Kalo - 957,000
- Antonio Esfandiari - 735,000
- Luca Pagano - 705,000
- Valeriy Ilikyan - 650,000
- Stig Top Rasmussen - 590,000
- Henrik Gwinner - 466,000
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