PokerStars.it European Poker Tour Campione Day 4: Final Table Set; Fabrice Soulier Leads
We’ve seen some rapid days in eight seasons on the PokerStars European Poker Tour, but Day 4 of the EPT Campione leg has to go straight into the top five. It took just four hours to lose 16 players and set Saturday's final table. Fabrice Soulier will begin the final table with a chip leading stack of 3,480,000.
The final table was set when the Bulgarian, Simeon Naydenov, and Olivier Busquet battled in a five-bet pot. Jannick Wrang opened to 50,000 before Busquet three-bet to 125,000. Naydenov entered with a four-bet to 233,000 which was enough to force out Wrang, but not Busquet, who shoved with A?K?. The Bulgarian called quickly with J?J? but unfortunately his jacks were powerless to hold on the K?7?4?5?6? board.
2012 EPT Campione Final Table
| Seat | Name | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olivier Busquet | USA | 3,011,000 |
| 2 | Koen De Visscher | Belgium | 1,856,000 |
| 3 | Mario Nagel | Germany | 1,210,000 |
| 4 | Stefano Puccilli | Italy | 1,450,000 |
| 5 | Jannick Wrang | Denmark | 2,882,000 |
| 6 | Fabrice Soulier | France | 3,480,000 |
| 7 | Balazs Botond | Hungary | 2,080,000 |
| 8 | Robin Ylitalo | Sweden | 1,153,000 |
The eliminations began shortly after the clock started on Day 4. Mexico’s hoped were dashed when Jose Manuel Nadal fell to Carlos Mora before the latter was ousted himself moments later. He lost his chips to the uber-aggressive Simeon Naydenov, who went on to bust Ronny Kaiser just a few minutes after that. Kaiser was one of two former champions still in the field on Friday, but as the shortest stack, his task was near impossible. His K?3? found the going too tough against Naydenov's A?9?.
Teresa Nousianen, the tournament director, was on the PA system seemingly constantly announcing bust out after bust out. Andrea Benelli carried a lot of the hopes of the host nation, but the Italian failed to win a vital race versus David Vamplew. The latter’s A?K? won the sprint against the Italian’s J?J?.
Soulier decided to take proceedings into his own hands at this point as he booked a spree of eliminations including Adrian Veghinas, Alessandro Minasi, Giuseppe Biancouiso and Alexandre Andermatt. Soulier ran particularly well in the hand with Biancouiso. Soulier opened with K?Q? and called when Biancouiso three-bet shoved with A?A? before the board ran out Q?8?Q?9?2? to give Soulier trips.
Ramin Hajiyev raced away in 12th after an ongoing battle with Balazs Botond. A big clash was looming and ended with a big preflop encounter. Botond had a pair to his opponent's overcards, and managed to talk a low board out of the dealer to break through the 2 million chip mark.
The final former EPT champion left in the field was David Vamplew, and he was very dejected when he busted to Olivier Busquet, in 10th place. The two of them battled deep into a break and Vamplew called all-in when he hit top pair on the turn. He was in bad shape though as Busquet had flopped two pair. Busquet's hand held and that means, yet again, the EPT will end up crowning a new champion on Saturday.
The final table will kick off at 1400 CEST (0500 PDT). The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to bring you all the action from the final table.
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