Marques Leads Last 13 in Barcelona; Former EPT Champions Juanda and Dimov in Contention After Day 4
The 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour �5,300 Main Event is one step closer to crowning a champion in the record-breaking 1931-entry strong field, as just 13 hopefuls bagged up chips after six levels of 90 minutes each on Day 4. Portugal's Pedro Marques leads the field, but he faces some tough competition for the coveted trophy and first-place payout of �1,611,500.
Marques bagged up 9,150,000 and he is closely followed by Brazil's Fabiano Kovalski (8,745,000). There is a bigger gap between the duo atop the counts, as Rodrigo Carmo (5,330,000), Matthias Tikerpe (5,200,000) and Haoxiang Wang (4,655,000) complete the top five overnight.
Two former champions are in contention to join the only two-time champion Vicky Coren in lifting the trophy for the second time: Ognyan Dimov (3,100,000) won the title in Deauville in 2015 and John Juanda (1,980,000) emerged victorious in the same year right here at Casino Barcelona. Both were sat next to each other at the end of the day over on the feature table.
Mark Buckley advanced with a stack of 4,400,000 and his fellow countryman Patrick Clarke, who finished 4th on home soil at the 2016 EPT Dublin Main Event, will return with 3,550,000. The remaining hopefuls include Georges Hannes (3,770,000), Piotr Nurzynski (3,570,000), Danny Tang (2,435,000) and Ben Heath (2,030,000).
Among those to bust throughout the day were such notables as Anthony Chimkovitch, Stefan Jedlicka, Kalidou Sow, Michael Chi Zhang, Rifat Palevic, Benjamin Pollak, Victor Chong, Stefan Jedlicka, Tom Alner and Upeshka De Silva. All remaining 13 players will return to the tables on Saturday, September 1st, 2018, as of 12.00 p.m. local time and the action resumes with blinds of 40,000/80,000 and a big blind ante of 80,000.
Day 5 Seat Assignments
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Ben Heath | UK | 2,030,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 2 | Georges Hanna | Lebanon | 3,770,000 | 47 |
| 1 | 3 | Danny Tang | UK | 2,435,000 | 30 |
| 1 | 4 | Ognyan Dimov | Bulgaria | 3,100,000 | 39 |
| 1 | 5 | John Juanda | Indonesia | 1,988,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 7 | Pedro Marques | Portugal | 9,150,000 | 114 |
| 1 | 8 | Piotr Nurzynski | Poland | 3,570,000 | 45 |
| 2 | 2 | Rodrigo Carmo | Portugal | 5,330,000 | 67 |
| 2 | 3 | Matthias Tikerpe | Estonia | 5,200,000 | 65 |
| 2 | 4 | Haoxiang Wang | China | 4,655,000 | 58 |
| 2 | 5 | Patrick Clarke | Ireland | 3,550,000 | 44 |
| 2 | 6 | Fabiano Kovalski | Brazil | 8,745,000 | 109 |
| 2 | 8 | Mark Buckley | Ireland | 4,400,000 | 55 |
Action of the Day
A total of 56 players returned to their seats and the early eliminations came at a quick pace. Among those to bust were Day 1b chip leader Anthony Chimkovitch, Simon Mattsson, Raul Martinez, Jack Wu and Luke Haward. Alexandre Reard saw his ace-king suited cracked by ace-queen and Kalidou Sow failed to hold up with ace-queen against the ace-nine of Mark Buckley.
Action barely slowed down and the all in showdowns continued to happen very frequently. Rifat Palevic lost a flip with pocket queens against the ace-king of Enrico De Rosa and Oliver Weis bowed out from the feature table in a set-under-set scenario. The French misery continued when Julien Sitbon ran with kings into aces and Brazil's Renato Kaneoya lost a flip with pocket nines against the ace-jack of Rodrigo Carmo.
The remaining 26 players had barely returned to their seats after the second break of the day when the redraw to the final three tables was required after the eliminations of Joel Isla and Jiri Horak. Jamie O'Connor saw his hopes vanish when he got it in with pocket kings against ace-queen and an ace hit on the flop to improve Georges Hanna. World Series of Poker bracelet winner Andres Korn made a pay jump but eventually bowed out in 20th place.
Johan Storaker was among the next casualties after his move with ace-trey in a battle of the blinds was quickly called by Upeshka De Silva with the dominating ace-jack and the kicker problem turned out to be crucial for the Swede. Only a few minutes later, Denys Shafikov ran with pocket eights into the pocket queens of Pedro Marques and the field was reduced to the last 17. The biggest pot of the tournament to date followed and it was Enrico De Rosa, who ended up second-best with king-queen for top pair as Fabiano Kovalski had flopped a set of sevens in a three-way pot.
Down to the last two tables, Kovalski was in the lead and Pedro Marques took over the top spot with the elimination of Marius Conan. The last Frenchman in the field three-bet all in with pocket nines and Marques moved all in over the top behind him with pocket kings. There was no help on a queen-high board and Conan exited in 16th place.
Two further players busted in the final level of the night and those happened to be Tom Alner and Upeshka De Silva. Alner lost a flip with ace-jack against the pocket eights of Patrick Clarke, who regained the lead with a straight on the river. For De Silva, it was a disappointing end to the day after he went from second in chips to out in 13th after a series of unfortunate hands. First he lost a bigger pot without showdown against Fabiano Kovalski, then paid off the second nut flush of Rodrigo Carmo and his pocket kings were cracked by the ace-queen of Mark Buckley. In the final hand of the night, De Silva got it in with pocket nines and Kovalski sigh-called with ace-seven to hit an ace in the window.
The penultimate day of the �5,300 Main Event will play down to the final six for the big showdown on Sunday and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back to provide all the action.