Ivan Luca Leads Eureka 6 Rozvadov Main Event into Final Day
The final table has been set in the PokerStars.net Eureka Poker Tour Rozvadov €1,100 Main Event, with Argentinian sensation Ivan "Negriin" Luca dealing the final blow and grabbing a dominating lead for Tuesday's last day of action.
Interestingly enough, Luca with have position on someone he is very familiar with, his girlfriend Maria Lampropoulos. Lampropoulos has about 3 million in chips less than Luca, but still plenty of an opportunity to make some noise.
The third and penultimate day of the event saw 63 players return to King's Casino. More than eight levels of 60 minutes each passed before the eight finalists had been determined, but action was fast and furious right at the start, with Michael Eiler and Marek Blasko as the first two to fall.
Other notables to fall before the last three tables included Pavel Chalupka (47th), Dominik Paus (37th), and Amir Mozaffarian (34th).
European Poker Tour regular Jonas Lauck put his hopes on a nut flush draw in a three-bet pot against Lampropoulos, but the kings of the last woman in the field held up to see her skyrocket into the top five.
PokerStars online qualifier Alexandru Farcasanu bluffed away his stack with ace-high and Robert Kokoska's top pair held up to see the Romanian depart in 23rd place.
Martin Kristeller went from zero to hero and back to zero after first cracking pocket kings and then having his aces cracked within a matter of half an hour. He finished in 19th place.
Grzegorz Wyraz finished in 16th after losing a flip with ace-queen against the pocket sevens of David Urban, and the same applied for Dragoslav Timarac on the feature table to bust him in 15th. Hannes Speiser had raised with sevens, Lampropoulos flatted with jacks, and Timarac, the Serbian, pushed with sevens. Luca reshoved with ace-king suited and an ace on the flop sent Timarac packing.
Start-of-the-day chip leader Daniel Rose lost momentum early on and then had his aces cracked before shoving with 10 big blinds and king-queen. Urban found the ace-king from one seat over and an ace on the flop reduced the field to the last 12 hopefuls.
Martin Ilavsky, Rene Kodlin, and Andres Viola were on the rail next, and the unofficial final table of the last nine was set.
Domenico Gala experienced a roller coaster on the feature table and ultimately got into a huge pot with Luca after raising the button with queens. Luca flopped trip tens and check-raised before betting the turn and shoving the river of a paired board. Gala tanked for six minutes and called it off for 1 million in chips only to see his over pair was no good.
With that elimination, Day 3 came to a close with 43:43 left on the clock in Level 27 at blinds of 30,000/60,000 and a running ante of 10,000.
Luca holds a commanding lead with 5.355 million chips, almost twice as many as second place's Peter Siemund from Berlin with 2.845 million. Lampropoulos is in third on 2.455 million.
Seven different nationalities made it to the official final table, as the line up is completed by Urban from Slovakia (2.005 million), Bulgaria's Stoyan Stefanov (1.505 million), Mick Heder from Denmark (1.37 million), the last remaining Czech in Kokoska (895,000), and Austria's Hannes Speiser (445,000).
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mick Heder | Denmark | 1,370,000 |
| 2 | David Urban | Slovakia | 2,005,000 |
| 3 | Hannes Speiser | Austria | 445,000 |
| 4 | Stoyan Stefanov | Bulgaria | 1,505,000 |
| 5 | Maria Lampropoulos | Argentina | 2,455,000 |
| 6 | Ivan Luca | Argentina | 5,355,000 |
| 7 | Peter Siemund | Germany | 2,845,000 |
| 8 | Robert Kokoska | Czech Republic | 895,000 |
Action will resume on Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time, but the updates won't start until one hour later due to the security delay of the live stream with hole cards. The finalists have €12,500 locked up thus far, but all eyes are set on the Eureka title and first-place payout of €124,890 that comes with it.
Make sure to tune back in for the PokerNews reporting to find out who will be crowned champion in the biggest poker room in Europe.