Andrew Lichtenberger raised to 600 from early position and found calls from Maxim Lykov and Sylvain Loosli. Andrew Chen three-bet the action to 3,000 from the small blind and the big blind folded. Lichtenberger got out of the way and Lykov called. Loosli folded too and we were heads up to the flop.
The flop was filled with diamonds as it came . Chen tossed out a single blue T5,000 chip and Lykov let his hand go, awarding Chen the pot.
From under the gun, Sam Chartier raised to 500. Ludovic Lacay made the call from the cutoff seat, then Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov reraised to 1,800 from the small blind. The big blind and Chartier folded before Lacay made the call to see the flop.
The flop came down , and Katchalov checked. Lacay checked behind. Then, the landed on the turn, and Katchalov checked again. Lacay fired 2,500, and Katchalov made the call. On the river, the landed. Both players checked.
Katchalov showed the for a pair of tens, and Lacay mucked his hand.
We arrived at the table to find a completed board of . With around 12,000 already in the middle, PokerStars Team Online member Mickey Petersen cut out a bet of 6,500.
Petersen's lone opponent, Chino Rheem wiggled in his seat and began pondering his action. Eventually, Rheem opted to let his hand go and Petersen picked up the pot. Petersen dragged in this nice sized pot early and now sits around 60,000 in chips. Rheem, on the other hand, has dropped to about 43,000.
With these late entrants, the field size has now reached 60. Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2, and all players that bust are allowed a single re-entry to the tournament.
Last year, the final 12 players were the only ones to return for the third and final day of play of the €10,000 High Roller event. While the field was peppered with household names, several of them fell quite quickly before the final table was even reached. Andrew "luckychewey" Lichtenberger, 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, and Kristijonas Andrulis were just three of those to fall.
Eventual champion Laurent Polito began the day third in chips behind Tobias Reinkemeier and Alex Bilokur. That trio of players continued their domination of the table and ended up as the last three standing.
Reinkemeier was the first of the three to fall when he ran into the pocket jacks of Polito, and that vaulted the final two into heads up play.
As deals are allowed to be made on the European Poker Tour, the two quickly took to breaking down the remaining money and figuring out a deal. Bilokur held the chip lead at the time of the deal with 3.238 million to Polito's 2.318 million and the two opted to make a straight ICM deal based on those counts. Therefore, Bilokur was guaranteed to take home €295,451 while Polito would pocket €270,229. With all of the prize money chopped up, the two left just the title and the coveted Shamballa Jewels bracelet to play for.
Polito took a lead early and never gave it back, as the match came to a head very quickly. Bilokur was eliminated when his pocket nines failed to improve against Polito's pocket queens, and Polito was crowned the champion.