Sets Power Tomas Jozonis to Huge Day 4 Lead
Tomas Jozonis made it look easy on Day 4 of the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT €5,300 Main Event as he raced past his competitors to bag a huge chip lead with the final 16 set for a Day 5 in which they'll determine a final table.
Jozonis finished with 4,075,000, which represents more than 200 big blinds with five minutes remaining in Level 22 (10,000/20,000/20,000). The next-best stack belongs to German superstar Ole Schemion, but his 2,630,000 remains a far cry from where Jozonis sits.
Jozonis has more than $400,000 in live cashes but is known mostly for his online play, where he's banked over $3 million according to PocketFives.
Today, Jozonis simply ran hotter than the sun as he hit three sets for knockouts, two of them in huge pots.
In the first one, he busted recent WPT500 champ Gary Miller in a three-bet pot. Jozonis opened queens under the gun and got three-bet by Miller, and they saw a king-queen-four flop hit. Jozonis check-called down until he check-jammed the river, and Miller couldn't find a fold with ace-king for his last 40 big blinds after using multiple time extensions.
The second one ran out remarkably similar, with Alexis Fleur this time being the one to flop top pair with ace-king when Jozonis had a set, this time fours. Again, the Lithuanian took a check-calling line and then check-ripped on the end, with his opponent once again tank-calling.
Jozonis passed Schemion in the counts shortly after that, and the final big set of the day was a little less dramatic and certainly less necessary. This time, Jozonis opened cutoff and called a ship of 19 big blinds by Mark Demirdjian, who had ace-five offsuit. Jozonis only needed to hold with eights but flopped another set for good measure.
While Jozonis is certainly in great shape, he has plenty of extremely tough competition left. While EPT Monte Carlo does typically produce some loaded final tables, even by this event's standards the remaining 16 looks tougher than getting lunch for under €10 in Monaco.
David Peters (1,675,000), Patrik Antonius (1,505,000), Adrian Mateos (1,495,000), PokerStars Team Pro Andre Akkari (980,000), Stefan Huber (975,000), Davidi Kitai (825,000) and Josip Simunic 690,000) would all be worthy headliners on their own. Together, they make it certain the eventual champion will have earned his keep.
Some of the less fortunate hopefuls who had dreams dashed on Day 4 included Gavin O'Rourke, Dimitar Danchev, Antoine Saout and Philipp Gruissem. Former PCA champ Danchev endured a nasty exit when he got it in on the turn fading only a flush draw and his opponent binked.
Day 5 will see a final table determined, starting at noon local time in Monaco on Thursday. Come back PokerNews for more live updates then.
EPT Main Event Day 5 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Stefan Huber | Switzerland | 975,000 | 49 |
| 1 | 2 | David Peters | USA | 1,675,000 | 84 |
| 1 | 3 | Josip Simunic | Austria | 690,000 | 35 |
| 1 | 4 | Javier Fernandez | Spain | 2,120,000 | 106 |
| 1 | 5 | Krisztian Gyorgyi | Hungary | 1,770,000 | 89 |
| 1 | 6 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 825,000 | 41 |
| 1 | 7 | Nicolas Dumont | France | 500,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 8 | Honglin Jiang | New Zealand | 1,890,000 | 95 |
| 2 | 1 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 2,630,000 | 132 |
| 2 | 2 | Andre Akkari | Brazil | 960,000 | 48 |
| 2 | 3 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 1,495,000 | 75 |
| 2 | 4 | Tomas Jozonis | Lithuania | 4,075,000 | 204 |
| 2 | 5 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | 1,505,000 | 75 |
| 2 | 6 | Sadri Saleh | Canada | 610,000 | 31 |
| 2 | 7 | Davor Lanini | Italy | 900,000 | 45 |
| 2 | 8 | Dan Abouaf | France | 595,000 | 30 |
was dominated by 
. The board ran out 
, no help to O'Rourke, and he patted the table knowing he had bubbled the penultimate day.
, and Petruzzelli busted when neither played improved.
flop. A couple of players celebrated the impending elimination and the 
confirmed it would occur. The river was a 
was best but he had a few cards to fade as Saleh had a flush draw: 
. The river brought a 
on the river sure did. Straight for Akkari and a huge double-up.
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on the river, to skyrocket out of his chair and run through half of the tournament room in wild celebration, screaming out his excitement in Hungarian. When he returned to the table and saw the cameras on him, he continued to shout in his native language while slowly someone in the room started clapping. Gyorgyi turned around and started clapping himself, and most of the room joined in.
to eliminate Wilf in 22nd place.
. Alexis Fleur was under the gun and bet 110,000. Jozonis raised all in for Fleur's last 225,000. 