Life, like poker, is sometimes all about good timing and knowing when to make your move. For Christoph Walkenhorst, a 35-year-old social worker from Germany, that move was made a little over a month ago.
“I hadn’t played online poker for some years, but in my home game my friends kept talking about online poker,” Walkenhorst tells PokerStars Blog the morning after he won one of the first Platinum Passes to the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) 2020 (more on that in a moment).
“I told my friends that I have two kids, and therefore no time to play an eight-hour tournament online. And that’s when they told me about the Chase Your Dream freerolls.”
The Chase Your Dream competition began with online freerolls, and anyone who went deep enough was then invited to send in audition tape. The prize, they all thought, was the chance to come to EPT Barcelona and play in an invite-only tournament versus pros and celebrities, with a shot at winning €10,000.
That was all true. But there was a whole lot more at stake too.
Sahil Chuttani opened from middle position and Rui Sousa defended his big blind.
The flop came and Sousa check-called 35,000. The turn was the and Sousa checked again. Chuttani bet 105,000 and Sousa check-raised to 250,000. Chuttani called.
The river was the and Sousa used a time bank before slightly overbetting the pot by betting 700,000 into approximately 600,000.
Chuttani was out of time banks so as the dealer counted out his last five seconds he eventually let his hand go into the muck.
Simon Brandstrom went to dinner as chip leader, but relinquished that position to Rui Sousa a short while later. However, on a recent pass of the Swede's table, he has now moved above the three million chip mark.
He started the day with 509,000 but has soared up the chip counts to lead once more with 63 players remaining. His table no longer features Andrew Wilson, who has been eliminated in 64th place.
On a flop both Joe Mouawad and Harry Lodge committed 90,000 chips to the pot and the turn was the . With a little over 400,000 chips in the middle, Mouawad moved all in for 432,000.
"Over pair or a set?" asked Lodge, using up one of his time extensions, but Mouawad didn't reply. "I have an over pair. It's a pretty good one too."
Lodge used up another time extension before calling. Mouawad showed for two pair and was ahead of the of Lodge.
The Brit could still hit an eight, three or ace, but the river was the and Mouawad doubled up.
Keisuke Hikosaka and Griffin Benger missed out on a pay jump. The former was eliminated on the feature table and the latter hit the rail on the outer tables.
With 56 remaining, Benger opened to 225,000 with 35,000 behind and Ryhor Karapanau called, the rest of the table folded. On the flop, Benger let his shot clock run down to one second before checking and Karapanau bet 100,000. Benger used one time bank and eventually called all in after nearly a minute.
Griffin Benger:
Ryhor Karapanau:
The turn and the river brought no help to Benger and he was eliminated in 56th place.
Former chip leader Rui Sousa just tumbled down the leaderboard after doubling up Kully Sidhu for about one million total. Action was picked up on the turn in what was presumably a three-bet pot between the adversaries.
The board read and Sousa check-called a bet of 210,000 from Sidhu. On the river, Sousa checked, and Sidhu shoved all in for 640,000. Sousa gave Sidhu an intense staredown before calling it off.
Sidhu revealed , Sousa flashed and paid the man his money.
After Luiz Duarte Ferreira Filho raised from under the gun, Molly Mossey shoved all in for 185,000 and Duarte called it off.
Molly Mossey:
Luiz Duarte Ferreira Filho:
It was a classic flip for Mossey's tournament life, but the flop and the turn provided no help. Another blank followed on the river to send Mossey to the payout desk in 50th place out of a massive field of 1,988 entries.
During the last hands of the night, Zhen Cai was all in for 375,000 and had a classic coin flip against Jiayuan Liu.
Zhen Cai:
Jiayuan Liu:
"Please let me win a flip, one time," Liu said and the flop was no threat yet. Liu asked for a three and didn't mind the turn and river run out as Cai made his way to the payout desk.
The record-breaking 2019 PokerStars EPT Barcelona €5,300 EPT Main Event is one step closer to crowning a champion at Casino Barcelona as Day 3 concluded with 48 players out of 1,988 entries remaining.
With the lion's share of the €9,641,800 prize pool still up for grabs, all those that bagged and tagged for the night have already locked up €25,650 for their efforts, but all eyes are firmly set on the top prize of €1,659,000.
Leading the field after Day 3 is Pasquale Braco with 2,800,000 and the Italian comes fresh off a deep run in the record-breaking €1,100 National in which he finished in 11th place. Second in chips is Shannon Shorr with 2,515,000 followed by Diego Falcone (2,310,000), while several other players such as Simon Brandstrom (2,300,000), Ut Tam Vo (2,275,000), Jonas Ten Cate (2,240,000) and Jerry Odeen (2,135,000) are all closely bunched together.
Three further hopefuls are seeking a repeat victory at the current festival in Barcelona as €2,200 National High Roller champion Alexander Ivarsson (1,585,000), €1,100 National champion Markku Koplimaa (455,000) and €100,000 High Roller winner Sergi Reixach (430,000) all bagged up chips, too.
Also included in the mix for Day 4 are former EPT Main Event runner-ups Kimmo Kurko (1,655,000), Marton Czuczor (1,195,000), Anton Siden (745,000) and 2016 Dublin third-place finisher Kully Sidhu (1,715,000), as well as big names such as Stefan "mindgamer" Jedlicka (1,815,000), Timothy Adams (1,275,000), Isaac Haxton (1,205,000), Ben Farrell (1,020,000), and Gaelle Baumann (500,000) who all have plenty of experience deep in big tournaments at their disposal.
Many other big names were unable to make it through another day and headed to the payout desk on Day 3. Jeremy Palvini and Lukas Zaskodny were ousted in a three-way all-in when Thiago Signorelli Viana turned a set of nines. Pete Chen and Ema Zajmovic also failed to make it to the first break and the second level kicked off with the elimination of Fatima Moreira De Melo. The last remaining PokerStars ambassador ran with ace-king into the pocket aces of Alen Alencar over on the feature table.
The last former EPT Main Event champion in the field, 2018 Sochi winner Arsenii Karmatckii, saw his hopes of a second title vanish when his last few big blinds disappeared with ace-king versus queen-six suited. The 2019 EPT Monte-Carlo finalists Viktor Katzenberger and Nicola Grieco, as well as Gianluca Speranza followed soon after.
The biggest pots of the tournament so far came in the fourth level of the day. Jean Ferreira found himself on the wrong end of a cooler with kings against the aces of Rui Sousa and headed to the payout desk despite flopping a king. And the rise of Shannon Shorr to become one of the biggest stacks was a result of a clash with Ioannis Zachmanidis when Shorr flopped trips nines with nine-seven suited.
Alex Foxen departed before the dinner break, too, and the action didn't slow down in the final two levels of the night either as the field was reduced further at a rapid pace. Andres Korn, Aymon Hata and Harry Lodge were ousted in the penultimate level. Among the last to bust were Griffin Benger, Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes, Molly Mossey and Zhen Cai.
Benger missed out on a pay jump and ended up second-best with king-ten suited against pocket jacks, Lopes found no help with king-nine against ace-ten and Mossey lost a flip with ace-king against jacks. Just before bagging and tagging, the same fate also awaited for Cai in the final hands of the night when he couldn't get there with Big Slick against the jacks of Jiayuan Liu.
The action for Day 4 is set to resume at 12 p.m. noon local time and at least four and up to six 90-minute levels will be played with the goal to reach at least the final two tables, with a dinner break after the fourth level if needed. Blinds will resume at 10,000-25,000 with a big blind ante of 25,000.
PokerNews will be your one-stop-shop for all the action from Barcelona as a new champion will be crowned in the biggest EPT Main Event ever.