2014 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Barcelona

There were 102 players returning for Day 4 of the record-breaking European Poker Tour event here in Barcelona, but after six levels and 12 long hours, just 25 remain going into the penultimate day of the first EPT of Season 11.

The chip leader to close the day was Bram Haenraets of the Netherlands, and he is remarkably playing his first-ever live tournament, but hasn't been afraid to show a lot of aggression. At one point, Haenraets was just one card and three outs away from elimination in a massive pot against Nick Rampone. Haenraets made a huge check-raise shove on the turn of a board with the , but Rampone called with the . The pot was worth over four million in chips and over 160 big blinds, but somehow Haenraets found the on the river to survive. Rampone was left with just one million in chips, yet managed to make it through the day, albeit as the shortest stack.

Team PokerStars Pro's hopes rested squarely on the shoulders of Jan Heitmann. The German came in with one of the larger stacks, but he ended up suffering two horrible beats.

Heitmann wasn't the only big name to fall, either, as five of the six remaining former EPT winners were all eliminated.

The only former winner left now is PokerStars sponsored player Dominik Panka, winner of the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The Polish youngster finished the day with 1,705,000, which was enough to put him squarely in the middle of the pack.

Others to make it through included Maximilian Senft (1,795,000), Kiryl Radzivonau (1,860,000), and Andrea Dato (2,290,000), and they did considerably better than Josh Prager, Ryan Fee, Emil Patel, Kimmo Kurko, and Vojtech Ruzicka, all of whom were casualties at some point.

Tomorrow the tournament will play down to the final table of eight. The expectation is that it will take six or seven levels to complete the task, and the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there to bring you all the action once more from 12 p.m. local time.

Table and Seat Draw

While you wait for the action to return, enjoy the following video with Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier discussing his early years on the scene:

Players will be playing six more hands then finishing for the night.

Pieter van Gils had his stack chopped down not long ago when he lost with the dreaded jacks so he must have been mightily relieved to look down and see get the money in and find a call. Surely he was even happier to see he hadn’t run into aces but was up against the of Gerald Karlic.

His smile lasted less than a minute and he rapped the table as the flop shot Karlic into the lead with a flopped set. The turn and river blanked and in short order van Gils headed for the exit.

On the turn of a board Vladimir Novitckii moved all in for around 650,000 over the top of a 90,000 bet from Andrea Dato. The Italian thought briefly and made the call with , Novitckii showed .

The river was the - which changed nothing and the Russian was eliminated.

John Adress shoved for 350,000 from under-the-gun, Gerald Karlic got a count in the big blind and then made the call.

Andress:
Karlic:

The board ran out - Karlic mischievously pointed to the five, knowing a fourth would mean his kicker would play. Adress smiled.

The river was the and Andress doubled up.

Piotr Sowinski raised to 65,000 preflop and Markku Koplimaa moved all in for about 400,000. Sowinski called instantly and turned over .

"Whoa, what a rush, ace-king, ace-king, kings..." said Koplimaa stating Sowinski's last three hands.

Koplimaa turned over .

The board came and Sowinski found his two-outer after Koplimaa had hit a three-outer. The Polish player is now on around 4 million chips.

Pieter van Gils opened for 60,000 and saw Piotr Sowinski raise it up to 175,000. From the button Mathieu Clavet moved all in for 343,000. Van Gils re-shoved and Sowinski folded.

Cards on their backs and Clavet had and it could have been worse as van Gils tabled .

The board ran out and Clavet got a double up at the expense of van Gils.

The flop read and Slaven Popov bet 75,000. Mikhail Rudoy in the big blind came out with a check-raise to 185,000. Popov made the call and they saw a turn card . Rudoy led out for 350,000 and Popov again made the call.

The river was the and now Rudoy checked. A bet of 685,000 from Popov wasn’t met with a check-raise this time; it was met with a long tank and a sigh-fold.