The Money Bubble Bursts; Simon Mattsson Leads After Day 3
Day 3 of the Season 11 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event played out today after 200 players returned to action and aimed to make the money in the top 159. After five 90-minute levels of play, just 61 remained with Simon Mattsson and his stack of 1,790,000 leading the way.
Mattsson became the chip leader in the second-to-last last hand of play when he and Miha Travnik had a raising war preflop and committed their chips. Travnik was in for around 300,000 and at risk holding the 
against Mattsson’s 
. The board ran out 
to see Travnik miss all his outs as he was eliminated from the tournament. Mattsson would hold onto the slight chip lead with one more hand remaining in the day.
Not everyone was as fortunate as Mattsson on Day 3. Some who fell short of the money were Christian Harder, Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, and both Paul Newey and Brian Roberts, who finished second and seventh, respectively, in the €50,000 Super High Roller event that concluded earlier in the week.
When 160 players remained, the money bubble was in effect and hand-for-hand play was started. It took a fair amount of time, but eventually the bubble burst. It happened when Mustapha Kanit raised from the cutoff seat, and Christian Favale three-bet to 25,000 from the button. Kanit then bumped it up to 63,000, and the decision fell back on Favale. He tanked for a few minutes before sliding out 105,000 in chips. Favale was not too pleased when Kanit moved all in a few seconds later, but he reluctantly made the call and the cards were tabled.
Kanit showed the powerful 
, and those bullets had Favale's 
in a world of hurt. The board ran out 
, and the Team PokerStars Online Pro exited as the bubble boy, ensuring the remaining 159 players a guaranteed €8,970 payday.
From there, the eliminations came in quick succession including Mickey Petersen (159th), Isaac Haxton (140th), Liv Boeree (118th), and Eugene Katchalov (63rd). Even though she didn't managed to make it to Day 4, PokerNews did catch up with Boeree to talk about her 2014 poker campaign, REG charity, and her love life:
Shannon Shorr (153rd), Olivier Busquet (82nd), Vladimir Troyanovskiy (79th), Mustapha Kanit (78th), and Thomas Muehlocker (64th) also fell as the day neared close. It was during this grind to the end of the day that others such as Davidi Kitai, Petr Jelinek, and Vanessa Selbst thrived — all three building up to over 1,000,000 in chips to finish the day.
Other notables managing to progress though to another day included George Danzer, Georgios Sotiropoulos, Dylan Linde, Sam Grafton, and Balazs Botond.
Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Mattsson | 1,790,000 |
| 2 | Stephen Graner | 1,713,000 |
| 3 | Davidi Kitai | 1,364,000 |
| 4 | Jonathan Wong | 1,295,000 |
| 5 | Petr Jelinek | 1,191,000 |
| 6 | Militiadis Kyriakides | 1,178,000 |
| 7 | Bjorn Wiesler | 1,084,000 |
| 8 | Pablo Sanz Quiles | 1,075,000 |
| 9 | Francesco Grieco | 1,054,000 |
| 10 | Vanessa Selbst | 1,007,000 |
Day 4 of the EPT Prague Main Event is set to begin at 12:00 CET on Monday, and the plan is to play down to the final 24 players. Be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action straight from the floor of the Hilton Prague Hotel.
Day 4 Table and Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Alexander Roumeliotis | Sweden | 184,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Remi Castaignon | France | 511,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Oleksandr Zhyrnov | Ukraine | 321,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Igor Dubinskyy | Ukraine | 206,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Miltiadis Kyriakides | Greece | 1,178,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Jonathan Wong | UK | 1,295,000 |
| 1 | 7 | [Removed:413] | France | 259,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Stephen Graner | USA | 1,713,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Sam Grafton | UK | 859,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Vanessa Selbst | USA | 1,007,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Jakub Slemr | Czech Republic | 338,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Petr Jelinek | Czech Republic | 1,191,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Artem Metalidi | Ukraine | 742,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Panagiotis Papaisidorou | USA | 537,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Pavel Veksler | Israel | 427,000 |
| 3 | 1 | George Danzer | Germany | 156,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Domenico Drammis | Italy | 457,000 |
| 3 | 4 | Tamer Kamel | UK | 893,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Christian Jeppsson | Sweden | 335,000 |
| 3 | 6 | Ji Zhang | Germany | 114,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Thomas Butzhammer | Germany | 186,000 |
| 3 | 8 | Pablo Sanz Quiles | Spain | 1,075,000 |
| 4 | 1 | Oscar Kroon | Sweden | 425,000 |
| 4 | 2 | Evgenii Starikov | Russia | 80,000 |
| 4 | 3 | Magnus Nordmark | Sweden | 226,000 |
| 4 | 4 | Oskar Fogel | Sweden | 143,000 |
| 4 | 5 | Nandor Solyom | Romania | 276,000 |
| 4 | 6 | Roman Pavliuk | Ukraine | 572,000 |
| 4 | 7 | Georgios Vrakas | Greece | 862,000 |
| 4 | 8 | Claude Metais | France | 203,000 |
| 5 | 1 | Peter Turmezey | Hungary | 346,000 |
| 5 | 2 | Dylan Linde | USA | 180,000 |
| 5 | 4 | Marton Czuczor | Hungary | 217,000 |
| 5 | 5 | Francesco Grieco | Italy | 1,054,000 |
| 5 | 6 | Dobromir Nikov | Bulgaria | 265,000 |
| 5 | 7 | Brian Altman | USA | 294,000 |
| 5 | 8 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | 203,000 |
| 6 | 1 | Andy Seth | USA | 401,000 |
| 6 | 2 | Tatiana Barausova | Russia | 372,000 |
| 6 | 3 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 1,364,000 |
| 6 | 4 | Sergey Lebedev | Russia | 618,000 |
| 6 | 5 | Zoltan Szabo | Hungary | 130,000 |
| 6 | 6 | [Removed:2] | Lebanon | 243,000 |
| 6 | 7 | Pascal Hartmann | Germany | 425,000 |
| 6 | 8 | Fabio Sperling | Germany | 934,000 |
| 7 | 1 | Omar Lakhdari | France | 487,000 |
| 7 | 2 | Alfie Adam | UK | 204,000 |
| 7 | 3 | Idan Raviv | Israel | 504,000 |
| 7 | 4 | Pascal Pflock | Germany | 537,000 |
| 7 | 5 | Ilkin Amirov | Azerbaijan | 704,000 |
| 7 | 6 | Robert Schulz | Germany | 108,000 |
| 7 | 7 | Jerry Wong | USA | 916,000 |
| 7 | 8 | Albert Daher | Lebanon | 777,000 |
| 8 | 1 | Bjorn Wiesler | Germany | 1,084,000 |
| 8 | 2 | Milan Sasek | Czech Republic | 473,000 |
| 8 | 3 | Bertilsson Anton | Sweden | 233,000 |
| 8 | 4 | Martin Mulsow | Germany | 383,000 |
| 8 | 5 | Simon Mattsson | Sweden | 1,790,000 |
| 8 | 6 | Georgios Sotiropoulos | Greece | 324,000 |
| 8 | 7 | Romain Follet | Chile | 250,000 |
| 8 | 8 | Balasz Botond | Hungary | 682,000 |
and was up against the jacks of Sotiropoulos. No help on the board for Katchalov and with just one hand to go the Ukrainian made his exit.
the small blind checked, and Sam Grafton in the big blind lead for 38,000. Eugene Katchalov flatted in middle position and Georgios Sotiropoulos shoved all in right behind him for what we believe was 197,000, but the dealer counted as 207,000. The small blind quickly folded, Grafton soon realized his hand wasn't good enough and folded, Katchalov instantly called.
on the turn made Katchalov drawing dead, the 
after Busquet tabled 
in the window meant bad news for Busquet, and the 
and 
board.
