EPT Tallinn Day 3 Report

Aug. 6, 2011, Posted by Pokerfarm

The third day of the prestigious European Poker Tour in the Estonian capital has come to end. Ronny Kaiser, as his surname might suggest, sits atop the remaining 24 player field with a 1,194,000 chip count.

The Swiss resident was involved in some huge pots throughout the day, but the biggest one was played between him and Liutauras Armanavicius. Kaiser opened the action with a raise pre-flop, got a call from Jani Sointula and then the Lithuanian squeezed from the button. Action was back to Kaiser who put in a 4-bet, Sointula folded and Armanavicius went all-in for around 300,000. The Swiss called with his pocket Jacks only to find out he was in big trouble against the Lithuanian's pocket Aces. Lady luck smiled on Ronny Kaiser as he managed to river a straight and bust Armanavicius out of the tournament.

Day 3 was all about survival, largely due to the fact that the top 40 players make the money. After a couple of all-ins we found our 'bubble boy' – Eric Friedmann from Switzerland. He collided with Stefan Jedlicka, another relative short stack. Jedlicka moved all-in with pocket Jacks from the button and Friedmann called with Ace King. Friedmann lost the coin flip as the queen high board failed to improve his hand.

There are five players hunting down tournament captain Ronny Kaiser with their stacks over half a million chips. These include Grzegorz Cichocki (867,000), Jani Sointula (640,000), Sami Kelopuro (575,000), Vojteh Ruzicka (518,500) and the biggest comeback of the competition – Johan van Til (598,000). As we reported yesterday, the Dutch pro better known as 'busto_soon' started Day 2 with only 5,000 chips but has been on a sky high ride ever since then. Johan, who won more than $2 million on his Pokerstars account alone, is surely one the main contenders for the € 275,000 main prize.

None of the Team Pokerstars Pro members made it to Day 4. Former EPT champion Arnaud Mattern failed to challenge for his second EPT crown. Anders Berg, member of the Online Pro team of Pokerstars was also out before Day 4. Although professionals weren't so successful, their amateur qualifier counterparts did really well as four of them survived Friday.

Day 4 is currently underway so make sure you come back tomorrow for a detailed report on Saturday's events.