February 08 2012, Chad Holloway

For the past few days, the Casino Di Venezia, the oldest casino in the world, has played host to the World Poker Tour Venice Grand Prix, which continued on Wednesday with Day-3 action. At the start of play, only 27 of the 155-player field remained, each looking to make the top 18 and secure a payday. Not only did the bubble burst, but the field was reduced all the way down to the final nine. Simon Ravnsbaek leads with 795,000 in chips.

It didn’t take long for the first elimination of the day to occur. After losing a race with to Konstantin Streletskiy’s , which cost about half her stack, PartyPoker Pro Kara Scott shoved all-in for 17,500 from the cutoff and was called by Andrea Carini on the button.

Showdown

It was another race for Scott. The board ran out and Scott was eliminated in 27th place. Scott was followed out the door by Carla Solinas (26th), Zoltan Szabo (25th), Maurizio Saieva (24th), Dario De Paz (23rd), Guido Chiodo (22nd), Giacomo Fundaro (21st), and Viacheslav Goryachev (20th).

The field was on the money bubble. Action folded around to Lionel Tran and he moved all-in from the small blind for around 50,000. Marcel Bjerkmann, who began the day as the chip leader, was in the big blind and decided to gamble.

Showdown

Tran was in great shape and primed to double, though the paired Bjerkmann’s jack. Unfortunately for Tran, the turn gave Bjerkmann trips and the lead. The river was of no consequence and Tran was sent to the rail as the bubble boy, guaranteeing the remaining players at least “7,225.

Once the bubble was burst, the eliminations began to mount. Gianluca Speranza was the first to go in 18th place (“7,225), followed by Giacomo Valenti in 17th place (“7,225). After Streletskiy was dispatched in 16th place (“8,540) and Erion Islamay in 15th (“8,540), fan favorite James Akenhead met an unlikely end.

It happened after his were cracked by the of Bjerkmann on a flop. Akenhead was left with just 23,000, which he committed a short time later after Simon Ravnsbaek opened for 13,000. Bjerkmann made the call, but then folded to a four-bet from Ravnsbaek, who held . Akenhead held , but could not improve and was eliminated in 14th place (“8,540).

Marko Neumann was the next to go in 13th place (“8,540) after his failed to improve against the of Carini. Some time later, the boisterous Bjerkmann, who experienced an up-and-down day after starting with the biggest stack, opened for 21,000 from the button only to have Ravnsbaek move all-in. Bjerkmann called off and the cards were turned up:

Showdown

The flop was fairly uneventful, as was the turn. The river was no help to Bjerkmann, and he was eliminated in 12th place (“9,855). Gabriele Lepore (11th – “9,855) and Andrey Gulyy (10th – “9,855) were the last two to hit the rail before action was halted at just nine players.

Day 4 is set to get back under way at 1300 CET (0400 PST) on Thursday as the final nine play down to the final table of six. Here’s a look at the chip counts when play resumes:

World Poker Tour Venice Grand Prix Final Nine Chip Counts

For more on the WPT Venice Grand Prix, be sure to visit the Party Poker Blog to see what Tony G and Mike Sexton have to say from the Casino Di Venezia.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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February 03 2012, Marty Derbyshire

The PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event played down from 178 players to the final 54 on Friday night.

EPT London finalist Martins Adeniya came into play as the clear chip leader and a steady day kept him near the top of the counts throughout. A massive 1.5 million chip pot nearing the end of the night however, handed France’s Samphane Phomveha the overnight lead.

The 128-player money bubble was reached midway through the day’s third level and the only thing building faster than the line-up at the cash out cage following the bubble appeared to be Ondrej Vinklarek’s stack. The Czech national, who crushed the side events at EPT Prague in October, quickly became the first player over the one-million chip mark using an aggressive style of play and a little run-good. In the closing moments, he shoved king-five off-suit preflop into Phomveha’s pocket kings to hand him 1.471 million chips and the overnight chip lead.

Vinklarek wasn’t the only one with an up and down day. Frenchman Ludovic Lacay seemed to take the same line. At one point, he shot up to 950,000 and the top of the leaderboard by picking up aces against two shorter stacks with jacks and tens. But after Adeniya was moved to his table and took a chunk out of his stack, pushing him off a 200,000 pot on a four-flush board, Lacay seemed to spend the rest of the day hovering around the half million mark. That is until the late stages when Christopher Brammer rivered an ace against his pocket jacks to send him home.

Notables joining Lacay in cashing, but busting throughout the day included 2010 EPT Vilamoura winner Toby Lewis, WPT and WSOP title holder James Dempsey, French rap mogul Bruno “Kool Shen” Lopes, and Lucille Cailly.

Making the money certainly meant something to that group, and to the handful of PokerStars qualifiers still in when the bubble burst, but it also marked another big occasion for the final Team PokerStars Pro left standing. Luca Pagano guaranteed a record 20th EPT cash by making the money here, but picked up aces to double up soon after the bubble burst to stay alive and ended with a 344,000 stack heading into Saturday’s Day 4.

Big stacks also still in contention for the “875,000 first-place prize include Brammer, France’s Olivier Rogez, and 2011 EPT San Remo sixth-place finisher Yorane Kerignard.

Top 10 Stacks Heading into Day 4

Play will resume at 1200 CET (0300 PST) Saturday with plans to play down to 24.

To follow all the action live, tune into PokerNews’ EPT Live Updates from start to finish. Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.