April 28 2012, Donnie Peters

The PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final Main Event stormed through Day 3 and only 26 players remain. It was a spectacular day on the felt and one that saw the bubble burst, the “100,000 Super High Roller winner make an extremely impressive deep run and Geert-Jan Potijk claim the chip lead with 1.32 million in chips.

When the day began, 130 players remained and the money line was set at 96. Due to a double elimination with one player falling at two separate tables during hand-for-hand play, Adam Levy was the bubble boy in 98th place. Andrew Badecker and Martin Finger were the two players eliminated during the same hand of hand-for-hand action and chopped up the “15,000 awarded to the first payout spot.

Six Team PokerStars Pros made the money on Day 3, but none of them advanced. Nacho Barbero, Angel Guillen, Sandra Naujoks, Max Martinez, Richard Toth and Matthias De Meulder all finished with a cash, but the dream of becoming EPT Grand Final champion is dead for this year.

De Meulder was all in with pocket queens and held the best of it against Jason Wheeler’s pocket jacks. The Belgian Team Pro was in prime position for a double up, but a jack on the flop ended his run.

Other notables who were eliminated on the day, but in the money, included Bryan Piccioli, Guillaume Darcourt, Erik Seidel, Dominykas Karmazinas and Griffin Benger.

Justin Bonomo, the winner of the “100,000 Super High Roller just a couple of days ago, had a very impressive performance in the Main Event, but his quest ended in 28th place. Geert-Jan Potijk, Andrew Pantling and Bonomo played a big, three-way all-in pot on the feature table with Bonomo holding , Pantling and Potijk . The queens held for Potijk as he doubled through Pantling and busted Bonomo.

End of Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts

The cards will be in the air for Day 4 beginning at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action as the field grinds it out to the final table.

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January 09 2012, Mickey Doft

The 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event resumed on Monday with 544 players remaining from the starting field of 1,072. After six levels of play only 183 are still in the hunt to capture the $2,000,000 first-place prize. Day 2 belonged to one player – Faraz Jaka. He is well ahead of the pack and heads into Day 3 with a stack of 902,500.

Jaka began Day 2 with 129,500 in chips and quickly took over the top spot on the chip leaderboard. He took the lead during the first level of play Monday and had chipped up to about 700,000 by the time Chino Rheem was moved to his direct left. Rheem, with about 300,000 at the time, couldn’t have been given a worse seat, and less than two hours later, most of his chips were in Jaka’s stack. Jaka bet every step of the way on a board, culminating with a cool 100,000-chip bet after the river. Rheem called him down, but couldn’t beat Jaka’s .

Jaka finished the job shortly thereafter when Rheem put his last 15,000 in from under the gun with . With in the big blind, Jaka called and secured the elimination when the board came down . Not finished yet, Jaka added another 50,000 to his stack during the next hand by eliminating another player. He gave some back during the final level of play, but still holds quite the lead over second place. Joining him at the top of the counts are Cristian Folescu (555,500), Erik Cajelais (528,500), Connor Drinan (436,000), Alexander Kuzmin (425,500), and Phil D’Auteuil (412,500).

Sitting fourth in chips, Connor Drinan’s day started in a downward trend. He began the day with 142,700, but Drinan found himself with about 50,000 early on before scoring a crucial double elimination. With the board reading and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier already all-in, Drinan check-called a bet from Hoyt Corkins. When the hit the river, Drinan checked again and baited Corkins into shoving. Drinan called immediately and tabled , besting Corkins’ aces and Grospellier’s holdings to vault up the counts and remain near the top for the duration of Day 2.

Among those who failed to make it through the day were Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri, Humberto Brenes, Lex Veldhuis, Angel Guillen, Victor Ramdin, and Vanessa Selbst. Others who joined them on the rail included Christian Harder, Jon Turner, John Racener, Michael Mizrachi, Will Failla, and Kevin MacPhee.

Play is scheduled to pick up at 1200 EST (1700 GMT) Tuesday. Be sure to follow along right here as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action, eliminations, and drama from the 2012 PCA at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.

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