August 31 2011, Marc Convey

The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour from the Gran Casino in Barcelona reached Day 4 Wednesday and what a short day it was. Tomeu Gomila came into Day 4 as chip leader, and after only 6.5 hours of play ended as chip leader, bagging up a little less than 7 million in chips. There will be more on this later but he battered, bullied and (when needed) came from behind on his way to nearly tripling his stack.

Here’s how the final table will line up tomorrow:

Play moved at an astonishingly fast rate Wednesday with eliminations right from the start. When play began, Level 23 still had 36 minutes on the clock and by the time the level had come to a close Benjamin Juhasz and Xavier Carruggi had departed in 24th and 23rd respectively. The pace sped up in Level 24 and six players made their way to the rail in 75 minutes. The highest profile elimination was Miikka Anttonen, who was very unlucky to see his cracked by Isabel Baltazar holding .

Level 25 only saw two players booted out but a lot of movement in chips. First to go, Russian Evgeny Zaytsev who lost a race with to Martin Schleich’s that found a third queen in the door. Javier Contreras also lost a race and was eliminated by Eugene Katchalov. Apart from that, no other players exited but that didn’t stop Tomeu Gomila, Saar Wilf and Raul Mestre using their privileged position to extend the poverty gap between them and the rest.

Level 26 saw the eliminations build up to a frantic rate once more. Marcos Fernandez, Massimilano Martinez, Marton Czuczor and Team PokerStars Pro Belgium’s Matthias De Meulder all departed in that order and in quick succession. The Team PokerStars Pro from Belgium ran into the unstoppable force that is Gomila. The Spaniard has had cards and situations fall in his favor over the last couple of days, and everybody watching felt his was going to come from behind to beat De Meulder’s . The chips went in preflop and the Spanish crowd cheered when the dropped on the river.

The only time play really slowed down was when the final nine players reconvened on one, the TV, table. Fueled by confidence and a big stack Gomila started to bully and bluff anybody who dared enter a pot with him. His lead grew as he took advantage of the fact that no one wanted to bust in ninth and they had all seen him very willing to call light, as was shown with the De Meulder exit.

If the worst place to finish in a poker tournament is the money bubble, then the second worst must be the final table bubble. To experience sitting at the TV table with the other eight remaining players and then to know that they are going on to experience the prestige and adulation of an EPT final table the next day without you, must be hard to take.

We felt for Jose Miguel Esteban who busted when he moved his last 650,000 (13 big blinds) over the line with . Martin Schleich re-shoved with . No one else was interested and the board bricked out to bust Esteban in ninth place, ending play at around 1830 CEST (0900 PDT).

Play is due to begin at 1200 CEST (0300 PDT) on Thursday when the final eight players will be dreaming of following in the footsteps of Kent Lundmark, Carter Phillips, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Sander Lylloff, Bjorn-Erik Glenne, Jan Boubli and Alexander Stevic as EPT Barcelona champions. As always, you will be able to follow all the exciting action right here with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team.

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August 30 2011, Donnie Peters

The 2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event is on to Day 4. A long day of play on Tuesday saw the remaining field of 141 players get whittled down to 24. That means there are only three tables of competitors left vying for the “850,000 first-place prize. Leading the pack into Wednesday is Bartolome Gomila Romero with 2.547 million in chips.

When the day began, you could feel the tension in the room as the money bubble loomed. After a handful of eliminations, the field was down to 121 players and it was time for that one last payer to go home empty-handed.

Action folded to Mario Adinolfi on the button and he raised to 12,000 with the blinds at 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante. After Boris Becker folded in the small blind, Jeff Hakim moved all-in from the big blind for 84,000. Adinolfi made the call and the two then went through the long, several-minute process of waiting to expose their hands while all of the other tables finished. After all of the other hands were complete, the cards were revealed. Adinolfi showed down the powerhouse . Hakim was all-in holding and was ahead, but Adinolfi’s hand was plenty live.

As the media, cameras and other players swarmed the table to get a glimpse of the action, the dealer spread the flop and Adinolfi took the lead with a pair of eights. Neither player held a club so that didn’t matter unless the board ran out all clubs and caused a chopped pot. The turn paired the board with the and now Hakim was left needing just an ace or a jack on the river to stay alive.

The river landed with the and Hakim struck out, missing the flop, turn and river. He failed to best the measly eight-four offsuit of Adinolfi and was sent to the rail in 121st place, earning the title of “EPT Barcelona Bubble Boy.”

Following Hakim’s elimination, that sent the rest of the field into the money, plenty of players began to hit the rail in a fury. Included in the bunch that left the tournament field with a minimum payday were Benny Spindler, Mickey Petersen, Tobias Reinkemeier, Ronald Lee and Dimitry Gromov. The aforementioned Becker also hit the rail with a min-cash worth “8,000 when he went out in 97th place.

Becker was down to his last 30,500 when he moved all-in from the hijack seat with . Benjamin Juhasz made the call from the button with and had the former tennis superstar on the ropes. After a flop, turn and river of , Becker’s serve was broken and he had lost the match.

Some of the other notable players that were eliminated in the money on Day 3 included Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Rino Mathis, Juan Manuel Pastor, Victor Ramdin, Alex Kravchenko and Andre Akkari.

Both Selbst and Akkari took two brutal beats to bring an end to their tournament. First, Selbst’s was out-flopped by Juan Navarrete’s after all of the money went in preflop. Then, Akkari’s two tens were cracked by fellow Team Pro Matthias De Meulder who held pocket nines. In that hand, the money went in preflop as well with De Meulder spiking a nine on the turn.

The most notable player returning for Day 4 is Team PokerStars’ Eugene Katchalov. He’ll return with 1.452 million in chips thanks largely in part to a big-time double up late in the night.

First into the pot from middle position, Katchalov raised to 45,000 with the blinds 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 ante, and Rumen Nanev three-bet to 140,000 on the button. When it folded back to Katchalov, he spent a couple of minutes soaking in the tank before announcing an all-in for 748,000. Nanev needed some tank time of his own, considering the call for nearly all of his own chips. Finally, he mustered the gumption and committed the chips to the pot. Katchalov was at risk, and the news was not good.

Katchalov:
Nanev:

Katchalov barely reacted as the dealer dropped a flop, giving him the come-from-behind set and putting him two cards from a big double. The turn was a blank for Nanev, now needing to catch one of his own two-outers for the knockout. The river was the , though, and Katchalov took the pot. Finally, he reacted with just a small shake of his head, while the dealer counted out his double to move him all the way up to 1.545 million at the time.

The chip leader, Romero, was the beneficiary of a big three-way all-in confrontation just before the night ended where he eliminated two players; Simon Charette and Jose Angel Latorre Marina.

The action folded to Romero on the button and he put in a raise to 46,000 before Marina snap-shoved for 602,000 from the small blind. The action was now on Charette and he asked for a count of the all-in bet. The dealer gave him a count and he had very little time to think before Romero called the clock on him. The floor man in attendance ruled against the clock calling.

This seemed to affect the tired-looking Charrette and very soon after he reshoved for around 680,000 and Romero was in waiting to make an instant call.

Romero:
Marina:
Charette:

The board ran out to hand the monster pot to the Romero, who was then mobbed by his supporters in congratulations.

Play will resume with Day 4 on Wednesday at 1200 CEST (0300 PDT). The remaining 24 players will return and play down to the official EPT final table of eight, however long that may take. As it stands right now, everyone is earning at least “20,000, but they’re hungry for a lot more. It’s going to be a great day of poker on Wednesday, so be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the action.

You can follow along with the coverage on our Live Reporting page. And if you’re not following us on Twitter yet, shame on you!

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters

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