Romain Nardin Leads After Day 4
After another day in Monaco, rich man's paradise, just 16 players remain in the 2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® Main Event.
Frenchman Romain Nardin leads the pack, with plenty of familiar faces still in contention. The most recognizable name to return on Day 4 is Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. The French Team Pro hasn't been lifting trophy's on the regular in recent years, can he make a definite comeback here in Monte Carlo?
| Position | Player | France | Big Blinds | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Romain Nardin | France | 165 | 3,956,000 |
| 2 | Michael Kolkowicz | France | 124 | 2,983,000 |
| 3 | Diego Zeiter | Argentina | 77 | 1,848,000 |
| 4 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 73 | 1,759,000 |
| 5 | Raffaele Sorrentino | Italy | 68 | 1,622,000 |
| 6 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 64 | 1,536,000 |
| 7 | Andrey Bondar | Russia | 53 | 1,283,000 |
| 8 | Marius-Catalin Pertea | Romania | 46 | 1,110,000 |
| 9 | Maxim Panyak | Russia | 45 | 1,082,000 |
| 10 | Andreas Klatt | Germany | 44 | 1,059,000 |
| 11 | Dmytro Shuvanov | Ukraine | 36 | 887,000 |
| 12 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 29 | 695,000 |
| 13 | Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier | France | 27 | 653,000 |
| 14 | Douglas Ferreira Souza | Brazil | 22 | 536,000 |
| 15 | Moritz Dietrich | Germany | 19 | 451,000 |
| 16 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 15 | 354,000 |
Just 45 players returned for Day 4 of the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo. Minutes after play got underway, Chebli Chebli became the first casualty. Shijirbaatar Sanjaasuren, Shakhabiddin Muradov and Karim Souaid didn't last long either. Play was anything but tight, chips flew in left and right and most hands where drie-bet before a flop was seen.
Title defender Jan Bendik, who won this event last year when it was still called the EPT Grand Final, was one of the next players getting scalped. He got his chips in good with ace-queen suited against ace-nine off, but his opponent flopped a nine to make things a bit more difficult. While Bendik had a flush draw to go along with his queens as outs, none of them would appear on the turn or river. Last year the Slovakian player went home with €961,800 for first, this time he had to settle for €15,420 for his 36th place.
Another former EPT champion, Remi Castaignon, followed Bendik out the door. Castaignon got it in with a pair and a flush draw against two-pair and didn't improve.
Dan Smith started the day short and never ran up a stack. In his last hand, he got it in with queen-eight against ace-king. A king on the turn ended it all for Smith.
Hossein Ensan, another player with a PokerStars EPT trophy on his chimney, was evenly unlucky on Day 4. He got himself involved in some big confrontations and never came out on top. In his last hand, pocket nines were dead on the turn against pocket tens.
Like the tournament hadn't lost enough former champs just yet, it was Sebastian Malec out next. He too lost some big pots and eventually got it in with ace-nine to Vicente Delgado's ace-jack and did not improve.
The majority of other recognizable names departed early as well. Vicente Delgado lost ace-king to aces, Stefan "IamSound" Huber found no help with queen-three against ace-five, Paul Tedeschi lost king-jack to nines and Jeff Hakim didn't improve with ten-nine against ace-ten.
Luckily for the poker fans, an interesting field remains. Spanish high roller Sergio Aido, German experts Mortiz Dietrich and Stefan Schillhabel, and Belgian bracelet and EPT winner Davidi Kitai are all still in.
And, like we mentioned earlier, "ElkY" still has chips, Bertrand Grospellier returns on Day 5 with 27 big blinds and a dream.
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 693,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier | France | 653,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Marius-Catalin Pertea | Romania | 1110,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Diego Zeiter | Switzerland | 1,848,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 1,759,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Maxim Panyak | Russia | 1,082,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Andrey Bondar | Russia | 1,283,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Dmytro Shuvanov | Ukraine | 887,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 354,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Moritz Dietrich | Germany | 451,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Andreas Klatt | Germany | 1,059,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Douglas Ferreira Souza | Brazil | 536,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 1,536,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Raffaele Sorrentino | Italy | 1,622,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Michael Kolkowicz | France | 2,983,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Romain Nardin | France | 3,956,000 |
When play resumes, 41 minutes are left in level 23 (12,000/24,000 with 4,000 ante). The plan is to play down to 6 players. PokerNews will be on the floor from the start until the end.
| Jogador | Fichas | Progresso |
|---|---|---|
|
3,956,000 | 324,000 |
|
2,983,000 | 383,000 |
|
1,848,000 | 139,000 |
|
1,759,000 | -7,000 |
|
1,622,000 | 147,000 |
|
1,536,000 | -46,000 |
|
1,283,000 | -67,000 |
|
1,110,000 | 20,000 |
|
1,082,000 | 26,000 |
|
1,059,000 | 141,000 |
|
887,000 | -45,000 |
|
695,000 | -200,000 |
|
653,000 | -113,000 |
|
536,000 | -124,000 |
|
451,000 | 36,000 |
|
354,000 | -245,000 |
.
turn. Hakim was now drawing dead, and the river was a meaningless 
. Remaining players are bagging and tagging with 41:35 on the clock.
board.
and initial raiser Souza bet 74,000. Sorrentino called, Grospellier folded.
turn and Sorrentino called again.
completed the board, Souza shoved all in. Sorrentino had 430,000 behind and was facing the biggest decision of his tournament life. He tanked for a long time and the clock was called on him.
on the table and started collecting.
. Petrushevskii's live cards got a lot less so when 
flopped, and an 
ended him on the turn.
, not doing much for Delgado just yet. The [10] on the turn did give Delgado four clean outs for the win. The 
flop gave Malec some hope for a chop, but the former EPT winner saw an 
close off some of the cards he needed. The 
river was a blank.
against Paul Testud's 
