Action folded to Jeff Hakim on the button, and he moved all in for 304,000. Big blind Michael Kolkowicz thought a bit and called.
Kolkowicz:
Hakim:
The dealer spread a flop of .
"That's not good," Hakim observed.
Making matters worse: a turn. Hakim was now drawing dead, and the river was a meaningless . Remaining players are bagging and tagging with 41:35 on the clock.
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.