With four of the 12 returning players in the High Roller having fewer than four big blinds at the start of play we figured that it wouldn’t take too long for the official final table of eight to be set.
That it took almost two hours to go from 12 to eight is a surprise in itself but that start of day chip leader Nikolay Komcharokov was the man eliminated in ninth is a shock. He started the day with 1,145,000 and that’d be all but good for the chip lead of the final eight. That the Russian, who was unknown even to our Russian colleagues before play started today, is out is entirely down to two hands he played against Thomas Butzhammer which took place when the players had already combined for the unofficial final table of nine.
In the first hand the Russian, who teaches at an institute of foreign languages, opened with Q♣ J♣ and called Butzhammer’s 10 big blind shove. The German had A♥ 10♥ and held on the 7â™ 3♦ 7♣ K♦ 3â™ board.
Then two hands later Komcharokov four-bet all-in with pocket eights but found himself dominated by Butzhammer’s pocket queens. The community cards stayed low, too low. The 3♦ 7â™ 7♦ 5♣ 4♣ board hit neither player. Such are the vagaries of no-limit Hold’em Komcharokov was now out whilst Butzhammer is up to 1,150,000 and one of four players who’ve got over a million in chips.
As for Komcharokov it was a spectacular fall from grace for him. With two previous cashes totalling $5,532 it remains to be seen if we’ll see Komcharokov on the EPT anytime soon.
The other players to fall short of the final table today were: Davidi Kitai (12th, €22,110), Tobias Peters (11th, €25,190) and Garret Gruener (10th, €25,190). The eagle eyed amongst you will note that Tobias Peters made the pay jump. The Dutchman had just a solitary chip worth 5,000 to his name today but he survived the first hand whilst Kitai, who had just over three big blinds, did not.
One man we’ve seen plenty of before and we’ll be seeing more of if Robin Ylitalo. The Swede, who won EPT10 London for £560,980 and has lifetime earnings of over $1.4m, is the current chip leader with 1,200,000. He started the day second in chips with 998,000 and gained his extra chips when he turned a straight in a hand against Ivan Luca and got two streets of value.
It’s tight at the top though as Jean-Noel Thorel (1,100,000) and Eric Sfez (1,100,000) also have seven-figure stacks. Blinds are about to go to 15,000/30,000 ante 4,000 and this is how the final table shapes up:
Seat 1: Thomas Butzhammer, Germany, 1,150,000
Seat 2: Josip Simunic, Austria, 225,000
Seat 3: Fady Kamar, Lebanon, 273,000
Seat 4: Joao Ribeiro, Portugal, 841,000
Seat 5: Eric Sfez, France, 1,100,000
Seat 6: Robin Ylitalo, Sweden, 1,200,000
Seat 7: Jean-Noel Thorel, France, 1,100,000
Seat 8: Ivan Luca, Argentina, 520,000
The winner will pick up €309,170 and all eight are guaranteed at least €41,160, the remaining payouts are as below:
1st. €309,170
2nd. €208,900
3rd. €135,780
4th. €112,440
5th. €90,690
6th. €71,520
7th. €54,680
8th. €41,160
Coverage from the Main Event of EPT Deauville is on the Main Event page. The High Roller coverage is on the High Roller page. Check out all the action from around the festival on the main festival page. Also follow the action on EPT Live and stay up to date with the sensational EPT app for iPhone, iPad or Android.
Back to Top
