Friday, 29th March 2024 15:08
Home / Uncategorized / EPT11 London: Jakub Mroczek leads after day for dramatics

Nobody could predict what would happen when 127 players regrouped this morning for Day 3 of the Main Event, but anyone following up to now understood that the bubble would decide a lot. It’s the pivotal moment of any tournament, and fittingly played out in a part of London famous for theater and the odd bit of drama.

Fittingly the players knew this, including Mikhail Petrov, who played the role of pantomime villain perfectly this afternoon, flagrantly stalling on every hand. So much so that a tournament official was posted on his left shoulder, ready to muck his hand every 15 pondoruous seconds of inactivity. Short only an evil laugh, Petrov didn’t even glance at his cards as they were taken from him.

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Marc-Andre Ladouceur at far end of table next to Petrov. Note the tournament official standing behind the dealer

But before anyone on the rail could begin throwing rotten fruit at him, the bubble burst, so quickly in fact that a session of hand-for-hand play was not required. Instead Ignat Liviu exited stage left leaving everyone else in the money, which is when the real action began.

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Bubble boy Ignat Liviu moments before he discovered he would be the bubble boy

That certainly marked the start of the rise of today’s hero Jakub Mroczek from Poland, who bags up the chip lead tonight.

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Chip leader Jakub Mroczek


It means he’ll return with a stack of 1,790,000 with which to lead the final 36 players into Day 4 tomorrow. It’s a list that will delight fans of Liv Boeree and Fatima Moreira de Melo, as well as the likes of Jake Cody and Marc-Andre Ladoucuer.

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Liv Boeree


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Fatima Moreira de Melo

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Jake Cody


Here’s who had the good days, and who had the bad.

Jakub Mroczek – 1,790,000
Joao Vieira – 1,151,000
Artur Koren – 1,126,000
Sebastian Pauli – 918,000
Benny Spindler – 911,000
Raffaele Sorrentino – 888,000
Jake Cody – 794,000
Sergio Aido – 758,000
Kevin Killeen – 732,000
Pablo Gordillo – 717000
Marko Neumann – 681,000
Jonathan Bensadoun – 660,000
Jonas Lauck – 625,000
Simon Deadman – 614,000
Kevin MacPhee – 598,000
Bram Haenraets – 596,000
Simon Taberham – 567,000
Sven Wendt – 541,000
Daniel Erlandsson – 509,000
Marco Caza – 469,000
William Chattaway – 432,000
Marc-Andre Ladouceur – 408,000
Yann Pineau – 395,000
Ognyan Dimov – 391,000
Jareth East – 375,000
Christian Favale – 363,000
Kai Herold – 359,000
Fatima Moreira de Melo – 279,000
Alexander Trevallion – 278,000
Gino Gabriel – 245,000
Zahi Harel – 235,000
Francis Foord-Brown – 201,000
Leo Nordin – 196,000
Liv Boeree – 156,000
Mickey Petersen – 143,000
Fadhil Farag – 121,000

There’s also room for some potential history to be made. Benny Spindler, a former London winner, is well placed for a run at the £499,000 first prize, as is Kevin Macphee, as well as Boeree and Cody of course, plus Team Online’s Mickey Petersen.

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Mickey Petersen

There were walk on parts for some and recurring roles for others, although most would be written out before the end of today’s episode.

Sam Trickett managed a min-cash, as did Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who given an earlier typo was expected to do worse. Paul Newey finished in the money, as did Eugene Katchalov, and local veterans Ben Roberts and Willie Tann.

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Eugene Katchalov


Last year’s poster boy Leo McClean made it two cashes in a row, but fell short of a second final table appearance. Another former London winner David Vamplew, also departed today, denied a sequel, while Johnny Lodden, who performed with trademark alacrity today, busted in the last level of play, sent to the rail by chip leader Mroczek.

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Johnny Lodden

It takes things forward to Day 4 tomorrow, when we expect play to go on until just 16 players remain. Play begins at 12 noon, with full coverage, as always, on EPT Live.

Follow the action from the EPT London Main Event this week on the PokerStars. You can also watch live coverage on the EPT Live webcast between October 14-18 on PokerStars.tv.


Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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