It’s often said that the EPT has a great structure but at the moment it’s looking like it might be just too good. Stefano Puccilli’s bust out left six players with the shortest, Koen De Visscher, still packing 46 big blinds. Two players have more than 130 big blinds. That’s more than you can buy into at a standard six-max cash game table.

When Puccilli left in seventh there we were in level 25 with blinds of 15,000-30,000 with the following chip counts:

Olivier Busquet, 4,431,000 (148 big blinds)
Balazs Botond, 3,975,000 (132 big blinds)
Fabrice Soulier, 2,711,000 (90 big blinds)
Jannick Wrang, 2,335,000 (78 big blinds)
Mario Nagel, 2,249,000 (75 big blinds)
Koen De Visscher, 1,390,000 (46 big blinds)
Total big blinds: 569

If you compare that to the final six at EPT Madrid earlier this month then you’d see a more usual balance of stacks.

Blinds: 25,000-50,000
Ricardo Ibanez, 3,600,000 (72 big blinds)
Fraser MacIntyre, 3,400,000 (68 big blinds)
Frederik Jensen, 2,575,000 (51.5 big blinds)
Bruno Lopes, 2,300,000 (46 big blinds)
Andre Stoenescu, 1,400,000 (28 big blinds)
Ilan Boujenah, 1,000,000 (20 big blinds)
Total big blinds: 285.5

Olivier Busquet

Being this deep stacked the final table will finish late but as a consolation it should be an absolute corker. All six remaining players seem to have game and are willing to play. Although laddering is an issue there don’t seem to be any truly nitty players left in. And as if to illustrate that Busquet has just made a light four-bet with A♠ 9♠ on a 8♦ 6♠ 5♥ flop forcing a tough fold from Botond. That pot extends him to 5,215,000. Follow the live coverage by clicking here.

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