Geert-Jan Potijk Leads As EPT Grand Final Main Event Reaches Final 26
The Main Event of the European Poker Tour's Grand Final has reached its penultimate day and only 26 players remain from a starting field of 665
The Main Event of the European Poker Tour's Grand Final has reached its penultimate day and only 26 players remain from a starting field of 665. The man sporting poker's equivalent of cycling's yellow jersey is Holland's Geert-Jan Potijk.
Potijk starts today armed with 1,320,000 chips and is in pole position to go on to a massive score in this tournament. The Dutchman already had a substantial stack when his pocket queens held against the ace-queen and ace-king of Justin Bonomo and Andrew Pantling respectively, busting the former and propelling himself up towards the top of the chips counts.
A quick scan of the Hendon Mob database reveals just one previous major live cash, a 96th place finish in last year's EPT London Main Event that netted him £7,500. He has already locked up €35,000 in this tournament and by the time today's play draws to a close he could be guaranteed €130,000.
Whilst Potijk and his fellow 25 survivors will be leaving Monaco with some cash to show for their efforts one man will be extremely disappointed to be walking away empty handed. Adam Levy, known to the online poker masses as "Roothlus," was the unfortunate bubble boy despite finishing in 98th place and 96 place being paid. You may be asking how that is possible but it happened because Andrew Badecker and Martin Finger were eliminated during the same hand-for-hand section and split the €15,000 prize awarded to 96th place.
Joining Potijk at the top of the chip counts are four other players over the one million chip barrier. In chip order they are Bernard Guigon (1,212,000), Georges Dib (1,118,000), Andoni Larrabe (1,071,000) and the last remaining British player Ben Vinson (1,039,000).
Other notables still in the field include former spelling bee champion Pratyush Buddiga (970,000), Jason Wheeler (903,000), EPT Deauville champion Vadzim Kursevich (546,000), Amit Makhija (317,000).
Play gets underway again at 12:00 CET where the average stack is 767,308 and the blinds will be 10,000/20,000/3,000a so expect plenty of early action as the shorter stacks get their chips into the middle in an attempt to double up and drag themselves back into contention. The last 26 players will continue to play until the eight-handed final table is set.
Top 10 Chip Counts
1st: Geert-Jan Potikj - 1,320,000
2nd: Bernard Guigon - 1,212,000
3rd: Georges Dib - 1,118,000
4th: Andoni Larrabe - 1,071,000
5th: Ben Vinson - 1,039,000
6th: Lucille Cailly - 999,000
7th: Pratyush Buddiga - 970,000
8th: Anatoly Gurtovoy - 945,000
9th: Sergio Castelluccio - 944,000
10th: Vadzim Markushevski - 922,000
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
