It took nearly twelve 1-hour levels to decide who the final nine players to battle tomorrow for the title and the lion’s share of the prizepool would be, but they are now set. Without further ado, let us present:
Dan Murariu (Romania) – 1,053,000
Lasse Nielsen (Denmark) – 756,000
Bjaerke Hansen (Denmark) – 605,000
Simeon Naydenov (Bulgaria) – 556,000
Alexandr Sharov (Russia) – 296,000
Mosjin el Yakoubi (Holland) – 249,000
Twan Bakens (Holland) – 176,000
Pedro Fanzeres (Portugal) – 169,000
Nicolas Dervaux (France) – 98,000
120 players returned today, some fresh from surviving yesterday’s second flight, and some having had the benefit of a day in the sun at the beach to prepare them. Only 45 were going to see a return on their €1,500 investment, however, and it was a real battle over the course of the day. Some of those starting in the upper chip echelons held their ground (and then some – Dan Murariu was relentless, busting players left and right) but Peter Pedersen (the overnight leader) made a relatively early exit and gave Fotilas Aristotelis a nice boost.
Meanwhile it was a good day for the Finns, with many making the money, and three starting in the top ten counts, but none made the final table this time. The final has two chipped-up Danes, however, in the form of Nielsen and Hansen, although Murariu has already broken the million chip mark and will take some fighting. A quick look back to the bubble, which held over the dinner break with short stacks holding their breath to see which three would leave without at least a €2,216 payday, and it was Pavel Trutnev who took the dubious honour. Finding Queens vs. Kings at this crucial time, Trutnev left a sort of vacuum into which a flurry of players threw their small stacks. The big hand match-up put paid to several promising stacks, like that of Josef Samanek (Aces cracked by Kings), and Daniel Pena (Queens into Kings), while at the eleventh hour Lasse Nielsen busted Eero Laivonen when he picked up Aces vs. Kings.
There was some serious short-stack grinding going on as the final table was about to be set, with Lukasz Wasek doubling to survive four times, until finally busting in 11th, at the exact same moment when on the feature table Yuliyan Kolev met the felt in 10th. This shock ending to what was otherwise a fairly slow-paced countdown to the final let everyone leave the Grand Casino by 4am, and hopefully they’ll all be fresh and ready to play again at 2pm tomorrow. Top prize is over €150,000, and this lineup is guaranteed to bring some play to the Featured Final. We’ll be covering it right here at unibetopen.com.
