There weren't many Belgians here in Rozvadov this week, but two of them attracted a lot of the attention this afternoon. One of them, the Team PokerStars Pro Christophe De Meulder, came into the day with nearly 100,000 chips, a spring in his step and high hopes of a deep run. But he busted miserably before the dinner break.
That's when Bart Lybaert came to the fore, entering every pot and winning most of them, amassing a stack of more than 700,000. Although it had slid to 607,000 by the end, that was still plenty to give him the chip lead going into the penultimate day.
De Meulder installed himself on the rail to watch his friend destroy all comers during the later stages. According to the Team Pro, Lybaert plays a lot of poker online, but this is only his second live tournament. If that's true, he might want to do this more often. He's a natural.
There will be 29 other players around Lybaert tomorrow, looking for a place at the final table and a first prize of €115,000. His closest challenger is Giovanni Mazzi, who roller-coastered himself this afternoon, but finished with 551,000.
It was a lightning fast day in Rozvadov, the new location for the first stop of the Eureka Poker Tour's third season. We began with 163 players and ended with only four tables filled. We breezed through the bubble without even the need to play hand-for-hand. (Two players bust at the same time.)
Many of the big names departed: Team Online's Grzegorz "DaWarsaw" Mikielewicz had what he described as "a DaWarsaw blowup at its best". He was out in the first level. Team Pro's Jan Heitmann didn't last much longer, losing a succession of small pots and then not being able to get kings to fade an ace.
The aforementioned De Meulder also had a wretched day, and although Vojtech Ruzicka made the money, his €2,500 prize for 46th isn't likely to register too profoundly on his High Roller's bankroll.
Vladimir Geshkenbein was at his irresistible best, however, and he remains with 337,000. It was also a very good day for Jan Donges. He barely put a foot wrong to finish with 494,000.
Kasparas Klezys might well have been the leader tonight. But he tried a huge bluff on the last hand he played and lost something like 200,000. He carries 460,000 into tomorrow, so is still very much alive. And he has this 12-hour break to regain his thoughts.
Play resumes tomorrow (Saturday) at noon and we will play to a final table of eight. It could take any length of time, but the player's party is scheduled for 9pm and one suspects we'll be done in time to make it.
Full counts for the remaining players are on the chip counts page. And the redraw for tomorrow is below. Check the payouts page for the identity of the winners so far.
Goodnight for now.
Seat draw for Day 3 in Rozvadov
(Table, seat, name, chips)
32 1 Vladimir Geshkenbein 337,000
32 2 Thomas Ollhoff 121,000
32 3 Jörg Peisert 122,000
32 4 Oleg Mandzjuk 429,000
32 5 Ján Petráš 153,000
32 6 Gerhard Bauer 396,000
32 7 Dirk Recknagel 45,000
32 8 Kasparas Klezys 460,000
34 1 Ivan Herz 242,000
34 2 Jakub Szczotka 281,000
34 3 Mario Bureš 183,000
34 4 Dmitry Trtyakov 199,000
34 5 Erich Kollmann 170,000
34 6 Giovanni Mazza 551,000
34 7 Frank Fechner 283,000
34 8 Dorde Jovanovic 273,000
35 1 Ivan Kruljac 169,000
35 2 Fabian Leib 443,000
35 3 Koral Calisir 224,000
35 4 Rinaldo Filho 367,000
35 5 Simeon Todorov 147,000
35 6 Ronald Szczerba 383,000
35 7 Jan Dönges 494,000
36 1 Sinisa Teodorovic 253,000
36 2 Bart Lybaert 607,000
36 3 Vladimír Válek 211,000
36 4 David Engelthaler 60,000
36 5 Bülent Demirtas 327,000
36 6 Thomas Erler 207,000
36 7 Mark Bech 115,000
