EPT BERLIN: MANY STARS FADE ON DAY 3

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

While many name players emerged during Day 2 play at EPT Berlin, it was the exact opposite today as Day 3 closes with 24 players left - many of which are unknowns to most poker fans.

Now that doesn't mean that we're in for a boring final two days but, in fact, it means that we may have an unknow star in the making - could PokerStars qualifier Ben Wilinofsky be that man?

But it's still sad to see the big boys go, especially Roberto Romanello and Vladimir Geshkenbein, both of which were looking to continue their hot streaks at major events - maybe next time, gentlemen.

Daniel-Gai Pidun took the chip lead from Maximilian Heinzelmann very late on Friday. Team PokerStars Pro Joep van den Bijgaart in still very much in contention while Frenchman Fabrice Soulier, who held a major chip lead after Day 2, lost over 200,000 of his chips on Friday.

Meanwhile Martin Jacobson is making a deep run in a third EPT tournament in less than 6 months - can he improve on his two runner-up finishes? He has some work ahead of him in order to do so.

Here are the notable chip stacks heading into Day 4:

> Daniel-Gai Pidun 2,249,000 (chip leader)
> Kristijonas Andrulis 1,650,000
> Joep van den Bijgaart 1,454,000
> Henrique Pinho 1,282,000
> Mikhail Lakhitov 909,000
> Fabrice Soulier 890,000
> Martin Jacobson 687,000
> Konstantin Puchkov 608,000

Notable players who were eliminated today include:
George Danzer, Tomer Berda, Bruno Lemaire, Cornel Cimpan, Maksim (Maxim) Kolosov, Kent Lundmark, Ben Roberts, Per Linde, Juan Manuel Pastor, Roberto Romanello, Kevin Vandermissen, Thomas Bichon, Peter Eastgate, Sebastien Ruthenberg, Vladimir Geshkenbein


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
European Poker Tour Berlin
EPT Berlin Main Event
April 5-10, 2011

Spielbank Berlin
Berlin, DEU

Buy-in: $7,160
Prizepool: $5,536,300
Entries: 773

Defending Champion: Kevin MacPhee

POINTS AT STAKE
1st position 132
2nd position 82
3rd position 52
4th position 42
5th position 37
6-7th position 32
8-11th position 17
12-15th position 15
16-18th position 12