German superstar Ole Schemion (pictured above) won the final hand of the night to soar to the chip lead with 16 players remaining in the first-ever WPT European Championship 3,300 Main Event.
With just one elimination remaining before the final 16 players were confirmed, Schemion and Han Kuo were neck and neck on the leaderboard, but Schemion’s river jam against Marco Slacanac worked to give the German the lead heading into Day 4.
Also still in contention at Spielbank Berlin is two-time WPT Champions Club member Marvin Rettenmaier, who could go on to win a record-equalling third WPT title. In the last level of the day, Rettenmaier cracked pocket kings to double up.
With 49 players returning to start Day 3 and 43 reaching the money, Romain Lewis and Tobias Peters were sent to the rail before a cash. When the money bubble was reached, it didn’t take long for Edward Quinn to run king-queen into the aces of Thomas Muhlocker to send the rest of the field into the money and guaranteeing everyone €6,125.
Both DraftKings qualifiers who made it to Day 3, Carter Gent and Tom Grace, made the money, but both were eliminated. Gent fell in 43rd place, and Grace went out in 20th.
Tony Dunst, WPT Commentator and WPT Champions Club member, lost a flip to Marco Slacanac and was eliminated in 42nd place.
A big pot between start-of-day chip leader Kunal Patni and Schemion left Patni heading to the rail in 39th position. Following Schemion’s check-raise on a deuce-deuce-four flop, Schemion bet again on the turn and jammed on the river. Patni, an Adda52 team pro, used up two time-extension chips before calling with pocket queens. Schemion showed ace-deuce and won the pot to bust Patni.
Patni earned a payout of €6,125, which can be added to the €96,140 he won for finishing runner-up to Dustin Mangold in the opener of the Season XVI WPT European Championship festival, the WPTDeepStacks Berlin €1,500 Main Event.
Busting Patni meant that Schemion was the chip leader on the first break of the day, but Michal Mrakes sent Johnny Nedved to the rail in 37th place to join Schemion with close to 900,000 in chips.
By the time the tournament was down to its three tables, it was Marius Pertea whose stack was flirting with seven figures, but Han Kuo made a full house against Mrakes to move over the 1 million chip mark.
The elimination of the final DraftKings qualifier, Grace, in 20th place earned Grace a hefty payout of €10,370 ($12,548) after he qualified for just $20 from the daily fantasy sports site.
Former WPT champions Julian Thomas and Davidi Kitai busted in 21st and 19th, respectively, to leave Rettenmaier as the final WPT champion in the field, and then the final 16 players were confirmed shortly before 5:30 p.m. local time. It was an early day for the competitors, who will return on Sunday at 12 p.m. local time to battle for a spot at the televised WPT final table.
Stay tuned to WPT.com for all the action from Spielbank Berlin.
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