Johnny Lodden Leads Final 15 Players; Ole Schemion Still In Contention
Day 4 of the 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo? Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final �10,600 Main Event started out with just 34 players and the goal of reaching the final 16. In the end, though, only 15 players survived the day as two exits happened right at the same moment, on two different tables, to finish off play.
With a lot of familiar faces still in contention, along with a group of likable newcomers, Day 4 was as exciting as they come.
The first remarkable feature was Chinese high roller Quan Zhou litteraly flipping a coin to make up his mind. He called, and lost the coin flip with sixes to Pierre Neuville's ace-king. Zhou had some chips left, but hit the rail not much later when he ran fours into Tom Hall's aces.
Another thing that got the blood pumping was a double knockout on the same table. Juan Martin Pastor got it in with kings against the tens of Neuville and ace-queen of World Series of Poker runner-up Felix Stephensen on a 
flop. Running jacks made for an original way to send two players packing.
Team PokerStars Pro was well represented at the start of the day, but all but Johnny Lodden would fall in the 3.5 levels played. Isaac Haxton started out short and didn't make a miraculous comeback, soon joining the �25,500 High Roller that began today.
Another Team Pro was Jason Mercier. He suffered several beats, with nines against fives preflop as the grand finale. A five on the turn for Ludovic Geilich made for an exit for Mercier in 28th place worth �29,900.
Andre Akkari had the entire country of Brazil on his rail, but it didn't help him secure a spot on Day 5. He lost a coin flip to bust in 23rd place (�40,050) against his neighbor, Pastor.
The only Team Pro to survive the day was Lodden. He final tabled the EPT Grand Final Main Event here two years ago (3rd - �467,000) and didn't just survive the day. In fact, he'll start Day 5 as the chip leader. Lodden won the biggest pot against Ole Schemion.
The young German superstar opened under the gun and fired three bullets on the 
board. Lodden called from the big blind preflop, then check-called all three streets with a mere 
. The pair of fours was good, though, as Schemion showed the 
with a smile.
Schemion lost a lot of chips in that hand, but he will be one of the contestants on the penultimate day. He regained control of the table, took down several small pots, raised some turns, and didn't show down too many hands. In the end, he bagged a contending stack.
In the fourth of a planned five levels, three well-known pros hit the rail.
Scott Clements lost a big chunk with kings and a flush draw against a flopped flush, then lost the rest to Lodden, again getting flushed with a strong hand. Italian high roller Dario Sammartino was short and moved all in with 
. He got looked up by 
and couldn't hit. At the same time, Connor Drinan lost all of his chips. Drinan first made a very nice hero call with 
on a scary board to double, but lost his chips not much later as he wasn't able to fade an ace with queens all in preflop against Anton Astapau's ace-king.
With the simultaneous knockouts, the tournament was down to just 15 players and the bagging and tagging started. Those 15 will return tomorrow for Day 6 of the EPT Grand Final at 12 p.m. local time sharp. The plan will be to play five levels or down to six players, whichever comes first. The players are guaranteed �58,100 at this point, but all are shooting for that �1,082,000 first-place prize.
Can Johnny Lodden final table again and work his way to getting the monkey off his back? Can Ole Schemion best his highest EPT Main Event finishing position (5th for �218,300 at EPT Prague in2013)? Or will someone else emerge as the latest champion?
Be sure to check back at PokerNews to find out!
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Koichi Nozaki | Japan | 1,582,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Lyndon Basha | United Kingdom | 1,070,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Jose Carlos Garcia | Poland | 523,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Muhyedine Fares | Senegal | 1,280,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Johnny Lodden | Norway | 2,293,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 1,178,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Romain Paon | France | 782,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 1,635,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Hady El Asmar | Lebanon | 1,530,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Anton Astapau | Belarus | 896,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Christopher Frank | Germany | 645,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Tom Hall | United Kingdom | 249,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Dmitry Ivanov | Russia | 994,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Juan Martin Pastor | Argentina | 450,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Markus Ross | Germany | 1,815,000 |
Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden is chip leader heading into Day 5 of the EPT 11 Grand Final, on what is his fifth cash in this event in seven years. Two years ago Lodden finished third, and right now he's in pole position to capture his first ever EPT title. Remko Rinkema spoke to him after the day had ended.