James Mitchell Leads UK 1-2-3 into EPT Main Event Day 4

UK poker player James Mitchell has a solid chip advantage going into the fourth day of the PokerStars sponsored EPT London Main Event, leading the remaining field of 62 ahead of compatriots Sam Macdonald and Martins Adeniya. James, whose most notable previous victory was in the Paddy Power Irish Open of 2010, was the only player to rack up a stack in excess of one million chips and currently has three times the average chip stack.

Classic Calls Gives Mitchell the Lead

James´ lead came courtesy of two excellent calls made during the later levels of Day 3. In the first of these he called Christopher McClung´s shove on a board of {9♠} {8♦} {4♥} / {9♣} / {8♥}, and risked his tournament life with {A♦} {Q♣}. Fortunately, McClung had been bluffing with a counterfeit pair of sixes and James doubled up at his expense. The second “classic call” came in one of the last hands of the evening. Facing a monster bet from Nikolas Liakos (pocket Kings) he called correctly with {9♥} {9♦} to see the {10♠} {9♠} {4♥} flop give him a set and a 600,000 chip pot.

159 Start Day 3 – 62 Remain

It was a relatively short Day 3, with many of the poker players entering the day short-stacked looking to double up early to get into the 104 player bubble. Early on we lost Jake Cody and James Akenhead, but Doyle Brunson graced the Hilton Metropole with his presence for most of the day before busting out in 77th and other players to show a profit from their efforts included ex-Republic of Ireland soccer player Tony Cascarino (71st), Keith “the Camel” Hawkins (91st) and Jamie Burland (93rd) – who remarkable maintained his 100% record of cashing in EPT events.

Looking Ahead to Day 4

Day 4 is scheduled to play down to the last 24 players and, if the last two days are anything to go by, should be concluded by mid-afternoon. Let´s hope the weather remains nice in London as 23 nationalities are represented in the 62 players left in the tournament – 15 of whom are British, raising hopes for a domestic victory. The next player out is guaranteed a minimum of £11,000 for their £5,200 buy-in, with the last player to fall today assured of collecting £16,000. The total prize fund being contested is £3,351,350, of which the winner will take home a staggering £750,000.

Top Chip Counts

The leading chip counts of the EPT Main Event going into Day 4 are as follows:-

Place	Name		Chips
1	James Mitchell	UK	1,071,500
2	Sam Macdonald	UK	860,000
3	Martins Adeniya	UK	786,800
4	Basile Yaiche	France	756,500
5	Matthijs Remie	Netherlands – qualifier	732,500
6	Ben Jenkins	UK	721,000
7	Adria Balaguer	Spain	710,000
8	Sandor Demjan	Hungary	691,000
9	Neil Pearce	UK – qualifier	690,500
10	Kevin Iacofano	USA	623,500
11	Andre Klebanov	Germany	618,000
12	Benny Spindler	Germany	570,000

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