EPT11 London: Main Event Down to Final 36 - Jakub Mroczek Leading the Way

Another day of play finished yesterday in London, reducing the once 675-strong field to just 36 luckiest, toughest and most persistent players. As it is standard for the tournament of this size and quality, we’ve seen plenty of everything that makes poker enjoyable to watch – big hands going at it, bold bluffs succeeding (and failing) and chip stacks swinging in both directions.

Bursting the Bubble

The Day 3 of the EPT11 London Main Event started with 127 players and bursting the bubble was the first order of business. The prize-pool was set to be distributed amongst the top 95 finishers, so quite a few had to be shown the door before others could sit back in their chairs, comfortable they would not go back home with empty pockets.

As players left one by one, short stack buying their time as much as possible, when the moment finally approached it turned out to be a short one. There wasn’t even need for the hand-for-hand play, it was all said and done quickly, as Ignat Liviu exited the scene, accepting his fate of the bubble boy.

WE'RE IN THE MONEY! Ignat Liviu has just bubbled #EPTLondon; the remaining 95 players are guaranteed £7,750, with £499,700 for first place.
— European Poker Tour (@PokerStarsEPT) October 15, 2014

Thinning the Field

With the bubble out of the way, there wasn’t much else to worry about except for accumulating chips to bring to the final table. Some may have still kept their eyes on the pay jumps, but in a field such as this most players were probably gunning for the trophy.

This fact is rather clear from the number of players returning today, as those at the tables yesterday were anything but shy to put their chips to work. Those efforts, naturally, saw some of the big names depart, including Sam Trickett, David Vamplew, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov.

Despite of numerous exits, the remaining field is still a formidable one in every sense, as it includes two ladies, both PokerStars players, although playing on different ‘teams’ – Liv Boeree and Fatima Moreira de Melo, Jake Cody, Pablo Gordillo, the one-time London winner Benny Spindler, Marko Neumann and more.

However, the one leading the remaining field is Jakub Mroczek. The Polish player bagged a stack just shy of 1.8 million, which puts him well ahead of second place Joao Vieira sitting on 1,151,000 and the third-place Artur Koren on 1,126,000. These three players are also the only ones over a million-mark.

The play continues today at noon (British time) and we should see another 20 players depart, as it is scheduled to play until final 16 today. We will, of course, continue to bring you the coverage from London like we have done all these days, with interviews, reports, tweets from players and more.