Peters Trying to Cap Stellar Year With EPT Win
The final PokerStars European Poker Tour Main Event is down to just 65 runners in Prague, and it's American star David Peters who lapped the field on Day 3 of the event to build a monstrous chip lead.
Peters is eyeing his first EPT Main Event crown, though he did win a €10,000 High Roller in Malta last year for €597,000. If he's able to win, it would be a fitting end to what's been a spectacular year for Peters. He has banked a staggering $6.85 million in cashes and also bagged his first bracelet by winning a $1,500 World Series of Poker event for $412,557.
The Ohio native finished the five levels of play with 2,036,000. Nobody is within shouting distance of that, with other big stacks including Stoyan Obreshkov (1,356,000), Andrew Hulme (1,050,000), Apostolos Bechrakis (985,000), and Kyosti Isberg (960,000).
Peters entered the day with 305,000 and had that doubled in the second level. He was seated at by far the deepest-stacked table in the room, which worked to his advantage when he was able to bust Oleg Vasylchenko. Peters had called an opening raise, and Vasylchenko three-bet from the cutoff. The two saw a 
flop and got stacks in with Peters' set of sevens trailing his opponent's 
for a flopped straight. No waiting for Peters, as he found a six on the turn to lock up the massive pot and move to almost 200 big blinds.
Another victim of the Peters show was Joseph Sabe, who provided the last boost to Peters' stack when he jammed 14 big blinds in late with deuces and had Peters wake up with tens in the blinds to bust him moments before bagging time.
Matas Cimbolas, PokerStars Team Pro Felipe Ramos, Martin Kabrhel, Maxim Lykov, Salvatore Bonavena, Simon Charette, Fabrice Soulier and Benjamin Pollak all remain in contention.
Kabrhel battled for much of the day with Philipp Gruissem, who was seated on his left. The two spent some time at the featured table and butted heads in a number of pots. Eventually, Kabrhel got the better of the German high-rolling star, but he had a stroke of good fortune to thank. The two got stacks in from late position with Kabrhel's ace-ten dominated by ace-king, but a ten-high flop doomed Gruissem.
Gruissem did get paid for his efforts as everyone who busted on Day 3 was in the money. Others making their way to payouts included [Removed:17], Ludovic Lacay, Thomas Muehloecker, Juha Helppi, Jason Wheeler, Ari Engel, Anton Wigg, PokerStars Team Pro Vanessa Selbst, and start-of-day leader Nicolas Chouity.
Action continues Saturday with five more levels of 90 minutes apiece, so come on back to PokerNews for more coverage.