The task on Day 3 of the European Poker Tour’s Dortmund event was simple; Survive to make it to the final table and not be one of the 24 players destined to be eliminated on Day 3. For some it was a long, hard journey to the final table while others rode their large chip stacks throughout the day to make it to the final table as a force to be reckoned with.
As soon as Day 3 began, the eliminations began as well. For Brandon Schaefer, who started the day seventh in chips with slightly over 200k, it took only 20 minutes to be sent home. During that time Schaefer’s stack was crippled by several hands in which he had the best of it, most notably when his pocket aces got beat by 4-3 suited which made a straight on the turn. With a stack that was only a shadow of its former self, Schaefer moved all-in and was taken out, once again had the better hand which could not hold up. Schaefer was not actually the first player to be eliminated on Day 3. That dubious honor belonged to Manfred Bass of Germany who had started the day in fifteenth place.
On the other end of the spectrum was Canadian Michael McDonald, who started the day in second place. McDonald started out strong, taking the chip lead in the early parts of the day. McDonald would relinquish the chip lead briefly, but took it back and at the end of the day was the chip leader going into the final table with approximately 862,000 chips.
Marcel Luske, the fan favorite who is always entertaining, will not be showing up at the final table, as he was eliminated when he raised all-in with [Ks][5s] in an attempt to steal the raise that Johannes Strassmann put in while holding [Ad][10c]. Marcel flopped a five, but Johannes flopped an ace, and Marcel’s hand did not imrpove on either the turn or the river, and Marcel was sent to the rail after a fine run into the money.
Day 3 ended after the elimination of Bulgarian Alexander Milanov in ninth place. This set up the eight-man final table, where Michael McDonald holds the chip lead. McDonald is only eighteen years old and still wears braces. He earned a reputation while playing poker online, where he goes by the handle of “Timex.” When McDonald had to choose a screenname for online play, he couldn’t decid on a name, but glanced down at his watch took the watch’s brand name for himself.
Here are the players and chip stacks going into the final table:
Michael McDonald, Canada – 862,000
Johannes Strassman, Germany – 827,000
Marco Diego Perez, Spain – 744,000
Andreas Gulunay, Germany – 560,000
Torsten Haase, Germany – 369,000
Christian Harder, USA – 339,000
Claudio Rinaldi, Switzerland – 276,000
Thibaut Durand, France – 148,000