While most of the notable names in the field bust out on Day 3, former chess master American Eugene Yanayt surged to the lead of the €10,000 buy-in main event EPT - Grand Final event in Madrid. Ole-Kristian Nergard, the 19-year-old Norwegian chip leader of the last couple days is still in but one of the short stacks needing to make a move early in Day 4 at the Casino Gran Madrid.

Notables busting in the money on Day 3 included Melanie Weisner, William Reynolds, Surinder Sunar, Fernando Brito, EPT Deauville Champ Lucien Cohen, Ivan Demidov, Xuan Liu, David Sonelin, Ted Forrest, Allen Bari, Leo Fernandez, James Bord, and Eugene Katchalov.

Remaining 24 player chip counts:

PlayerCountryChip Count
Eugene Yanayt USA 2374000
Torsten Brinkmann Ger. 1959000
Simon Higgins UK 1705000
Juan Maceiras Spain 1308000
Ivan Freitez Ven. 1279000
Pedro Pellicer Spain 1216000
Domantas Klimciauskas Lith.1198000
Gerardo Godinez Mexico 1009000
Ankush Mandavia USA 910000
Andrey Danilyuk Russia 806000
Tamas Lendvai Hungary 787000
Raemon Sluiter Ned. 703000
Georges Yazbeck Leb. 692000
Alex Gomes Brazil 655000
Litterio Pirrotta Italy 648000
Alessandro Limblici Italy 554000
Jose Nadal Mexico 510000
Victor Ramdin USA 489000
Shiraz Soltaninassab Belg. 475000
Hugo Lemaire France 292000
Thomas Pettersson Sweden 246000
Dag Palovic Slovakia 244000
Ole Kristian Nergard Nor. 105000
Andrew Li USA 104000


The final 24 will return Wednesday in level 21 with the blinds at 8,000-16,000 with a 2,000 ante. They will play down to the final table with everyone guaranteed at least €40,000.

The 686 players created a €6,860,000 prizepool with the top 104 players making the money and most importantly €1,500,000 reserved for first.