EPT San Remo Final Table Gets Underway

Day 6 of the 2011 EPT San Remo gets underway later today with just eight players left competing for the €800,000 ($1,121,530) top prize at the Casino di San Remo in Italy.
Taking their seats at the prestigious tournament’s final table are players from eight different countries. One notable absence, however, is the Canadian Christopher McClung who lead the competition by a wide margin on  Day 3 and 4, but finished Day 5 in 14th place for $38,732.
Despite his huge lead, McClung came unstuck after he was dealt Ac-Qs and called Kevin MacPhee´s 1.7 million chip shove with As-Kc. Soon after he lost another major pot when he was dealt Kh-Qs and called Jan Bendik´s 1.5 million push with As-Kd, before finally being eliminated by Rocco Palumbo with Ad-Kh.
Rocco Palumbo then managed to stick around long enough to see six of his Italian compatriots exit the tournament, while he became the final table’s only remaining Italian, albeit on a short-stack.
One player who did maintain his position, however, was Australia’s Daniel Neilson (pictured right) who managed to extended his 2 million starting day stack to 6,700,000 and now starts the final table as chip leader. At one stage, though, he was almost eliminated after he was dealt pocket Jacks and was all-in against Jan Bendik who made a Broadway straight when a Jack fell on the turn. Incredibly, another Jack on the river made quads for Neilson, who then became the tournament chip leader.
Notable names falling short of a seat at the final table included Johnny Lodden, Lex Veldhuis, Mike McDonald, Elio Fox and Alessio Isaia.
The action gets underway later todat at 1400 CET, when a champion will be crowned. With the blinds starting out at 25k/50k/5k here are the remaining players’ starting positions:
1 Daniel Neilson (Australia) 6,700,000
2 Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria) 4,435,000
3 Jan Bendik (Slovakia) 3,980,000
4 Andrey Pateychuk (Russia) 3,105,000
5 Barny Boatman (UK) 2,490,000
6 Yorane Kerignard (France) 2,145,000
7 Rocco Palumbo (Italy) 1,160,000
8 Kevin MacPhee (USA) 1,115,000