by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Mar 31, 2012 | Updated on Mar 31, 2012
24 players entered Day 4 of the European Poker Tour Campione Main Event, and it took just over five hours to eliminate 16 of them and reach a final table. In the end, it was Fabrice Soulier who led the final eight heading into the last day of the tournament, with Olivier Busquet just a few chips behind in second place.One potential storyline was taken out of play on Day 4, as the two remaining former EPT winners – Ronnie Kaiser and David Vamplew – were eliminated well before the final table way reached. That means that strange fact that no player has ever won two EPT events will continue to be true, as there will be another first time winner on the tour in Campione.But that doesn’t mean the winner will be an unknown. Two top professional players – one a Frenchman and one American of French ancestry – are atop the leaderboard, making it likely that one of them could ultimately take down the first place prize.The leader is Fabrice Soulier, who comes into the final table with 3.48 million chips. Soulier won the $10,000 HORSE championship at the World Series of Poker last year, and has made a handful of other final tables at the WSOP, on the World Poker Tour, and even has a third place finish at one of the few Epic Poker League events ever held. But despite his more than $3.6 million in lifetime cashes, this is Soulier’s first EPT final table.Despite that impressive resume, Soulier won’t be a heavy favorite, as another heavy hitter is just behind him. Olivier Busquet is in second place with just over 3 million chips, and is also playing at his first EPT final table. Busquet has a WPT title and 10 WSOP cashes in his career, however, and has over $2.5 million in live cashes.Plenty of other players could also make runs to the title, including former chip leader Jannick Wrang, who is in third place with just under 2.9 million chips. The final table will be played on Saturday, with the winner taking home €640,000. the final table chip counts are as follows:Fabrice Soulier: 3,480,000Olivier Busquet: 3,011,000Jannick Wrang: 2,882,000Balazs Botond: 2,080,000Koen De Visscher: 1,856,000Stefano Puccilli: 1,450,000Mario Nagel: 1,210,000Robin Ylitalo: 1,153,000 2l4i32
