/ Short-Stacked Shamus / 30 March 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Fabrice Soulier looks to add to his $3.6 million-plus lifetime earnings with a win at EPT Campione (Photo: Neil Stoddart)
A sequence of knockouts early on Friday helped catapult Fabrice Soulier into the chip lead, but a late surge by Olivier Busquet helped position him close to Soulier with eight players remaining.
A relatively quick day at the European Poker Tour Campione Main Event on Friday saw the field of 24 swiftly whittled down to eight, with the Frenchman Fabrice Soulier ending the day in front to begin tomorrow's final table as leader. Soulier amassed a stack of 3.48 million by day's end, putting him ahead of a tough group including Olivier Busquet (2nd, 3.011 million) and Jannick Wrang (3rd, 2.882 million).
When play began on Friday, Jannick Wrang led the 24 who'd survived from the starting field of 570 players. Early action saw the short stacks quickly exiting, including Jose Manuel Nadal (24th), Andrea Benelli (20th), and Jean-Philippe Rohr (17th), all among the group earning €15,000 back from their €5,300 buy-in.
With 16 left they redrew for the final two tables, and soon Soulier began his climb up the counts by eliminating Alessandro Minasi in 16th (€20,000). Primoz Adamie followed Minasi to the rail in 15th, also earning €20,000, then Soulier knocked out both Giuseppe Biancouiso (14th) and Alexandre Andermatt (13th), both of whom earned €25,000 for their efforts.
By the time Ramin Hajiyev (12th) and Pasquale Vinci (11th) had been eliminated -- both taking away €30,000 -- Soulier had surged to the top of the counts to battle start-of-day leader Wrang and Balazs Botond for the lead.
However, Olivier Busquet would be the star of the final stretch, scoring the final two knockouts before play concluded.
First Busquet knocked out David Vamplew in 10th (€41,000) in a hand in which all of the latter's chips went in on the turn with the board showing 8s-5d-Qd-Ks. Vamplew had Kh-Jh for kings, but Busquet had Qh-8h for two pair, and after the Ah river Vamplew was out.
After that one, Busquet and Simeon Naydenov got into a preflop raising war that resulted in Naydenov all in with Jc-Jd against Busquet's Ah-Kc A king flopped, and Naydenov was unable to catch up, eliminated one spot shy of the final table in ninth (€41,000).
Here's how the final eight will stack up for Saturday's final day of play:
1. Fabrice Soulier -- 3,480,000
2. Olivier Busquet -- 3,011,000
3. Jannick Wrang -- 2,882,000
4. Balazs Botond -- 2,080,000
5. Koen De Visscher -- 1,856,000
6. Stefano Puccilli -- 1,450,000
7. Mario Nagel -- 1,210,000
8. Robin Ylitalo -- 1,153,000
First out tomorrow earns €54,000, while the winner will pick up a cool €640,000 plus the Shamballa Jewels winner's bracelet worth €10,000 more.
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