Antonio Esfandiari hasn’t won a major tournament since May 2004 when he won his only World Series of Poker bracelet in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event. But if Tuesday is any indication the man known as “the Magician” may be about to add another win to his resume.

Esfandiari leads the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final with 1,198,000 chips through the third day of play. He started the day in 44th position with 121,400 chips and managed to move his way up the ladder throughout the day. A total of 124 players started the day with chips but by day’s end only 39 remained.

The day featured what many believe to be the longest money bubble in EPT history. After over two and a half hours Surinder Sunar busted in 81st place and the hand-for-hand action could stop.

Robin Keston, of the UK, is in second place with 916,000. He and Esfandiari are well ahead of the rest of the field. The next highest chip stack is 642,000 and belongs to Denes Kalo.

Day 1 chipleader Cyril Bensoussan and Sorel Mizzi were both some of the big name casualties from Tuesday. 2005 WSOP main event champion Joe Hachem is still alive in 26th position with 214,500 in chips. He is one of the three Team PokerStars pro players left in the field. Luca Pagano is in 22nd position with 279,500 and Raymond Rahme is in 30th with 133,000.

Day 4 action will get underway at 1pm local time.

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