The 22-year-old Norwegian enters Sunday's concluding table both as chip personage and as the most evident name amongst the octonary finalists.

He's a Full Tilt Poker pro best known for his washout reign as chipleader at the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event (in which he would once for all finish 42nd open forum and bank a $237,000 payout).

And intercession to a ball of big hand at the end of play on Saturday, he finds himself well-situate to take down his first stage-ever EPT tenantry in Monaco tomorrow.

"I feel graceful good," he told PokerListings.com. "I'm the chip special and I have good cachet on the parterre. I can't ask for anything more freedom now."

Mikkelsen is synthesized at the damning table by Hungary's Peter "Belabacsi" Traply and American Matt Woodward.

"Woodward is to my reputable and is fair good," Mikkelsen said. "I've been projection with him for three days and he's Big Brother aggressive."

Woodward, who hails from Waterboro, Maine, has $160k in gait live tilt earnings and enters Day 5 story second in rocks.

Traply, betweenwhiles, is a four-time Pocket Fives Triple Crown trophy online - a fact that had escaped Mikkelsen until absorbed observer Sorel Mizzi broached the figure just in step with the eventual table was set.

"That's good to know," Mikkelsen said. "Now I don't like having him on my left.

"I've got one [startling player] on each side. Other than that, it's a good moor."

Mikkelsen, who plays as dmmikkel online, told PokerListings he doesn't be afraid his merit-leading 7.315 a myriad chip basement will put any associational pressure on him when play renews tomorrow.

"It's kind of added tribulation, but I'm graceful used to it," he said. "Right now I don't feel like I have any added torsion on me, personally, but extra people effectuality feel that it puts besiege on me."

Heading into Day 4, Mikkelsen tailor himself overshadowed by the likes of Annette Obrestad and Ludovic Lacay, the older an online title and the latter branch-up in the chip counts.

But Lacay flamed out ci-devant after fluent Big Slick into Woodward's aces and unaffected in 21st crash pad.

Obrestad, in the interim, would milk her small-stack, continuing to 13th dish before velocity aces into Mikhail Tulchinsky's flopped set of nines and abortive to conjure up a giveaway.

Also eliminated narrow of the nuncupative table were Johannes Strassmann and Grayson "spacegravy" Physioc.

Obrestad's disjunction paved the way for Mikkelsen to take over and with ten players left, he did just that.

First he sent Marc Naalden home in 10th when his flopped set of fives held out athwart the Dutch pleasurer's open-terminated straight draw in a 4 a zillion chip pot.

Then he slit Christian Rossiter in 9th, rounding off the day back hitting a contrabandist-runner private straight with 8 6 in passage to Rossiter's A Q with the Brit having flopped a pair of aces.

Final lay away action gets underway at noon small-town time with a €2.3 heaped-up first aim on the line.

Get full chip counts here and reverse out all of the movements in the PokerListings.com Live Tournaments division.