An online grinder with about $400k in live earnings, much of it in Ireland, Tompkins edged out in front of two-day chip leader Inge Forsmo with 2.4 million in chips by day's end.
Forsmo, who bagged up just over 2 million, still held his ground well and will enter Day 5 tomorrow second overall.
In third and looking dangerous as they move closer to the final table is French pro Ludovic Lacay, who climbed steadily up the ranks all day to bag up 1.7 million in chips for the night.
Salsberg, Timoshenko Highlight Mixed Field Behind
The field behind the top three is a mixed bag of foreign pros and local rounders.
Canadian online grinders Jonas Mackoff (1,691,00) and Jason Lavallee (1,066,000) find themselves in the top 10 to start Day 5 as does American tourney vet Micah Raskin (1,042,000).
WPT Paris winner Matt Salsberg, who briefly held the chip lead today, settled back down to 783,000 by the end of the day to sit in 12th overall.
Former WPT champ and feared pro Yevgeniy Timoshenko is also still alive with 533,000 in chips.
Seven Italian players are also left in the mix but none of them are name pros as PokerStars pro Luca Moschitta busted out at the end of the day in 25th.
The top 10 in chips going into tomorrow:
1. Jason Tompkins 2,423,000 2. Inge Forsmo 2,025,000 3. Ludovic Lacay 1,731,000 4. Negjdet Avdylaj 1,702,000 5. Angelo Recchia 1,700,000 6. Jonas Mackoff 1,691,000 7. Iulian Ruxandescu 1,218,000 8. Jason Lavallee 1,066,000 9. Micah Raskin 1,042,000 10. Adrian Piasecki 1,000,000Notables to make the money but hit the rail today included:
26. Isaac Haxton €19,000 27. Laurent Polito €19,000 30. Sofia Lovgren €19,000 36. Justin Bonomo €16,000 38. Ozzy Sheikh €16,000 48. Shaun Deeb €14,000 59. Mike Watson €12,000 62. David Vamplew €12,000 65. Roberto Romanello €12,000
Action resumes in San Remo at 2 pm CET tomorrow with plans to get down to a final table; check for live updates on the PokerStars blog.
Barnes, Bonomo Leading EPT High Roller
Day 1 of the €10k High Roller also played out today in San Remo with 74 players buying in and 10 of those firing a second bullet.
By the time the day wrapped almost half the field was gone and just 45 players remained.
Tops among the survivors is Brandon Barnes with 211,700.
Justin Bonomo (190,600), Luca Pagano (188,600) and Joe Cheong (186,200) also made it into the top 10.
Jonathan Duhamel (123,300), Dan O'Brien (112,500) and Phillip Gruissem (101,200) topped the 100k mark.
Action picks up tomorrow at 3 pm CET and should play down to a final table.
Ten players will get paid and €288,000 will go to the winner.
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