Starting the day with just 344,000 in chips and on the wrong side of the average stack, Pagano went on a fantastic heater to build his chip stack to over 10x what he had to begin with.
Seizing the chip lead in the first level alone, Pagano most notably pillaged the chip stack of Day 3 leader Samphane Phomveha in a huge hand to distance himself from the field.
Pagano flopped a set with sixes, filled up on the turn and got big calls from Phomveha, who held trip aces, all the way down.
When the dust settled, Pagano bagged up 3,561,000 in chips to grab the outright lead heading into Day 5 and a one million-chip advantage over second-place Olivier Rogez (2,688,000).
Pagano had already secured a record 20th EPT cash and is now in pole position to make yet another EPT final-table appearance.
Brammer, Inizan Still Lurking in Final 24
With just 54 players to start the day and a target of 24, things moved quickly on Day 4.
Brit Chris “NigDawG” Brammer, who began the day in third with just over a million chips, tread water for most of the day but still finished up in 8th with 1,262,000.
Fellow Brit Martins Adeniya, also in the top five to begin the day, wasn’t so lucky as he busted fairly early.
France’s Yorane Kerignard (1,124,000) and Marc Inizan (481,000), two of the more established players in a local-heavy field, are also still in contention.
Play Down to Final Table Begins
Play is scheduled to resume tomorrow at noon in France with a final table of eight the target number.
Remaining players have assured themselves of at least €23,000 with six-figures guaranteed for making the final seven.
A solid €875,000 is reserved for the winner.
The top 10 and their chip counts, care of the PokerStars blog.
1. Luca Pagano 3,561,000
2. Olivier Rogez 2,668,000
3. Vadzim Kursevich 1,815,000
4. Paul Guichard 1,700,000
5. Andre Corredoira 1,316,000
6. Ignat Liviu 1,303,000
7. Christian Togsverd 1,271,000
8. Chris Brammer 1,262,000
9. Artem Litvinov 1,193,000
10. Yorane Kerignard 1,124,000
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