It's hardly unusual for players to bust from the very first hand on day two, but for long stretches today it seemed a player was sent packing on every hand, adding to what became a large, if slightly disappointed looking rail. We played five and a half levels today, more than six hours of...
It's hardly unusual for players to bust from the very first hand on day two, but for long stretches today it seemed a player was sent packing on every hand, adding to what became a large, if slightly disappointed looking rail. We played five and a half levels today, more than six hours of poker, turning 240 into just 72.
At the end of it Matt Lapossie, a PokerStars qualifier from Canada, topped the lot with an impressive 700,300, a full hundred grand ahead of Tobias Reinkenmeier on 596,000. They were among several players who strapped themselves in today and felt the tournament Gs. ElkY went up, up and away, bagging 454,000 at the close, grin still firmly in place. PokerStars qualifier Carter Philips went the same way; at one point reaching 600,000 until the wings fell off. Still a good day; Phillips settles for an impressive 399,800 tonight.
Matt Lapossie
Also returning will be Thierry van den Berg, chip leader this morning Diego Arias, World Cup of Poker winning Malte Strothmann, Marc Goodwin and numerous others hoping their name will be a little more obvious this time tomorrow.
And will that old chestnut the "double winner," be cracked here? Aside from ElkY there are five other candidates: Jens Kyllonen (400,500), Mike McDonald (307,800), Roland de Wolfe (220,000), Noah Boeken (124,500) and Jan Boubli (190,000), who won in this very room in season two.
Bertrand "ELkY" Grospellier
Noah Boeken
But while they remove their shirts, hook them over their heads and perform a bare-chested victory dash along the beach*, they will pass others not so fortunate. Those out and buried up to their necks in sand include Daniel Negreanu, Brandon Schaefer, Ivan Demidov, Michael Mizrachi, Freddy Deeb, Leo Margets, Florian Langmann, Sandra Naujoks, Sander Lylloff, Mel Judah and Joep Van Den Bijgaart. We salute you.
Sandra Naujoks
Daniel Negreanu
Lex Veldhuis looked least likely to join that crowd for most of the day, reaching 200k, 300k then 400k in good order. Then something happened. Veldhuis, surely the most famous Lex since Luther, suddenly lost his super powers, crushed in a colossal hand against Lars Bonding, his chips in the middle on a board of K-Q-5-J with pocket fives, only for Bonding's Q-T to make a straight on the river nine. Veldhuis eventually busted one off the bubble, sent home by Samer Rahman, ace-jack toppled by ace-king, on the same hand as the eventual bubble boy, an as yet unknown chap who wasted no time getting the hell out of here. Can't say we blame him.
Lex Veldhuis
That leaves 72 players to pop back tomorrow. They'll play to 24 before the lights and cameras of EPT Live start broadcasting the action. Each will want more than the ?12,000 they're guaranteed but at least no one who leaves tomorrow will go empty handed. Until then you can remind yourself of how they, we and you got this far in the first place at the links below:
Introduction: They can't buy the sunshine
Turning it up: the opening salvo
Julian Nuitjen drops in
Level 11 updates
Level 12 updates
Level 13 updates
Level 14 updates
Level 15 updates
Don't forget our beloved foreign language bloggers have been busy all day. If you're reading this in prison and have some time on your hands you might fancy making sense out of our German, Swedish, Italian and of course Spanish variations. You can also catch up on today's video blogs at pokerstars.tv. As always photos come courtesy of Neil Stoddart.
That's it. Hasta manana.
* There was no victory dash to the
Posted originally: 2009-09-06 22:30:16
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