EPT San Remo Day 2: Stelmak Leads; Close to the Bubble
With 620 returning for Day 2 of the PokerStars.it European Poker Tour San Remo, which was exactly half the starting field remaining for this record-breaking EPT field, the prize pool was more than �6 million, one of the biggest ever in Europe with �1,250,000 for the lucky winner. Also, with 184 spots being paid, it��s the largest number of payouts we��ve ever had on the EPT with even the lowly 184th spot getting a �7,500 payday.
Dmitry Stelmak was the leader at the end of the casualty-laden day with 670,000. Over 400 players were lost over the course of just six levels of action. Players were dropped so rapidly that at one point two were gone every minute.
With so many players disappearing, the bigger stacks got very deep-stacked allowing the players to really battle in any spot they saw fit. One such spot saw temporary chip leader Alexander Roumeliotis open in the small blind to 10,000 at the 2,000/4,000 level. Steve ��Gboro780�� Gross reraised from the big blind to 38,100 before Roumeliotis made it 90,000 to go. Not content with being pushed back, Gross made a fifth bet to 160,300, finally forcing the Swede to fold. Gross showed just Q?8? before Roumeliotis laughingly also showed an 8?. Both players, however, finished the day in the leading pack with around 500,000.
Other big stacks included Swedes Jakob Karlsson and Erik Tamm who hoped to continue the Scandinavian dominance of EPT, while Irishman Dermot Blain hoped for a volcanic eruption of his 550,000 stack tomorrow.
A jovial Peter Hedlund enjoyed his day, as well as a bottle of wine, entertaining his table with some colourful chat. David ��Doc Sands�� Sands had a slightly more difficult day when he was involved in a ruling in which Gerado Ghuria had pushed all-in from the button and then claimed that Sands had said, ��Fold�� while turning over ace-queen. The dealer, who did not speak good English, appeared unsure, but Sands was adamant he had called, and eventually, tournament director Thomas Kremser came over and ruled in Sands�� favor. Ghuria was forced to show ace-three but spiked a three on the flop. The turn and river bricked for Sands, thereby saving Ghuria's short stack.
Casualties today included Dario Minieri, Lex Veldhuis, Liz Lieu, Benny Spindler and JP Kelly. Organizer Luca Pagano was knocked out at the end of the day and no doubt was very disappointed. Day 1b chip leader Michael Eerhart also was knocked out. People who did manage to squeeze through included Arnaud Mattern, who suffered a day of dead cards and ground a short stack, while Liv Boeree made it through after cracking aces with seven-deuce by making a straight. Jason Mercier also managed to make it through to Day 3 of the tournament that he had won here two years ago. The American fought off weariness after a 20-hour-bus ride from London and became the only member of the bus journey to make it this far.
Only 194 players remain after today's play, but 10 of them will go home tomorrow with nothing. For the rest, the chance to win over �1 million will be a tantalizing goal.
The Pokernews Live Reporting Team will be back tomorrow at noon local time, covering all the action and providing full updates, interviews and videos from the tournament. Also, don��t forget to follow us on Twitter.
