PokerStars EPT Copenhagen, Day 2: Nielsen Takes Narrow Lead
170 players remained as Day 2 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Copenhagen event began on Thursday. Among the notable players remaining in the tournament were Team PokerStars players Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken, Thor Hansen and Alex Kravchenko. The action started off at a furious clip as the short stacks from Days 1a and 1b made their moves to accumulate chips and run toward the money.
Nicolas Levi made his move early on Day 2 when he shoved all in from the small blind with K♥J♥. He was called by the original raiser in the cutoff seat with A♥Q♥, and Levi's tournament ended on one of the first levels of Day 2. The Hendon Mob's Barny Boatman found himself ahead when he got all the money in before the flop with J♠9♦, dominating Tommy Pavlicek's J♣8♥. Unfortunately for Boatman, an eight peeled off on the flop and he was busted. Other early eliminations included Hansen, Boeken and Arnaud Mattern.
Jonas 'Nebuchad' Danielsson picked up the award for Online Player of the Year at the Scandinavian Poker Awards earlier this week, but his good fortune here ran out when he pushed his last few chips in from the small blind with 8♣2♠ and Timothy Vance called with A♥Q♠. The flop came down 10♥8♥9♣, and Danielsson pulled ahead for a moment, but the 3♥ turn gave Vance even more outs, and the J♥ river filled both his straight and flush draws to send Danielsson to the rail.
After eliminating Danielsson, Vance went on a rush to finish the day with one of the biggest stacks. The American online qualifier took out two players in one hand shortly after busting Danielsson. All the chips ended up in the middle on a board of 10♣Q♦8♥5♠5♥, and Vance's J♥J♦ held up against the A♣K♠ of Johannes Korsar and the K♠2♥ of Kresten Nielsen to send both opponents to the rail.
Canadian Tommy Pavlicek also finished the day strong, after beginning Day 2 as the only non-Scandinavian player in the top ten. Finding A♣A♦ soon after sitting down at his new table, Pavlicek open-shoved and Tomasz Krzesinski made the call from the big blind. Krzesinski tabled 9♣9♥, and the board ran out K♥10♦4♥3♦8♥ to double Pavlicek up. Krzesinski was crippled and busted out a few hands later.
Two all-in hands took place simultaneously on different tables during hand-for-hand play to burst the money bubble and end Day 2. In the first, Trond Eidsvig eliminated Haward Speer with Q♥J♥ to Speer's K♣A♠. Speer's ace kicker had him ahead on the turn when the board read 8♥5♥5♠8♣, until the Q♦ hit on the river to give Eidsvig a bigger two pair and send Speer to the rail. While that was going on, Jarle Aasen bounced Claus Tversted, with A♣K♥ to Tversted's K♠J♠. The board ran out 10♣8♦6♠A♦K♣, and Tversted was eliminated. Since Speer started the hand with more chips than Tversted, he was determined to finish higher and picked up $12,575 for 40th place, while Tversted was the bubble boy.
With the money bubble popped, play wrapped for Day 2 with Rasmus Hede Nielsen sitting atop the chip stacks with a very slight lead over Joris Jaspers. The top ten chip stacks at the end of the day are as follows:
Rasmus Hede Nielsen — 295,500
Joris Jaspers — 294,800
Johan Lund — 290,500
Patrik Andersson — 268,500
Jospeh Serock — 265,000
Jan Sørensen — 173,500
Ed de Haas — 167,500
Timothy Vance — 154,000
Peter Eastgate — 154,000
Trond Erik Eidsvig — 149,500
