Partouche Poker Tour Cannes, Day 2: Sitbon Leads as Money Bubble Bursts
221 players from around the world returned to the Palm Beach Club in Cannes, France for Day 2 of the Partouche Poker Tour Cannes Main Event. Among the survivors from the two flights of Day 1 were Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Scotty Nguyen, Soren Kongsgaard, Rafe Furst, James "Flushy" Dempsey, Robert Mizrachi and Glenn Chorny.
Erica Schoenberg started Day 2 with an extremely short stack, and doubled up almost immediately after outflopping pocket aces with her pocket tens on a board of 10♣9♦4♣J♥7♣. Unfortunately for Schoenberg, she was eliminated just a few hands after doubling up. Other notable eliminations on Day 2 included David Williams, Jean-Robert Bellande and Soren Kongsgaard.
Patrice Sitbon claimed two big scalps in consecutive hands when he took out Evelyn Ng and Antonio Esfandiari. Ng moved the last of her chips in with A-K again Sitbon's A-8, but an eight on the board sent Ng to the rail. Moments later, Sitbon cracked Esfandiari's pocket kings with 7♦8♦ on a board of 2h-5d-4h-6h. All the money went in on the turn, and Esfandiari was drawing dead with his two black kings. Sitbon finished the day with one of the biggest stacks in the field, as the bodies continued to fall.
Gus Hansen finished the day among the chip leaders, at the expense of several opponents along the way. Among the casualties of Hansen's success was Gerard Aunet, who got all his chips in ahead on a flop of A-7-9. Hansen led out at the flop, Aunet raised, and Hansen moved all in. Aunet called with A-Q and was dominating Hansen's A-J. Unfortunately for Aunet, the jack on the turn left him drawing to three outs, and when a deuce came on the river, he was eliminated.
Shortly after taking out Aunet, Hansen sent Fabrice Messina to the rail to further pad his stack. All the money went in preflop, as Hansen tabled pocket sevens to Messina's A♣J♣. The flop of 4♥6♣3♣ gave extra outs to both players, and the 7♦ made a set for Hansen. Hansen needed to dodge a club on the river, and the A♦ was enough to send Messina to the rail late on Day 2.
As the day moved on, the money bubble drew nearer and players' actions grew slower. As the short stacks raised stalling to an art form, Patrick Didier Gastaldi finally emerged as the bubble boy and final elimination of the night. Gastaldi got the last of his chips in preflop and was called by Daniele Mazzia and Guillaume Bayt, who checked it down in hopes of bursting the bubble. The board ran out 7♠9♠4♠2♣3♠, and Gastaldi showed pocket eights. Bayt tabled A♠J♠ for the nut flush, and Mazzia mucked. Bayt's flush was enough to send Gastaldi packing and burst the money bubble. Tournament officials decided to end play for the night with Gastaldi's elimination.
The top ten chip stacks at the end of Day 2 looked like this, with 48 players remaining in the field:
Patrice Albert Sitbon - 867,100
Fabrice Nkoa - 660,700
[Removed:133] - 614,500
Gus Hansen - 583,800
Guillaume Darcourt - 462,900
Robert Mizrachi - 453,000
Stephane Bazin - 290,500
Claudio Rinaldi - 290,400
Willy Korchia - 266,400
Aurelien Guiglini - 262,600
Join PokerNews at 3PM Cannes time (9AM ET) as the remaining players fight for a spot at the final table and their shot at the $1,426,645 first-place prize money.
