PNC Alpine Main Event, Day 2: Vos Heads Final Table
It took only four hours or so for the 33 survivors in the PNC Alpine Main Event to winnow down to a final table of nine in Thursday's Day 2 action. Mark Vos began the day with the lead and ended it the same way, commanding the action through a hectic but short day.
Vos set the tone for the day in the very first hand, opening with a raise. After the rest of the table folded, Vos flashed A♣J♣ to add a little credibility to his bet. While Vos stacked chips, Day 1 runner-up Marcel Luske never got on track on Day 2 and busted early in the day. Luske and Runnar Lindepuu went to war on a J♠9♣2♠ flop, and when all the money was in the middle, it was Luske who was at risk. Luske's J♥10♣ was good for top pair, but he needed help against Lindepuu's J♣2♣ for top and bottom pair. When no help came on the turn or river, the Dutch star was done. Other early eliminations included Colin Fortey, Franciscus Dekkers and Jörg Peisert.
With 15 spots paying out, Daniel Perfeito was the bubble boy, busting like so many others to Mark Vos. Vos raised preflop, and then put in a fourth bet when Perfeito re-raised. Perfeito moved all in over the top, and Vos quickly called. Vos' A♣Q♣ was in trouble against Perfeito's pocket kings, but the A♠ in the window took the wind out of Perfeito's sails. The final board ran out A♠J♥6♥J♣5♦, and the remaining players were in the money. Vos then took out Nicholas Van Der Marel in 15th place (€2,580) when his 6♠8♠ outran Van Der Marel's A♣Q♣. That hand gave Vos back the chip lead, a spot he would not relinquish for the rest of the day.
Nik Lackovic lost a big chunk of his chip stack on a cooler when his Q♠Q♦ couldn't crack Mark Naalden's A♠A♥. Lackovic then tangled with Naalden again when he moved all in from early position with K♦8♦. Naalden called from the button with A♣5♣, and when the board came down J♦7♠6♦J♠Q♥ neither player improved, and Naalden's ace played. Lackovic picked up €2,580 for his showing.
With just a few eliminations between the money and final-table bubbles, it didn't take long until Jasper Wetemans busted in tenth (€3,100) to set the final. The chips went in preflop, with Wetemans' A♥3♥ dominated by Runnar Lindepuu's A♠J♥. The Q♦7♣9♣2♠5♥ board was empty, and Wetemans was done. With Day 2 in the books, the remaining nine players redrew for their final table seats. The seating assignments and chip stacks looked like this at the end of the day:
Seat 1: Marc Naalden, Belgium — 251,200
Seat 2: Fedor Los, Netherlands — 286,700
Seat 3: Simon Borg, Denmark — 75,800
Seat 4: Salvatore Cundari, Italy — 116,800
Seat 5: Mark Vos, Australia — 548,800
Seat 6: Runnar Lindepuu, Estonia — 391,300
Seat 7: Joseph Buhmann, USA — 126,300
Seat 8: Jan Hlobil, Netherlands — 84,400
Seat 9: Farhad Kia, UK — 74,100
Join PokerNews at 4PM local time on Friday as the other eight players chase Mark Vos and his mountain of chips to determine the winner of the PNC Alpine Main Event and its €46,474 top prize.
