PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Madrid Day 2: Mike "Timex" McDonald Takes the Lead
On Day 2 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Madrid, 264 players returned to the felt for five 75-minute levels, and the field was gradually whittled down to 112. Despite both upstairs and downstairs rooms being used, it did not take long for everyone to be squeezed into the same area where Juan Navarrate began the day as chip leader. The slightly earlier than usual finish was fairly popular with players, many deciding to make use of the extra time by moving on to the famous Bernabeu Stadium for Real Madrid's Champions' League clash with CSKA Moscow.
At the end of play, Mike "Timex" McDonald (409,800) was one of only two players to finish the day over the 400,000 mark, just ahead of Frederik Jensen (404,500).
McDonald picked up a huge pot when according to his Twitter, he five-bet all in with ace-jack against an aggressive player holding kings. McDonald's ace-jack won the huge pot, putting him in contention for the chip lead about three-quarters of the way through the day. Although that was probably the biggest and most important pot he won, the final hand of the day probably summed up how everything had gone for him — he found aces when a short stack pushed with 5x4x, and McDonald had quads by the turn.
Other big stacks who have made it through are former EPT Tallinn finalist Dmitri Vitkind (363,000), the always dangerous McLean Karr (330,700), and Javier Etayo (329,400).
The PokerStars Team Pros suffered a decidedly mixed day but Johnny Lodden (180,900) Angel Guillen (95,000) Henrique Pinho (61,400) and Alex Kravchenko (52,000) all made it through into the third day with the potential of a €545,000 pay-day still in sight. Lodden's story was of particular note because he was sitting with just 28,300 in the last level (14 big blinds), but suddenly ascended like a rocket and finished the day well above average.
Arnaud Mattern, Fatima Moreira de Melo and the hometown hope, Juan Manuel Pastor, departed early on in the day, hampered by their short stacks. Romanian Pro Toni Judet joined them on the rail awhile later. Nacho Barbero had an impressive stack and was into six-figures fairly early on before he ran king-jack into aces on a jack-high board after his opponent Mark Jansen sneakily flat-called the Team Pro's reraise. This pot relieved Barbero of most of his stack and he was eliminated soon afterward.
Other players who will not be moving on include, Jake Cody, Anton Wigg, Michael Tureniec, Michael Eiler, as well as such luminaries as Martin Jacobson, Chris Moorman, Per Linde, Dominik Nitsche, Kevin Iacofano and Todd Terry. On the plus side, all of these players might be able to enjoy themselves more at the soccer match!
Despite the quality of these exits, there's still plenty of notables left going into Day 3. McLean Karr, Taylor Paur, Yann Dion, Nicolas Levl while Toby Lewis, Nicolas Chouity, Rupert Elder and Kevin MacPhee, like our chip leader, still harbor hopes of being the first double EPT champion.
EPT Madrid End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Mike McDonald | 409,800 |
| Frederik Jensen | 404,500 |
| Dmitry Vitkind | 368,000 |
| Andries Swart | 339,100 |
| McLean Karr | 330,700 |
| Javier Etayo | 329,400 |
| Erich Kollmann | 275,500 |
| Siyu Sha | 274,500 |
| Ilan Boujenah | 271,000 |
| Ricardo Tavares | 264,300 |
Day 3 kicks off Thursday at 1200 CET (0400 PST) and will continue through the money bubble all the way to the final 24. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team for all the updates from EPT Madrid.
