Denisov Leads Going into Day 3 of partypoker LIVE Millions Russia
Day 2 of the 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Russia Main Event is in the books and as expected, the money bubble was not reached during the eight levels of play with the improved and slower tournament structure. Fewer than 700 entries were on the clocks when the action got back underway at the stunning Sochi Casino and Resort with 367 players having carried over stacks from the three live Day 1s at the venue.
The reentry and registration period was open for another four levels and the live satellite winners and online Day 1 winners all took their seats, joined by several hopefuls that wanted to take a shot at the guaranteed prize pool of RUB300,000,000 (~$4.4 million). Once the registration officially closed, the number of entries had climbed to 916 in total and the casualties kept coming at a quick pace to reduce the field to the last 200 at the end of level 16.
Aleksandr Denisov shot towards the top of the counts after claiming two big pots in the last level of the night and bagged up an impressive 19,035,000. Denisov arrived in the Triton Poker room with around 8.5 million and proceeded to knock out Josef Snejberg and Nikolay Dementiev in quick succession. Snejberg jammed the river of an ace-high board with the nut flush blocker and Denisov called with the second nut flush, he then turned a ten-high straight with eight-seven against the flopped set of tens of Dementiev to cement his top spot.
Second in chips is Aleksei Istomin with 15,355,000 followed by Oleg Netaliev with 14,630,000. Istomin usually calls Barcelona his home but already took part in the inaugural partypoker LIVE MILLIONS festival in Sochi in 2017. Netaliev spent the last two levels on the feature table along with Niall Farrell, partypoker ambassador Ludovic Geilich and defending champion Aleksandr Gofman. While Gofman (4,800,000) and Farrell (4,310,000) advanced to Day 3, Geilich was ousted in the last level of the day when his jack-ten suited could not beat the ace-queen of Richard Hasnir. Fellow partypoker ambassadors Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Open runner-up Dzmitry Urbanovich were eliminated on Day 2, their teammates Anatoly Filatov (8,240,000) and Philipp Gruissem (4,280,000) both advanced.
Other big stacks and notables still in contention for the top prize of RUB60,000,000 (~$885,000) include Andrey Kotelnikov (10,280,000), Michael Sklenicka (9,335,000), Denis Pisarev (8,800,000), Andrey Pateychuk (8,725,000), Day 1a chip leader Oleksii Kravchuk (7,980,000), Vadim Lipovka (7,600,000), Maxim Lykov (6,750,000), Vladimir Shchemelev (6,740,000), Igor Yaroshevskyy (6,535,000), Ionut-Flavius Voinea (5,975,000), 2017 third-place finisher Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy (4,850,000) and MILLIONS Nottingham champion Maria Lampropulos (3,800,000).
Among those to bust without anything to show for were Kiryl Radzivonau, Mihails Morozovs, Dmitry Vitkind, Alexander Lakhov, Daria Feshchenko, Bartlomiej Machon, Andrey Zaichenko, David Urban, Leonid Bilokur, Anton Yakuba, Dietrich Fast, Rickie Silcock and Finnish superstar Patrik Antonius. Most of them may take another shot at glory here in Sochi in the upcoming High Roller, however, and the players party in the mypartypokerlive lounge also awaits to drain the sorrows.
Day 3 of the Main Event will recommence at 12 p.m. local time with Level 17 and blinds of 35,000/70,000 with a running ante of 70,000. All tables will continue eight-handed and the 30-second shot clock will be introduced one table off the money. Only the top 119 spots will get paid and the PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide all the action from the floor. Furthermore, two feature tables will run on a security delay of 30 minutes with hole cards up.
