Day 2 is Done-zo
Vitaly Lunkin would become one of the early casualties when his pair and straight draw couldn't improve against the top pair of fellow-Russian Alekseu Tsessarsky. Team PokerStars Pros Katja Thater and Ivan Demidov would follow a short time later, both of whom struggled to develop any momentum in the early going. Alexander Rykov came into the day in seventh place overall, but he too would be eliminated during the grind of the second level, and Jason Kudron would soon meet his own demise after starting the day in third. Other victims of this Day 2 included Cristian Dragomir, Alexander Kostritsyn, Faraz Jaka, Shaun Deeb, and Nicolas Levi. Also along the way we lost our final Team PokerStars Pro when Alex Kravchenko hit the rail after running his into an opponent's .
On the flip side of things, it was the EPT's familiar face of Dragan Galic that took command of the early part of the day. With his selective aggression and a couple of big laydowns, Galic picked his way to the top of the board. His reign wouldn't last long though as he took a big tumble and had to ride a marginal stack the rest of the way.
After that, there were four or five players who traded the chip lead back and forth for the remainder of the evening. When play wrapped up, it was Max Lykov who stood atop the hill, stuffing his chip bag with an impressive 397,900 chips, good for almost 200 big blinds! Notables still in the mix include overnight chip leader Viktor Ivanov (235,000), Estonian Priit Turner (233,400), Andrew Malott (187,200), Lika Gerasimova (180,400), and Dutch online qualifier Menno Mulder (126,500). In total, just 68 players survived long enough to bag up their chips and return tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, play will resume at high noon as we make the Day 3 run to the final four tables. The plan is to play down to 32 players, and that task is likely to take only a few levels. Thanks for following along with us today; join us right back here tomorrow for lots more action. Until then, goodnight from the Kyiv Sport Palace!