Francisco Oliveira Leads Day 1b of the EPT Dublin Main Event
The second and final starting day of the 2016 PokerStars European Poker Tour Dublin Main Event attracted a much larger field than the opening flight, with 442 players all buying into the €5,300 flagship tournament of the festival at the Royal Dublin Society. Once the eight 75-minute levels were complete, more than one-third of the contenders were sent to the rail. Leading the way was Francisco Oliveira with a stack of 175,100, and 262 players survived.
The Portuguese player was already a big stack late on in the day when he busted Daniel Dvoress in the Canadian's first hand following Dvoress' late registration. It was a classic aces-versus-kings setup, and Dvoress' cowboys went down guns blazing. De Oliveira had $173,000 in live earnings entering this event, with his biggest cash stemming from a $1,000 side-event win at this year's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $51,640.
Second in chips after Day 1b was Richard Dubini with 157,300. The Argentinian was responsible for the elimination of Team PokerStars Pro Johny Lodden. The Norwegian turned the second nut flush with king-four only to find himself drawing dead against Dubini's jack-ten for a full house.
Brazil's Bernardo Dias (137,600) edged out Jean-Philippe Goulet-Ratelle (137,500) by 100 chips to claim the last spot on the overnight podium, but they are all still trailing Day 1a's Gilles Bernies with 189,600.
Other big stacks and notables from Day 1b included Walter Treccarichi (129,800), Iliodoros Kamatakis (125,200), Pierre "LeVietF0u" Calamusa (124,500), 2015 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Michael Wang (106,500), Mikhail Petrov (105,700), Slaven Popov (100,100), online poker legend Chris Moorman (97,900), Kevin Killeen (97,100), and Jude Ainsworth (91,800).
PokerStars Team Online member Jaime Staples had a slow start, but bagged up 89,600. Other donning the red spade such as Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (81,400), Liv Boeree (80,000), Team Online's Mickey Petersen (76,000), George Danzer (69,300), and Jake Cody (56,700) all advanced with above-average stacks as well. Friend of PokerStars Felipe "Mojave" Ramos (17,800) and Team PokerStars Pro member Theo Jorgensen (16,700) will return with less.
Former EPT champions still in include Ognyan Dimov (78,300), David Vamplew (60,100), Steve O'Dwyer (55,400), Dominik Panka (42,700), Anton Wigg (21,500), and Jannick Wrang (19,100).
Eugene Katchalov and Andre Akkari busted at the very end of the day. Among those joining them on the rail were PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador Jennifer Shahade, Team Online members Katerina Malasidou and Lex Veldhuis, Chance Kornuth, former November Niner Jake Bazeley, Goran Mandic, EPT MaltaMain Event winner Niall Farrell and runner-up Alen Bilic, 2016 Aussie Millions champion Ari Engel, Tim Reilly, Ruben Visser, Sylvain Loosli, Dara O'Kearney, Craig McCorkell, Paul Michaelis, and Igor Kurganov.
Those that busted can now all focus on the plethora of remaining side events, but all eyes here will be on the at least 341 hopefuls in the Main Event who will be returning to the tables for Day 2 at 12 p.m. on Tuesday. So far, the field size stands at 589 entrants, but this number may increase with registration open until the first card is dealt.
A short day lays ahead with six 75-minute levels scheduled, and the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be back again to provide updates on all of the action.
In the meantime, have a look where you can grab some healthy eats in Dublin in this video below.