Sitbon in Familiar Position After Day 2 of £5,300 EPT Main Event
The PokerStars European Poker Tour London moved closer to crowning a champion in the £5,300 EPT Main Event, as a busy Day 2 saw the field play down deep into the money.
Frenchman Julien Sitbon leads the field of 80 remaining players, just as he did after Day 2 of the £1,100 UKIPT Main Event. Sitbon went on to finish 11th in that event, and takes another lead into Day 3 looking to better that previous result.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT | BIG BLINDS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Julien Sitbon | France | 1,000,000 | 200 |
| 2 | Pedro Garagnani | Brazil | 930,000 | 186 |
| 3 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | 914,000 | 182 |
| 4 | Carl Probsting | Germany | 769,000 | 153 |
| 5 | David Docherty | United Kingdom | 665,000 | 133 |
| 6 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 635,000 | 127 |
| 7 | Nils Pudel | Germany | 602,000 | 120 |
| 8 | Conor Beresford | United Kingdom | 565,000 | 113 |
| 9 | Ramzi Karam | Lebanon | 531,000 | 106 |
| 10 | Sergio Coutinho | Portugal | 480,000 | 96 |
239 players began the day with a bag from their opening flights, while 36 more registered prior to the start of play. That brought the tournament total to 749 entries, creating a total prize pool of £3,632,650. The eventual champ will take home £664,400 and the title of EPT London Main Event champion.
Sitbon was one of two players to reach the seven-figure mark in chips on the day as Ben Heath looked on his way to the tournament lead after a double knockout, only to lose ground in the final level. Heath is among a group of notable names in contention, including Day 1b chip leader Ole Schemion.
Others in that group include Adrian Mateos, Jack Sinclair, and PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas.
£50,000 EPT Super High Roller winner Henrik Hecklen is in a great position for another deep run at the Hilton Park Lane, as is £1,100 UKIPT Main Event champion Martin Jacobson. After notable uses of pocket aces several times during his title run, Jacobson flipped the script as he cracked aces to stay alive early in the day.
Other faces bringing a bag into Day 3 included Benjamin Pollak, Erik Seidel, EPT London Ladies Champion Jessica Pilkington, and Ambreen Mirza, fresh off her 80th place run in this week’s £2,200 UKIPT High Roller.
Day 2 Action
Among the early eliminations on Day 2 was PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin Spragg, who moved all in with the superior hand only to see Jonathan Barusta connect on the turn and river.
The parade to the exits was consistent all day long, with notables Philippe Souki, Dominik Nitsche, Mustapha Kanit, Daniel Dvoress, and Danny Tang all finishing short of the money.
Once the players went hand for hand, the bubble was taken care of quite quickly as Eugenio Peralta was eliminated on just the second hand of the bubble, running ace-high into pocket kings.
Day 3 will resume on Tuesday at 12 p.m. local time, with action beginning on Level 16 at blinds of 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. The schedule once again calls for five 90-minute levels, with 20-minute breaks in between each.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as they continue towards the final table of the £5,300 EPT Main Event here in London.