Boeree in Strong Contention as Sorrentino Leads The Way
After an intense day of poker it's Raffaele Sorrentino who leads the way with 491,400 in chips. Just 135 players remain heading into the third day of play. Out of the 675 players that entered this season's EPT London stop 370 started and right of the bat they started dropping like flies.
Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Dermot Blain, Ole Schemion, Viktor Blom and Andrew Chen were among the first players to hit the rail, and many would follow. Pratyush Buddiga was eliminated by Robbie Schiffbauer who held queens on a jack-high board versus Buddiga's middle pair. Unfortunately for Schiffbauer, he was later knocked out himself as well. World Series of Poker bracelet winner and this year's 13th-place finisher in the Main Event, Craig McCorkell was also among those unlucky in the first level.
All Team PokerStars Pros survived Day 1a but how different did things look on Day 2. Luca Pagano, Joao Nunes, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Leo Margets all hit the rail, and so did PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador Jennifer Shahade and Team Online members Ike Haxton and Mikhail Shalamov.
Going into Day 3 PokerStars will be represented by SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo (56,400), Team Online Mickey Petersen (141,900) and Marc-Andre Ladouceur (201,400) and Team Pros Bertrand Grospellier (71,900), Eugene Katchalov (86,100), Johnny Lodden (285,400), Jake Cody (269,400) and Liv Boeree. The former is in great shape with a stack worth 230,300 as she looks to add a second EPT title to her resume in the coming days.
Jason Mercier started the day with very little chips but managed to build up an impressive stack towards the end of the day. Just before the day concluded, however, he was knocked out by David Cabrera who made a full house against Mercier's flush. Cabrera's one of the chip leaders heading into Day 3 with 418,500.
Other notables we lost on Day 2 included the first ever EPT Grand Final winner and the Netherlands' first WSOP bracelet winner, Rob Hollink and other former champs Michael Tureniec, Frederik Jensen, Davidi Kitai, Rupert Elder and Dominik Panka. Recent WCOOP Main Event winner Fedor 'CrownUpGuy' Holz also hit the rail.
The man who hasn't busted out of many tournaments this year, Daniel Colman, won't add to his staggering $22 million live winnings in the Main Event here, as he was knocked out on Day 2 as well, as was fellow One Drop finalist Christoph Vogelsang.
Plenty of superstar players are still in contention on Day 3 including Sam Trickett who managed to double up towards the end of the night. Former EPT winners Kevin MacPhee (277,700), Benny Spindler (162,900), Nicolas Chouity are still in contention for a second title while Day 1a chip leader Anatoly Filatov also bagged up a very nice stack with 318,400.
Day 3 coverage continues at 12:00 p.m. local London time as we'll play six 90-minute levels. The £10,000 High Roller starts on Thursday and will be covered on PokerNews.com as well.