What was a packed house inside the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino on Day 2 of the Merit Poker Dolce Vita Series $2,200 La Notte Degli Assi became just 210 hopefuls still in the running to capture the trophy by the end of the day.
Ermanno Pacini began the day inside the top 10 on the leaderboard and kept up that momentum, ending the night with 1,697,000 and the chip lead heading into Day 3. Guillermo Gordo made a set of jacks to earn a bustout earlier in the day as he ended up right behind Pacini with 1,538,000.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ermanno Pacini | Italy | 1,697,000 | 212 |
| 2 | Guillermo Gordo | Spain | 1,538,000 | 192 |
| 3 | Tuval Garbi | Israel | 1,500,000 | 188 |
| 4 | Asaf Groofi | Israel | 1,435,000 | 179 |
| 5 | Iraklis Manikaros | Greece | 1,329,000 | 166 |
| 6 | Gregory Luttke | France | 1,327,000 | 166 |
| 7 | Joseph Choufani | Lebanon | 1,321,000 | 165 |
| 8 | Francois Najjar | France | 1,250,000 | 156 |
| 9 | Adrian State | Romania | 1,250,000 | 156 |
| 10 | Alexander Savchenko | Russia | 1,246,000 | 156 |
Iraklis Manikaros won one of the biggest pots of Day 2, hitting a full house holding two aces against George Rabahie. That pot pushed him above 1,000,000 and he bagged up 1,329,000. Adrian State and Maher Achour were seated right beside each other in the later stages of the day and were involved in one big pot where State seven-bet shoved for 533,000; both ended up as big stacks, State with 1,250,000 and Achour with 1,220,000.
Other top stacks include Merit Poker Western Series champion Mohamed Mokrani (1,107,000), Fausto Tantillo (1,069,000), start-of-day chip leader Abdallah Eddine (938,000), Raffaele Castro (858,000), and Edgard Raffoul (840,000). Omar Lakhdari (730,000), $1,100 IPO Master runner-up Candido Cappiello (696,000), and Selahaddin Bedir (568,000) also made it through the day, while Simone Andrian (434,000) and Kalidou Sow (173,000) will return tomorrow on short stacks with work to do if they want to make the money.
Players who had their run end on Day 2 include $1,100 IPO Master champion Danesh Zargaran, Danut Chisu, Cheng Zhao, Fabio Peluso, and Natan Chauskin.
More than 200 new arrivals on Day 2 pushed the field up to 1,133 total entries. The official prize pool has yet to be announced but blew past the $1,500,000 guarantee. The first order of business tomorrow will be to make the money before players can set themselves up for a run at the final table. The action on Day 3 picks up on Level 18 with blinds of 4,000-8,000 and an 8,000 big blind ante.
PokerNews will be back at noon local time tomorrow to provide all the live updates as the field pushes past the money bubble.
