Daniel Can Leads Final 16 in 2015 PokerNews Cup Main Event
With the Day 2 now in the books, all involved are now off for a good sleep before they return on Monday to discover who will leave King's Casino as the ninth champion of the PokerNews Cup and bring home the top prize of €37,229.
Day 2 kicked off at 14:00 CET, when the 190 players still in the €250 Main Event took their seats in the tournament room. With many short stacks still in play, a lot of players hit the rails during the early stages. The eliminations came so fast that the field was already down to 130 players before the second level of play finished.
Day 1a chip leader Rytas Staniukynas started Day 2 in the top spot overall with a stack of 446,000. Not too far behind him were Germany's Jens Dengler and fellow Lithuanian Tomas Steponkus with 412,000 and 339,500, respectively. Ten hours later, when the dealers asked the remaining 16 who advanced to Day 3 to bag their stacks, none of those three were still in the tournament.
Staniukynas was the only one to cash in the event thanks to a 24th-place finish worth €1,183.
When the day ended, it was German poker pro Daniel Can bagged the biggest stack, and he will start Day 3 of the Main Event with an impressive 3,445,000 in chips.
In the second spot of the chip counts was Hermanus van Beek with a stack of 2,655,000. Hailing from The Netherlands, van Beek has already managed to win a side bet thanks to his deep run in the tournament.
"I bet with some other guys that I would be the last Dutch standing in the Main Event and here I am, I won the bet," van Beek shared with PokerNews.
Slovakia's Marian Uharcek will begin Day 3 in the third spot on the podium with 2,610,000 in chips. With the first player to leave the game tomorrow being guaranteed a cash prize of €1,765, Uharcek has already secured the second-biggest payday in his career.
Also amongst those who will be back for Day 2, is France's Benoit Kuhn, the member of the BKRF Investments team who ended Day 1c with the biggest stack. The outspoken and talkative player who has repeatedly tried to tilt his opponents with his chatter has already bested his top result in the PokerNews Cup so far, as last February he cashed for $1,017 with a 62nd-place finish.
Germany's Erich Ott was the one who had the ungenerous honor to burst the bubble as he left the tournament in 80th place. As reported in our live blog, Ott jammed his remaining 80,000 in chips on the bubble and was called by Volkan Alkan. A crowd gathered around the table as Ott turned over the 
, and he was ahead preflop against Alkan's 
.
Ott began sweating when Alkan picked up a flush on the 
flop. The 
hit the turn to give Alkan a leading pair, and then the river completed the board with the 
. That only made matters worse, as it gave Alkan a flush, and Ott was out.
There will also be no Day 3 for Germany's Elena Litvinyuk, winner of the World Series of Poker Circuit Ladies Event that took place here in Rozvadov earlier this month. Determined to best her €2,331 cash in the WSOP Circuit event, Litvinyuk was the last woman standing in the event when she went out of the tournament in 41st place for €795. Out as well, but not in the money, was Lewis Murrey. The Aussie has been trying to finance his trip around Europe through playing in poker events, but his visit to Rozvadov did not support his cause.
Similarly, Timothy Claude Weltner will not coming back on Monday. The player from Berlin who won the PokerNews Cup Opening Event for €2,607 on Wednesday, explained that his bust out hand had a lot to do with his lack of experience in live poker.
"I announced a raise when the action wasn't on me," Weltner explained. "When the player to my right reacted to my mistake by going all in, I thought I had to do the same, so I called him and lost my chance to progress in the Main Event. I should have at least asked someone if I had the chance to do something else and if I could have avoided going all in."
Coverage of the Main Event will resume Monday at 14:00 CET with blinds at 100,000/200,000 and a 10,000 ante. Returning players are guaranteed a €1,765 payout, however, everyone has their eyes on the top prize of €37,229. Stay tuned at PokerNews for live coverage until a winner is determined.