Gary McGinty Ends Day 2 as Chip Leader PokerStars Festival Main Event
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Gary McGinty from Ireland is the chip leader with 2,835,000 at the close of Day 2 of the PokerStars Festival Main Event Dublin.
Another Irishman Michael Graydon is second with 1,631,000 while third place was claimed by a Romanian, Florian Duta who finished on 1,586,000.
The day began with 199 players who had made it through from a total number of 544 entries across the three Day 1s including the last Day 1c Turbo that finished in the early hours of Saturday morning.
With final numbers confirmed the prize pool was released and from the €700,000 guarantee the eventual winner is set to receive €130,410. That would have to wait until the final day tomorrow though and it was the bubble that was uppermost in many minds with 79 places getting paid with a min-cash worth €2,310.
Among those who fell short of that were Steven Watts, Chris Dowling, Niall Farrell and Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker.
It was Paul Carr who was eliminated on the bubble at the end of level 16 when he four-bet jammed holding 
and was called by Sacha Lebreton who had 
.
One man who was delighted to cash and a little unlucky to bust was guest of PokerStars seven-time World Snooker Champion Stephen Hendry. He explained how he opened and called a three bet with pocket fours and flopped a set. All the money went in but unfortunately for Hendry his opponent Padhraic Mulligan had flopped a set of Kings. It was a creditable 56th place for his first Hendon Mob flag and €2,510.
There were a number of players contesting the chip lead as dinner approached but it was Gary McGinty who nosed ahead and breached the one million chip mark around the dinner break. McGinty put those chips to good use and went on a bit of a tear and was the first player to break the two million barrier with the average stack hovering around the 40 big blind blind mark. Going into the final level it was still McGinty out front closing in on three million chips.
After 10 levels of play with the time approaching midnight the final 16 players bagged up their chips and headed to the PokerStars Players Party for a well-earned drink.
Play resumes on Sunday at 12 p.m. for the final Day of the PokerStars Festival which will see a new champion crowned. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand until the final card hits the felt so be sure not to miss any of the action.