Oliver in Top Five of the PokerStars WCOOP-72-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] with "Pentakilator" in the Lead

After 8.5 hours of play on Day 2, the PokerStars WCOOP-72-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] has come to an end with 80 players making it through to Day 3. Day 1 attracted 6,500 entries and before the start of the day, another 605 entries were collected to get to 7,105 in total to create a prize pool of $3,552,500 which smashed the original $2,000,000 guarantee which was set.

Poland's "Pentakilator" claimed the chip lead in the final hand of the night when they doubled through Igor "Garrin4e" Yaroshevskyy with the flopped two pair when the latter tried to bluff the former off the hand. "Pentakilator" will come back for Day 3 with 28,139,926 in chips which will be worth 113 big blinds. They are followed in the top five by "S.N.I.N.1" (22,901,193), "ZAR84" (20,462,671), "shusiu11" (18,830,047), and a more familiar name and face to the poker world: Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver virtually bagged 18,593,495 for Day 3.

But there are many more notable players left, Daniel "Allanon85" Drescher, Saymon "Saymon9" Nascimento, Mats "Matsull" Ullereng, Evan "PURPLE"K"99" Parkes, Day 1 chip leader Guilherme "Guizãoo_" Carmo, Victor "vituhu3" Macedo, Henrique "Galochina10" Coutinho, and Alexis "J0hnny_Dr@m@" Zervos have all bagged an above average stack.

WCOOP-72-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	"Pentakilator"	Poland	28,139,926	113
2	"S.N.I.N.1"	Moldova	22,901,193	92
3	"ZAR84"	Germany	20,462,671	82
4	"shusiu11"	Hungary	18,830,047	75
5	Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver	United States	18,593,495	74
6	Rafael "GM_VALTER" Moraes	Brazil	18,183,738	73
7	"kirbyi17"	Germany	18,043,051	72
8	"ross_654"	Mexico	17,737,265	71
9	"cladarth"	Poland	16,801,506	67
10	Oscar "owilson25" Ramirez	Honduras	16,408,470	66

Today's Action

With all those extra entries, the tournament kicked off with 2,611 players who would all be trying to fight their way to the top 863 as that would mean that they would cash for at least $1,141. The players dropped like flies on the road to the money. Former WCOOP Main Event Champion Steven "SvZff" van Zadelhoff busted in the first level of the day and was followed by many familiar names.

Brunno "botteonpoker" Botteon, Dzmitry "Colisea" Urbanovich, Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi, Michael "merla888" Gathy, Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza, Kenny "SpaceyFCB" Hallaert, and Parker "tonkaaaa" Talbot are just some of the players to bust before the first break of the day.

But it didn't stop there, the elimination kept coming in in a quick pace. Three hours after the tournament had started, it was almost time for the bubble. Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz busted to Gabriel "aaurelio" Moura just before the bubble. In the end, it would be "aJarov" who would actually bubble in a three-way all-in situation.

PokerStars Ambassador Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas fell to Luke "LFmagic" Fields when he flopped a set but Fields had turned the flush. "234241234214432" busted Niall "firaldo87" Farrell and "10rmc10.com" in the same hand and"Strekoza85" took out Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer for example.

In the end, it would take just over five hours for the field to be reduced to the final 80 players who will return for Day 3 at 7:05 p.m. CEST on Tuesday, September 22. The returning players will finish the last 16 minutes of Level 38 which has a small blind of 125,000, a big blind of 250,000 with a running ante of 32,500. After this level is done, the duration will go back up to 25 minutes each and play will continue until the final table has been reached.

All players have secured at least $3,177 but they will all be wanting to reach the final table where they will win at least $33,638 while the first-place comes with a prize of $504,584 and PokerNews will be there from the first bustout throught the climb through the pay ladder so make sure to follow along.