Florian Ahlmer Bursts Bubble To Gain Chip Lead in PokerStars Summer Festival Malta Main Event
Day 2 of the PokerStars Summer Festival Malta Main Event, running at the InterContinental Hotel, has concluded. There are now just 77 players who remain in contention. The winner is set to take home €153,610.
At the end of Day 2, Florian Ahlmer of Germany emerged as the chip leader after eliminating Tom Arvaara to burst the bubble of the tournament. Ahlmer has 1,035,000 chips.
Close behind, and the only other player to have reached the one million mark, is Pedro Faustino of Portugal.
Jordi Ribatallada Ruiz, Sergio Grosso and Grzegorz Skawinski round out the top five.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florian Ahlmer | Germany | 1035000 | 129 |
| 2 | Pedro Faustino | Portugal | 1000000 | 125 |
| 3 | Jordi Ribatallada Ruiz | Spain | 828000 | 103 |
| 4 | Sergio Grosso | Italy | 772000 | 96 |
| 5 | Grzegorz Skawinski | Poland | 675000 | 84 |
| 6 | Ercan Atmaca | Germany | 659000 | 82 |
| 7 | Gal Bar | Israel | 633000 | 79 |
| 8 | Alessandro Sarro | Italy | 632000 | 79 |
| 9 | Maher Achour | Tunisia | 611000 | 76 |
| 10 | Marcin Lesniewski | Poland | 609000 | 76 |
Felix Schneiders is among the other notable players who is still in contention. He took a relatively short stack and turned it into a playable one when he doubled up and then made a set of aces late in the day. Irish Open 2023 winner David Docherty is also still in the mix, as are WSOP bracelet winners Simone Andrian and Tommy Nguyen.
The Main Event attracted 916 entries, which made for a total prize pool of €879,360. This represents a 12 percent increase on the field size from last year. Players hailed from 57 countries, with Italy, France, Germany, Greece and the UK all well represented.
There are now just 77 players remaining. They are all guaranteed to take away at least €2,230.
Day 3 kicks off tomorrow at 12 p.m. local time. Blind will start at 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante. Levels will run for 60-minutes with a break every two levels.
Join PokerNews for live coverage of Day 3 straight from the floor as the tournament plays down deeper into the money and closer to the final table.
