Teisseire & Esfandiari Neck and Neck as Final 15 Head to Day 3
The 2012 World Series of Poker Europe continued on Monday with Day 2 of Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em as the remaining 98 players of a 626-player field returned to battle down to the final 15. Leading the way is Antonin Teisseire, who bagged up 269,500, but the winner of the biggest buy-in poker tournament in history, Antonio Esfandiari, is just 5,500 behind.
The big story at the start of the day was who would make the top 63 and earn a piece of the €600,960 prize pool. Among the 35 players who came up short were Greg Merson, [Removed:163], Konstantin Puchkov, David Benyamine and John Tabatabai; however, the man who went the furthest with nothing to show was Jean Marie Morvan.
On the money bubble, action folded around to Dominik Nitsche in the small blind and he put in a raise. Morvan had 800 of his 1,300 stack in the big blind, and opted to call off the remaining 500.
Showdown
Nitsche: 
Morvan: 
The Frenchman was dominated and seemed a bit dejected as the board ran out 
. Morvan finished as the bubble boy why those players still in the room applauded to celebrate making the money.
A little while later, a big hand developed when Tristan Wade moved all in from early position for 11,300 with 
and received a call from start-of-the-day chip leader Marvin Rettenmaier, who held 
offsuit in the cutoff. French pro Teisseire then moved all in over the top from the big blind with what turned out to be , and Rettenmaier opted to call off for over 30,000. Both Wade and Rettenmaier were at risk, but the former would be spared as the board ran out 
and he tripled with a full house; meanwhile, Teisseire took down a sizeable side pot and Rettenmaier was eliminated from the tournament in 47th place for €2,133. Wade would join Rettenmaier a short time later in 43rd place while Teisseire went on to capture the chip lead.
Other in-the-money finishers included Renaud Blangiardi (56th-€1,965), Roger Hairabedian (39th-€2,344), Daniel Weinman (35th-€2,608), Dominik Nitsche (34th-€2,608), Erik Cajelais (27th-€3,846), Gil George (25th-€3,846) and John Monnette (23rd-€4,489) and Andrey Gulyy (16th-€6,340).
While many fell, some survived and others even thrived. Among those returning for Day 3 are Day 1a chip leader Ashly Butler, Joe Kuether, Salvatore Bonavena, W.J. Vincent, McLean Karr and Casey Kastle.
Here’s a look at tomorrow’s lineup with chip counts:
Table 1
| Seat | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean Karr | 61,000 |
| 2 | -empty- | N/A |
| 3 | Valentin Detoc | 174,000 |
| 4 | Salvatore Bonavena | 86,000 |
| 5 | Casey Kastle | 54,500 |
| 6 | Ashly Butler | 179,500 |
| 7 | Remi Bollengier | 136,000 |
| 8 | Antonin Teisseire | 269,500 |
| 9 | -empty- | N/A |
Table 2
| Seat | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amaury Detoc | 82,500 |
| 2 | Jamel Haddad | 85,000 |
| 3 | Igor Kalinicenko | 41,000 |
| 4 | Antonio Esfandiari | 264,000 |
| 5 | -empty- | N/A |
| 6 | Joe Kuether | 160,500 |
| 7 | W.J. Vincent | 74,000 |
| 8 | Florian Ciuro | 124,000 |
| 9 | Anthony Pons | 86,000 |