Day 2 Comes to an End with Baranov Leading Final 77
The 2012 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event continued on Monday with Day 2 action from the Majestic Barrière in Cannes, France. The remaining 230 from a 420-player field returned for another six levels of play, and by the end of the night just 77 remained with Sergii Baranov and his stack of 607,000 leading the way.
Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi began the day as the chip leader (234,850), and held a significant lead over his next closest competitor, Day 1b chip leader Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. Neither player was lacking in experience nor success, but their Day 2s couldn't have been more opposite.
While Grospellier played a patient game and slowly accumulated chips throughout the day, eventually bagging up 326,700, Mizrachi went the opposite direction. The Grinder played a loose-aggressive game and his chip stack reflected that as it went for a wild up-and-down ride as described by Daniel Negreanu on Twitter. It soon became apparent that Mizrachi was taking one step forward and two steps back, and eventually it caught up with him and he was eliminated in Level 11.
Others who joined Mizrachi on the rail throughout the day were Vanessa Rousso, Joe Hachem, Faraz Jaka, Harrison Gimbel, Steve O’Dwyer, Greg Merson, Mike “Tmex” McDonald, Tristan Wade, Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen, Roberto Romanello, Antonio Esfandiari and McLean Karr, just to name a few.
While there were scores of eliminations, a handful of notables managed to survive the day. Former November Niner Joseph Cheong; 2009 WSOP Europe runner-up Daniel Negreanu; 12-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth; October Nine chip leader Jesse Sylvia; recent WCOOP winner Jason Mercier; and the defending champ, Elio Fox, are just a few of the pros who’ll be returning to action on Day 3.
Here’s a look at the top ten End-of-Day-2 chip counts:
2012 WSOP Europe End-of-Day-2 Top Ten Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergii Baranov | 607,000 |
| 2 | Axel Pergolizzi | 419,400 |
| 3 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | 375,100 |
| 4 | Phil Hellmuth | 364,900 |
| 5 | Maxime Conte | 342,300 |
| 6 | Lifeng Chen | 340,500 |
| 7 | Huichen Kuo | 339,950 |
| 8 | Max Silver | 333,600 |
| 9 | Joseph Cheong | 328,400 |
| 10 | Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier | 326,700 |
Another six 90-minute levels are scheduled for Day 3 on Tuesday as the remaining 80 players look to make the money at the top 48. Play is scheduled to kick off at 12:00 PM local time, and of course PokerNews will be on hand to bring you all the action and eliminations from the 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event.