Jonathan Khalifa Leads the Final 12 Players After Day 2 Comes to an End
Day 2 has drawn to a close in Event #5: THE COLOSSUS €550 No-Limit Hold'em with just 12 players still standing. The day began with 256 players and the eliminations came quickly and often.
Jonathan Khalifa will take the lead heading into Day 3 when the players return on Thursday for the final day of this inaugural event at the World Series of Poker Europe. Khalifa bagged an incredible 6,915,000 chips, mostly stemming from some aggressive play throughout the day. Khalifa has not been shy to put his chips in the middle and force his opponents to a tough decision, mostly resulting in him taking down the pot. Khalifa is a French-born poker player, with the majority of his recorded cashes coming in his hometown of Cannes, France.
Makarios Avramidis is the only player remaining with a history of wearing a gold bracelet, capturing the €2,200 6-Max event in Berlin back in 2015. Avramidis has the most experience among the final twelve players with nearly $500,000 in live tournament earnings.
There were many familiar faces that began the day and had high expectations of making a deep run, but when all was said and done, it will be a rather unknown final table. The likes of Barny Boatman (233rd Place - €1,500), Kevin MacPhee (231st Place - €1,500), Kristen Bicknell (195th Place - €1,625), Max Pescatori (166th Place - €1,625), Mike Leah (165th Place - €1,625), John Racener (128th Place - €1,777), Alex Foxen (83rd Place - €2,393), and Kenny Hallaert (62nd Place - €4,035) all hit the rail before the dinner break.
With this being such a large tournament, there were plenty of Player of the Year implications should any of the contenders make a deep run. Unfortunately for Racener, he flopped two pair against Gaetan Cauchy's aces but an ace on the turn left Racener drawing dead.
Alex Foxen also ran into Ruben Garcia Blanca's aces when he pushed all-in for 16 big blinds with pocket eights. He wasn't able to come from behind and was eliminated. Pocket aces seemed to be the story for the POY contenders as Kenny Hallaert's aces were cracked when Avramidis flopped trip fours with 
. All the money went in on the river and Hallaert was left to walk away in shock. That meant none of the players trying to chase down Chris Ferguson were able to close much ground, leaving Ferguson out front for the time being.
When the final 12 players return, they will all be guaranteed at least €18,324 but will have their sights set on the first place prize of €270,015 and the WSOP gold bracelet. Action recommences with blinds of 80,000/160,000 and a running ante of 20,000.
The tournament will recommence on Thursday, November 2nd 2017, at 2:00 P.M. local time with the final table being streamed live. The PokerNews team will be on site to bring you all of the action on a 30-minute delay to be synchronized with the live-stream.
Seat Assignments THE COLOSSUS Day 3
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 131 | 1 | Pascal Pflock | Germany | 3,620,000 | 23 |
| 131 | 2 | Jonathan Khalifa | France | 6,915,000 | 43 |
| 131 | 3 | empty | - | - | - |
| 131 | 4 | empty | - | - | - |
| 131 | 5 | empty | - | - | - |
| 131 | 6 | Ruben Garcia Blancas | Spain | 2,945,000 | 18 |
| 131 | 7 | Ivaylo Sivinov | Bulgaria | 1,235,000 | 8 |
| 131 | 8 | Philipp Lutkemeier | Germany | 930,000 | 6 |
| 131 | 9 | Makarios Avramidis | Greece | 5,775,000 | 36 |
| 137 | 1 | empty | - | - | - |
| 137 | 2 | empty | - | - | - |
| 137 | 3 | [Removed:35] | Germany | 2,480,000 | 16 |
| 137 | 4 | Matous Skorepa | Czech Republic | 5,010,000 | 31 |
| 137 | 5 | Roman Motovsky | Czech Republic | 5,625,000 | 35 |
| 137 | 6 | Florian Fuchs | Austria | 1,980,000 | 12 |
| 137 | 7 | empty | - | - | - |
| 137 | 8 | Nebojsa Ankucic | Austria | 2,660,000 | 17 |
| 137 | 9 | Gaetan Cauchy | France | 2,130,000 | 13 |