Lakhov Pushing for Lead, Riess Eliminated Late on Day 2 of WSOPE Main Event

Alexander Lakhov nearly nabbed a bracelet, the last domestic one of the year, when he got second in this year's World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship. Unfortunately for the accomplished Russian, he fell heads-up to Sean Yu and had to settle for a payout of $183,527. Despite more than $3.2 million in cashes, Lakhov has yet to claim his first piece of WSOP gold.

It seems he's flown back across the pond hungrier than ever to finish what he came so close to accomplishing. At the close of Day 2 of the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, Lakhov bagged 424,000, putting him squarely in the top five.

Despite his hefty count though, Lakhov still trails overall chipleader Vishal Maini. The British player finished with a monstrous 651,500 at the close of the six levels of Day 2 play. He's got a few cashes totalling a little over $73,000, so the first-place prize of €1,115,207 here would represent quite the windfall for him.

With the close of registration at the start of play — and the customary last-minute entries of numerous high rollers, from the likes of Phil Hellmuth to a gaggle of German crushers — the prize pool was finalized early in the day. The aforementioned payout is of greatest interest of course, but it's also notable that the tournament did manage to inch past the €5 million guarantee with 529 entries, creating a total prize pool of €5,025,500.

Some of the players still in contention for the €1.1 million include bracelet winners Mike Leah, Kristen Bicknell, David Peters, Niall Farrell and Anthony Zinno, as well as defending champ Kevin MacPhee. Team 888poker is also well-represented with Vivian Saliba, Natalie Hof, Parker Talbot and High Roller for One Drop winner Dominik Nitsche making it through.

Former Main Event champ Ryan Riess, tabbed as a player to watch coming as he closes out a smoking-hot 2017, fell near the end of play. He lost most of his stack in a huge flip with jacks against the ace-king of Julian Stuer about an hour before players bagged up.

Others going bust included the aforementioned Hellmuth, as well as Adrian Mateos, Chris Moorman, Nick Petrangelo and John Racener. The elimination of the latter meant Chris Ferguson became the WSOP Player of the Year.

Day 3 play kicks off at noon on Tuesday with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a running ante of 500, so come back to PokerNews as the tournament marches toward the money bubble.

Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Vishal Maini	United Kingdom	651,500
2	Milad Oghabian	Netherlands	463,500
3	Alexander Lakhov	Russia	424,000
4	Jens Lübbe	Germany	419,000
5	Roman Herold	Germany	412,000
6	Gianluca Speranza	Austria	408,500
7	Michael Mrakes	Czech Republic	408,500
8	Stoyan Obreshkov	Bulgaria	386,000
9	Goran Mandic	Croatia	377,500
10	Anatoliy Zyrin	Russia	376,000

2017 WSOPE Main Event Day 3 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	1	Andrei Siandzevich	Czech Republic	39,000	13
1	2	Natalie Hof	Germany	80,000	27
1	3	Matas Cimbolas	Lithuania	264,000	88
1	4	Kai Münster	Germany	83,500	28
1	5	Chi Zhang	United Kingdom	101,500	34
1	6	Razvan-Andrei Dumea	Romania	125,000	42
1	7	Liwei Sun	China	260,000	87
1	8	Pavel Plesuv	Moldova	209,500	70

2	1	Ramin Hajiyev	Azerbaijan	363,000	121
2	2	Chun Ho Law	United Kingdom	257,000	86
2	3	Julian Stuer	Germany	180,500	60
2	4	Aleksandar Tomović	Serbia	55,000	18
2	5	Ioannis Angelou-Konstas	Greece	170,000	57
2	6	Goran Mandic	Croatia	377,500	126
2	7	Clement Richez	France	79,500	27
2	8	Philipp Gruissem	Germany	273,000	91

3	1	Paul Coughlan	United Kingdom	44,000	15
3	2	Mark Roberts	United Kingdom	283,000	94
3	3	Grzegorz Gosk	Poland	90,000	30
3	4	Neil Slater	United Kingdom	79,500	27
3	5	David Hudson	United Kingdom	252,000	84
3	6	Erik Sens	Netherlands	274,500	92
3	7	Franz Ditz	Germany	110,000	37
3	8	Thomas Hueber	Austria	35,000	12

4	1	Dominik Nitsche	Germany	42,000	14
4	2	David Peters	United Kingdom	293,500	98
4	3	Mike Leah	Canada	324,000	108
4	4	Stieven Razab	Netherlands	102,000	34
4	5	Asi Moshe	Israel	287,500	96
4	6	Kristen Bicknell	Canada	296,000	99
4	7	Simon Higgins	United Kingdom	211,500	71
4	8	John Leslie	United Kingdom	189,000	63

5	1	Aaron Duczak	Canada	56,500	19
5	2	Kevin MacPhee	United States	135,000	45
5	3	Julian Thomas	Austria	300,000	100
5	4	Vlado Banicevic	Montenegro	211,000	70
5	5	Alexander Lakhov	Russia	424,000	141
5	6	Markus Dürnegger	Austria	244,000	81
5	7	Ole Schemion	Germany	173,000	58
5	8	Alexandre Viard	France	125,000	42

6	1	Maximilian Lehmanski	Germany	251,000	84
6	2	Robert Schulz	Germany	125,000	42
6	3	Lee Lawrenson	United Kingdom	129,000	43
6	4	Ivan Luca	Argentina	169,500	57
6	5	Michal Mrakeš	Czech Republic	408,000	136
6	6	Marc MacDonnell	Ireland	251,000	84
6	7	Peter Smyth	United Kingdom	223,500	75
6	8	Maria Ho	United States	51,000	17

7	1	Luis Rodriguez Cruz	Spain	228,500	76
7	2	Vishal Maini	United Kingdom	651,500	217
7	3	Norbert Madaras	Hungary	85,000	28
7	4	Oleh Haisiuk	Ukraine	255,500	85
7	5	Nicky Romanello	United Kingdom	297,000	99
7	6	Anthony Gardner	United Kingdom	60,000	20
7	7	Pierre Neuville	Belgium	220,000	73
7	8	Mirza Nezirevic	Sweden	42,500	14

8	1	Milad Oghabian	Netherlands	463,500	155
8	2	Mohamed Mamouni	France	73,500	25
8	3	William Liang	Canada	100,000	33
8	4	Sam Grafton	United Kingdom	60,000	20
8	5	Diego Ventura	Peru	192,000	64
8	6	Marius Gierse	Germany	146,500	49
8	7	Lauren Render	United Kingdom	125,500	42
8	8	James Keith Walker	United Kingdom	84,000	28

9	1	Stephen Ayres	United Kingdom	261,500	87
9	2	Markus Steger	Germany	170,500	57
9	3	László Bujtás	Hungary	361,000	120
9	4	Dmitry Ivanov	Russia	275,000	92
9	5	Ante Varnica	Croatia	159,500	53
9	6	Niall Farrell	United Kingdom	240,000	80
9	7	Eugene Katchalov	Ukraine	117,500	39
9	8	Anatoliy Zyrin	Russia	376,000	125

10	1	Stoyan Obreshkov	Bulgaria	386,000	129
10	2	[Removed:172]	Germany	250,000	83
10	3	Ben Farrell	United Kingdom	60,000	20
10	4	Sebastian Langrock	Austria	213,000	71
10	5	Usman Siddique	United Kingdom	71,500	24
10	6	Tomasz Chmiel	Poland	288,500	96
10	7	Andrei Demidov	Russia	189,500	63
10	8	Norson Sahi	Brazil	68,500	23

11	1	Ismael Bojang	Austria	212,500	71
11	2	Thomer Pidun	Germany	298,000	99
11	3	Lander Lijo	Spain	327,000	109
11	4	Roberto Romanello	United Kingdom	55,000	18
11	5	Roman Herold	Germany	412,000	137
11	6	Connor Hogarty	Ireland	83,500	28
11	7	Ihar Soika	Belarus	91,000	30
11	8	Jan-Peter Jachtmann	Germany	261,500	87

12	1	Anatoly Filatov	Russia	241,500	81
12	2	Henry Tran	Canada	112,000	37
12	3	Omid Mojaverian	Iran	261,000	87
12	4	Max Altergott	Germany	68,000	23
12	5	Michaël Goossens	Belgium	170,000	57
12	6	Stephen Shayler	United Kingdom	154,000	51
12	7	Dominik Panka	Poland	202,000	67
12	8	Leo Worthington-Leese	United Kingdom	265,500	89

13	1	Leo Nash	United Kingdom	82,000	27
13	2	Robert Bickley	United Kingdom	195,000	65
13	3	Gilbert Diaz	France	91,500	31
13	4	Andrei Boghean	Romania	315,000	105
13	5	Haroldo Da Silva	Brazil	114,500	38
13	6	Christian Stoyanov	Germany	370,500	124
13	7	Jens Lübbe	Germany	419,500	140
13	8	Vlad Darie	Romania	186,500	62

14	1	Evgeny Kafelnikov	Russia	98,000	33
14	2	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	121,000	40
14	3	Anthony Zinno	United States	179,000	60
14	4	Steffen Sontheimer	Germany	57,000	19
14	5	Stepan Osinovski	Russia	251,500	84
14	6	Eusebiu Jalba	Romania	165,000	55
14	7	Stefan Schillhabel	Germany	183,000	61
14	8	Christian Rachel	Germany	318,000	106

15	1	Abdelhakim Zoufri	Netherlands	275,000	92
15	2	Marti Roca De Torres	Spain	148,500	50
15	3	Kyle Oak	Canada	41,000	14
15	5	Javier Zarco	Spain	303,500	101
15	6	Jack Salter	United Kingdom	345,000	115
15	7	Parker Talbot	Canada	83,500	28
15	8	Pavel Ignatov	Russia	58,500	20

16	1	James Ablott	United Kingdom	116,500	39
16	2	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	158,000	53
16	3	Maria Lampropulos	Argentina	101,000	34
16	4	Lucas Gomes Silva	Brazil	205,500	69
16	5	Angelo Milioto	United Kingdom	48,000	16
16	6	Osman Mustanoglu	United Kingdom	260,000	87
16	7	Mathijs Jonkers	Netherlands	367,500	123
16	8	Gianluca Speranza	Austria	408,000	136

17	1	Rainer Kempe	Germany	330,500	110
17	2	Vivian Saliba	Brazil	226,500	76
17	3	David Lopez	Spain	177,000	59
17	4	Mikhail Surin	Russia	318,500	106
17	5	Neil Ryder	United Kingdom	60,000	20
17	6	Antoine Saout	France	151,000	50
17	7	Mustapha Kanit	Italy	151,000	50
17	8	Will Kassouf	United Kingdom	91,500	31

Tags: Alexander Lakhov Ryan Riess