Sammartino Soars on Day 2 of WSOPE Main Event as 165 Players Advance

Day 2 of the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe €10,350 Main Event is in the books. The action kicked off at noon local time in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Casino in Rozvadov with 221 players out of 341 entries remaining and the registration and single re-entry period remained open for the first four of six 90-minute levels. Once the registration closed at the end of level 11, the screens showed 534 entries to ensure that the guaranteed prize pool of €5,000,000 was surpassed.

Only the top 81 spots will take home a portion of the €5,073,000 prize pool and the money bubble is expected to burst late on Day 3, so half of the remaining field will walk away empty-handed with the minimum payout set at €15,074. A massive payday of €1,122,239 and the coveted gold bracelet await the champion.

Leading the field after Day 2 is Dario Sammartino, who soared to the top of the leaderboard in the final stages of the day and bagged up an impressive 1,480,000. The Italian started the day with just 94,000 and things really kicked off after he had chipped up and was moved to the table of Vladimir Geshkenbein. In a key hand, Sammartino doubled through Geshkenbein in a three-bet pot.

"I opened the button with ten-six of hearts and he three-bet me out of the big blind, I called," Sammartino recounted. "The flop was ten-six-two. He bet, I raised, he re-raised and I called. We got it in after an eight on the turn and I held up against kings. Lucky day and not a tough table."

In the final stages, Sammartino sent several players to the rail including Jason Wheeler and Hans Thumann to bag and tag almost five times the average chip count.

"Of course it is really good, but the tournament is very long. You need to stay focused and we have another three, four days to play. It is a good start, but nothing really special yet. Special is when you win, not now," Sammartino said after bagging for the day.

Winning a bracelet and seven-figure payday in one of the most prestigious events of the year would see Sammartino edge closer to Mustapha Kanit at the top of the Italian all-time money list. Kanit himself made it through to Day 3 with an above-average stack of 626,000. Sammartino already had a close call this past summer in Las Vegas when he finished third in Event #23: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship and added a tenth and 15th-place finish in Sin City, but the elusive bracelet has escaped him thus far.

"It is important for me," admitted Sammartino. "Two, three years ago it was the dream [to win a bracelet], you know. Now it is important, but not like when I was 24 years old."

The only two other chip millionaires are Marco Slacanac (1,128,500) and UK's Jack Salter. In the penultimate level of the registration period, Salter was involved in a five-bet pot and won a flip with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Hani Bahna. From there on, the Brit kept building his stack further and claimed 1,051,000 for Day 3.

Further big stacks and notables include Rainer Kempe (818,000), Michael Sklenicka (722,000), Laszlo Bujtas (713,500), 2013 WSOP Main Event fourth place finisher Sylvain Loosli (638,000), Timothy Adams (629,500), David Urban (546,000), Alex Foxen (516,000), 2018 EPT Barcelona champion Piotr Nurzynski (496,000) and Ben Heath (475,000).

Several WSOP bracelet winners also made it through including Triple Crown champion Niall Farrell (625,000), Norbert Szecsi (560,500), Will Givens (539,000), 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess (382,000), Chris Ferguson (326,000), David Peters (295,500), Johannes Becker (287,500), Kristen Bicknell (248,500) and Day 1b chip leader Adrian Mateos (245,000) to name just a few.

Among the big names to fall on Day 2 were Romain Lewis, Jason Wheeler, Anthony Zinno, Gal Yifrach, Tom Middleton, Dominik Nitsche, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, Michael Addamo, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Davidi Kitai, as well as local bracelet winners Artur Rudziankov and Martin Kabrhel.

Action of the Day

All those poker enthusiasts from near and far that had not entered yet or had already busted once had a chance to take another shot at the €10,350 Main Event and almost 200 new entries emerged on Day 2. Among the early casualties were Ludovic Geilich, Kabrhel and Gianluca Speranza.

Geilich bricked off with a flopped flush draw against the pocket aces of Gudmundur Sigurjonsson and had to re-enter in order to bag up 198,500. Speranza, who had finished runner-up to 888poker qualifier Marti Roca de Torres one year ago here in Rozvadov, busted on his first bullet with ace-king against the ace-queen of Anatoly Filatov. Speranza also successfully re-entered and finished Day 2 with 184,500, while Sigurjonsson and Filatov were both eliminated later on.

The first player to move up to one million in chips was Robert Skopalik, a recreational player from the Czech Republic. Skopalik was on the fortunate end of an aces versus kings setup against Wai Leong Chan early on and also claimed most of the chips of Martin Finger. Towards the end of the day, Skopalik took several blows and finished Day 2 with a still healthy 602,000.

Farrell and Salter were among those to build their stack along with Sammartino, who went through his table like a wrecking ball in the final level of the night. The biggest pot of the tournament so far played out in the final level of the night when Oleg Netaliev tried to push Laszlo Bujtas off in a three-way three-bet pot. However, Bujtas didn't go anywhere with turned trips and the top full house on the river, and claimed the remainder of Netaliev's chips soon after with nines versus eights after hitting yet another full house.

The excellent WSOP year of Romain Lewis with four top-three finishes in Las Vegas and Rozvadov came to a premature end in the final hand of the night. In a three-way all in with Lukacs and Jakob Miegel. Lewis had the best of it preflop with pocket kings versus pocket queens and ace-king respectively, but Lukacs spiked one of the two remaining queens on the flop to score the double elimination.

After six levels of 90 minutes each, only 165 players out of the 534-entry strong field bagged up chips and will return to the tables at noon local time on Tuesday, October 30. The action will recommence with blinds of 2,500/5,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000. Make sure to return then, as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action.

2018 WSOPE Main Event Day 3 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
118	1	Dario Dzido	Croatia	135,500	27
118	2	Antonio Turrisi	Italy	375,000	75
118	3	Koray Aldemir	Germany	172,500	35
118	4	Julien Sitbon	France	102,500	21
118	5	Jia Tang	China	462,000	92
118	6	Javier Gomez	Spain	289,500	58
118	7	Alberto Stegeman	Netherlands	231,000	46

119	1	Adi Aizin	Israel	213,000	43
119	2	Stoyan Obreshkov	Bulgaria	674,000	135
119	3	David Urban	Slovakia	546,000	109
119	4	Viktor Katzenberger	Hungary	227,000	45
119	5	Moreno Plozza	Switzerland	166,000	33
119	6	Gary Hasson	Belgium	307,500	62
119	7	Tobias Revenas	Sweden	121,000	24
119	8	Igor Tregoubov	Canada	360,000	72

120	1	Luiz Duarte	Brazil	424,000	85
120	2	Thomas Hammerl	Austria	319,500	64
120	3	Michal Schuh	Czech Republic	183,000	37
120	4	Timur Margolin	Israel	112,000	22
120	5	Adi Rajkovic	Austria	278,000	56
120	6	Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy	Russian Federation	502,500	101
120	7	Maria Lampropulos	Greece	129,500	26
120	8	Marco Slacanac	Germany	1,128,500	226

121	1	Sergio Aido	Spain	269,500	54
121	2	Ahmed Abdella	United Kingdom	62,500	13
121	3	Mustapha Kanit	Italy	626,000	125
121	4	Mikolaj Zawadzki	Poland	191,000	38
121	5	Jack Sinclair	United Kingdom	363,500	73
121	6	James Romero	United States	127,000	25
121	7	Josip Simunic	Austria	324,000	65
121	8	Tal Noach	Israel	490,000	98

122	1	Johannes Becker	Germany	287,500	58
122	2	Marek Blasko	Slovakia	469,500	94
122	3	Anson Tsang	Hong Kong	81,000	16
122	4	Joao Vieira	Portugal	169,500	34
122	5	Sylvain Loosli	France	638,000	128
122	6	Ben Jackson	United Kingdom	216,500	43
122	7	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	421,000	84
122	8	Viktor Taranenko	Russian Federation	150,000	30

132	1	Michel Dattani	Portugal	372,000	74
132	2	Fahredin Mustafov	Bulgaria	201,000	40
132	3	Wai Leong Chan	Malaysia	237,500	48
132	4	Ihor Yerofieiev	Ukraine	104,500	21
132	5	Salvatore Camarda	Italy	310,000	62
132	6	James Rann	United Kingdom	125,000	25
132	8	Kristoffer Rasmussen	Denmark	463,500	93

133	1	Vladimir Geshkenbein	Switzerland	400,000	80
133	2	David Peters	United States	295,500	59
133	3	Slobodan Ruzicic	Serbia	704,000	141
133	4	Armin Rezaei	Austria	187,500	38
133	5	Tomasz Raniszewski	Poland	136,500	27
133	6	Alexander Romme	Germany	286,000	57
133	7	Jan-Eric Schwippert	Germany	431,500	86
133	8	Guillaume Diaz	France	81,000	16

135	1	Ludovic Geilich	Scotland	198,500	40
135	2	Robert Skopalik	Czech Republic	602,000	120
135	3	Oleksandr Lagoda	Ukraine	367,500	74
135	4	Gianluca Speranza	Italy	184,500	37
135	5	Milos Skrbic	Serbia	326,500	65
135	6	Ole Schemion	Germany	116,500	23
135	7	Ricardo Chauriye	Chile	153,000	31
135	8	Kristen Bicknell	Canada	248,500	50

136	1	Tobias Anttila	Finland	649,500	130
136	2	Ivan Gabrieli	Italy	419,500	84
136	3	Werner Eigner	Germany	295,000	59
136	4	Manig Loeser	Germany	258,000	52
136	5	Anton Johansson	Sweden	214,500	43
136	6	Ioannis Chorianopoulos	Greece	77,500	16
136	7	Renato Kaneoya	Brazil	164,500	33
136	8	Krasimir Yankov	Bulgaria	500,500	100

137	1	Bulcsu Lukacs	Romania	729,000	146
137	2	Alexandre Viard	France	440,000	88
137	3	Elias Talvitie	Finland	349,000	70
137	4	Aleksandar Trajkovski	Macedonia	58,000	12
137	5	Robert Kovacs	Slovakia	367,000	73
137	6	Eder Murata	Brazil	215,500	43
137	7	Philipp Zukernik	Israel	172,000	34
137	8	Justin Steinbrenner	Germany	123,000	25

147	2	Tobias Ziegler	Germany	175,500	35
147	3	Paul Hoefer	Germany	227,000	45
147	4	Kristaps Vismanis	Latvia	295,000	59
147	5	Julian Thomas	Germany	45,000	9
147	6	Roger Teska	United States	363,000	73
147	7	Luiz Ferreira	Brazil	476,000	95
147	8	Ronald van de Linde	Netherlands	165,500	33

148	1	Sanjay Sahijwani	United Kingdom	265,500	53
148	2	Ernests Patajs	Latvia	211,500	42
148	3	Serhii Balynskyi	Ukraine	122,500	25
148	4	Jason Gray	United Kingdom	153,000	31
148	5	Laszlo Bujtas	Hungary	713,500	143
148	6	Yotam Lecker	Romania	310,000	62
148	7	Piotr Nurzynski	Poland	496,000	99
148	8	Tobias Peters	Netherlands	364,000	73

149	1	Steven Warburton	United Kingdom	350,000	70
149	2	Marius Gierse	Germany	159,000	32
149	3	Rifat Gegic	Serbia	339,500	68
149	4	Dario Sammartino	Italy	1,480,000	296
149	5	Liwei Sun	Italy	601,000	120
149	6	Diego Zeiter	Switzerland	210,000	42
149	7	Ming Xi	China	230,000	46
149	8	James Morgan	Canada	83,000	17

150	1	Leonard Maue	Germany	378,500	76
150	2	Vladyslav Kovalenko	Ukraine	256,500	51
150	3	Niall Farrell	Scotland	625,000	125
150	4	Dimitar Yosifov	Bulgaria	671,500	134
150	5	Diogo Veiga	Portugal	51,500	10
150	6	Andrei Boghean	Romania	138,500	28
150	7	Denys Shafikov	Ukraine	348,000	70
150	8	Igor Kurganov	Germany	206,000	41

151	1	Allen Kessler	United States	241,000	48
151	2	Rainer Kempe	Germany	818,000	164
151	3	Dominik Matejka	Czech Republic	212,500	43
151	4	Victor Choupeaux	France	106,000	21
151	5	Yang Zhang	China	150,500	30
151	6	Vincent Robert	France	595,000	119
151	7	Vladimir Troyanovskiy	Russian Federation	371,500	74
151	8	Markus Durnegger	Austria	341,500	68

152	1	Stefan Nemetz	Austria	64,500	13
152	2	Adrian Mateos	Spain	245,000	49
152	3	Claas Segebrecht	Germany	142,000	28
152	4	Arran Fletcher	United Kingdom	645,000	129
152	5	Lukasz Grossmann	Poland	311,500	62
152	6	Andy Black	Ireland	354,500	71
152	7	Quan Zhou	China	168,000	34
152	8	Alex Foxen	United States	516,000	103

162	1	Danilo Velasevic	Serbia	455,000	91
162	2	Yaki Hevron	Israel	630,000	126
162	3	Andres Zepeda	Chile	140,000	28
162	4	Jona Wilmsmann	Germany	329,000	66
162	5	Nick van der Marel	Netherlands	401,000	80
162	6	Adem Marjanovic	Austria	211,500	42
162	7	Teun Mulder	Netherlands	249,000	50
162	8	Karel Kabrna	Czech Republic	69,000	14

163	1	Rafael Wacha	Austria	103,500	21
163	2	Norbert Szecsi	Hungary	560,500	112
163	3	Aymon Hata	United Kingdom	401,500	80
163	4	Timo Kamphues	Germany	248,000	50
163	5	Bahram Chobineh	Dominica	320,000	64
163	6	Michael Sklenicka	Czech Republic	722,000	144
163	7	Roman Rychlik	Czech Republic	169,500	34
163	8	Ondrej Lon	Czech Republic	137,000	27

164	1	Martin Stoller	Germany	385,000	77
164	2	Xixiang Luo	China	215,000	43
164	3	Fabian Bernhauser	Austria	157,000	31
164	4	Joel Ettedgi	United Kingdom	747,000	149
164	5	Chris Ferguson	United States	326,000	65
164	6	Viktor Blom	Sweden	112,500	23
164	7	Shravan Chhabria	India	239,000	48
164	8	Ognjen Sekularac	Serbia	429,500	86

165	1	Nico Prokic	Austria	302,500	61
165	2	Daniel Bayer	Austria	166,500	33
165	3	Ben Heath	United Kingdom	475,000	95
165	4	Michael Tabarelli	Italy	54,000	11
165	5	Ryan Riess	United States	382,000	76
165	6	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	192,000	38
165	7	Jaroslav Peter	Czech Republic	252,000	50
165	8	Jack Salter	United Kingdom	1,051,000	210

166	1	Dietrich Fast	Germany	304,500	61
166	2	Sean Mcnulty	Canada	285,000	57
166	3	Paul Teoh	Malaysia	95,500	19
166	4	Jun Wah Yap	Malaysia	399,000	80
166	5	Will Givens	United States	539,000	108
166	6	Yunsheng Sun	China	195,000	39
166	7	Pierre Mothes	Germany	164,500	33
166	8	Timothy Adams	Canada	629,500	126