EPT Budapest -- Day 2 Update

The 182 remaining players at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Hungarian Open became 179 within three minutes as the short-stacks fell on their swords. This served as a pertinent reminder that the €4,000+€300 buy-in event, which attracted a sold out 532 entrants, was now all about the business.

The top 10 chip leaders at the beginning of the day were:

1. Mauro Corsetti (Italy) -- 136,200
2. Annette Obrestad (Norway) -- 101,300
3. Arnaud Mattern (France) -- 90,600
4. Christophe Haller (Germany) -- 86,100
5. Pierre Husson (France) -- 76,100
6. Sorel Mizzi (Canada) -- 74,900
7. Johnny Lodden (Norway) -- 70,000
8. Paul Testud (France) -- 66,500
9. Ionel Anton (Romania) -- 64,800
10. Nicolo Calia (French) -- 62,900

By the end of the first level of the day, 146 players remained, and as many of them were intent on gathering chips as there were those who wanted to avoid losing them.

In level two, a colossal amount of chips moved in the direction of the young Canadian Sorel Mizzi. It all started with a 3,000 preflop bet, which Mizzi and the small blind called. The flop came A-10-7 with two diamonds and one heart. After a bet of 8,000, it was down to just Mizzi and his opponent. Mizzi called, and the turn fell the J. Mizzi, sitting on A 9, now had a pair of aces, the nut-flush draw, a gutshot-straight draw, and a two-pair draw. His opponent bet 19,000, with 27,000 behind, and Mizzi decided there was nothing else he could do but shove. The river came the 9, Mizzi hit his two pair and took the pot down. He had moved into the chip lead with 190,000 chips.

With 20 minutes left of level 11, Casey Kastle faced a preflop raise of 3,500. He was non-chalantly reading his magazine, and it looked for all the world like he didn't realize it was his turn to bet. When it was pointed out that the action was on him, he equally coolly pushed his entire stack of around 50,000 into the middle, perplexing opponent Pierre Husson. After about a minute, Husson called the clock on himself and looked like he was going to fold, but at the last second shrugged his shoulders and called, flipping over A-9. Kastle elegantly flipped over 9-9, and the flop came Q 9 6 4 5 to double him up.

Husson was knocked back to around 38,000 and exited soon thereafter.

A mathematically interesting hand also occurred toward the end of level 11. Viktoria Szilasi though she was onto a good thing when all in preflop against Korotkov Oleg with A A versus A K, but the Q J 10 on the flop put paid to her confidence and her tournament. She was quite short-stacked, but the double up which seemed assured proved agonizingly elusive.

During level 13, another monster pot occurred involving Sorel Mizzi, this time with Johnny Lodden and the big blind.

Preflop, Sorel bet, and Lodden and the big blind completed. The flop came 6 4 4, the big blind checked, Mizzi bet 12,500, Lodden called, and so did the big blind. The turn was 5, the big blind checked, and Mizzi fired 25,500 into the pot. Lodden took his time and eventually folded, and the big blind went all in for around 60,000. Mizzi instantly folded, and the big blind jumped out of his seat, yelled '"yes!" and fired Q 9 onto the table for a flush draw and two overcards.

Lodden shook his head. "What would you do if I called?" he asked. "I fold if you call," was the none-too-pleasing response.

During level 13, Annette Obrestad was busted out of the tournament by Ivo Donev. Donev's J 8 and Obrestad's 9 7x did battle on a board of J 9 7 8 2. So, while the young Norwegian was ahead on the flop, Donev took the lead on the turn, and it was all over for Obrestad.

Thomas Vestergaard, from Denmark, was the bubble boy, out in 57th place after getting all in with A-K only, to be met by Frenchman Christophe Wemelbeke's A-K. Three clubs on the flop gave the Frenchman the edge, and a club duly fell on the board to send Vestergaard packing.

Among the big names to bust from the day were Sorel Mizzi, Arnaud Mattern, Luca Pagano, Marty Smyth, Andreas Krause, Praz Banzi, Denes Kalo, William Thorsson, Danny Ryan, Kara Scott, and Johannes Strassman.

Among chip leaders at the end of the day were Albert Iversen, Lukas Benkovic, and Casey Kastle.

In the money for €5,320 were:

52nd Kara Scott
53rd Peter Zamiska
54th Sorel Mizzi
55th Danny Ryan
56th Aditya Agarwal

Join CardPlayer.com tomorrow for day three of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Hungarian Open as the bid for some serious money heats up.

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