World Series of Poker Europe -- Main Event Day 2

After two World Series of Poker Europe main event starting days, a total field of 346 was decimated to 195. The survivors came together today for a rollercoaster day 2 in The Casino at The Empire, at the center of London but only 66 made it out alive.

The two names on everyones’ lips throughout the day were Phil Ivey and Viktor Blom, who is unofficially said to be Isildur1. The two players were first and second in chips intermittently until Ivey’s stack took many a hit during the latter stages and other names took his place at the very top of the leader board. Blom stayed ahead of the pack however and wreaked utter chaos until the clock hit zero on the last level of the night. Official chip counts have not yet been released but it is most likely that Blom will lead the pack heading into day 3.

Next to him is Bojan Gledovic who also had a fantastic day. After Ludovic Lacay crippled defending champion Barry Shulman, Gledovic finished him off when his pocket eights held against Shulman’s A 5. Lacay was in turn crippled by Daniel Steinberg, and left shortly after at the hands of Gorelik.

With Shulman on the other side of the rail, this year’s champion will be a new name as no other former WSOPE main event champions now remain in the field. A really interesting bunch of players will return tomorrow with healthy chip stacks. Among them will be Andrew Pantling, Arnaud Mattern, Nick Schulman, Nicolas Levi, Dan Fleyshman, and Phil Ivey.

Daniel Negreanu is still in the hunt for his third WSOP Europe main event final table also. However, many other familiar names did not have such a good day. Among those not returning tomorrow are Allen Cunningham, Eric Baldwin, Phil Laak, Praz Bansi, Dag Palovic, John Racener, Andy Black, Erik Seidel, Sam Stein, Jason Mercier, Faraz Jaka, Isabelle Mercier, Kevin MacPhee, Alexander Kravchenko, and Antonio Esfandiari.

Speaking of Esfandiari, he was crippled mid-stages by Dan Shak in the following hand:

On a flop of J 9 5, Esfandiari led out, only to be raised to 18,000 by Shak. Esfandiari went into the tank and eventually announced all-in for around 140,000 in total. Shak called without hesitation, and the players revealed their hands.

Esfandiari: K 10
Shak: 6 3

With a dominant flush draw, gut shot straight draw, and the currently good king-high, Esfandiari was a strong favorite with all but a few thousand of his chips in the middle. The turn came the 2, leaving Shak drawing only to the remaining non-diamond threes and sixes.

The 3 did roll off on the river, and Esfandiari exploded out of his seat in shocked disgust. As the dealer laboriously counted out the stacks, Esfandiari politely said, “Nice hand.” Shak apologized about the bad beat, but unsurprisingly this did little to salve Esfandiari’s wounds. Shak’s stack grew to around 280,000 after the hand.

Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com tomorrow for day 3 of the WSOP Europe main event as things heat up between some of the best players in the poker world. Also taking center stage tomorrow at 6 p.m. (local time) is the final of the £10,000 Heads-Up event where Gus Hansen will take his last stand against Jim “Big Queso” Collopy for his very first bracelet.

Here are the official chip counts for day 3:

For now here is a Card Player TV update from late on day 2 for your viewing pleasure:

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