2020 PokerStars EPT Online

The 2020 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Online $5,200 Main Event is one step closer to crowning a champion and a large influx of late entries prior to the start boosted the field to 1,304 entries, including 924 unique entries and 380 re-entries. Once the dust had settled for Day 2, a portion of the $6,520,000 prize pool has already been paid out as the money bubble burst with 159 players remaining.

From there on, the eliminations came at a very rapid and consistent pace, and 72 hopefuls remain in contention for the $1,019,082 top prize. Irishman Toby "sadface111" Joyce won't have made a sad face when the final hand had wrapped up, as he mounted a late surge to claim the top spot with a stack of 11,706,697. Only two other players have eight-figure stack sizes to their name including Viacheslav "VbV1990" Buldygin (10,340,384) and "TTWIST" (10,318,673).

Other notables within the top 20 include "DingeBrinker" (7,976,469), Andreas "daskalos20" Christoforou (7,950,893), Fabio "hdjgkfkgsdl" Sperling (7,928,512), Liviu "0Human0" Ignat (7,745,169), Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet (7,659,083), Nuno "BrigaDatada" Capucho (7,650,210), Timothy "Tim0thee" Adams (7,337,601), 2015 EPT Prague runner-up Gleb "Ti0373" Tremzin (6,561,672), and Christopher "Apotheosis92" Kruk (6,127,549).

The Top 10 After Day 2 of the EPT Online $5,200 Main Event

The sole remaining PokerStars ambassador in contention is the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship winner Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas, who advanced with a stack of 2,874,265. Fintan "easywithaces" Hand was the only other red spade to finish in the money and bowed out in 134th place for $11,757.51.

The Action of the Day

With many players opting to enter prior to the start of Day 2 and aiming to run up a stack of just over 20 big blinds, the field was cut down considerably within the first two levels. Inside the first half an hour, the PokerStars ambassador team was cut in half: Felix "xflixx" Schneiders ran into a dominating ace, Kalidou "KalidouSow" Sow lost a flip with pocket tens versus ace-king and Ben "Spraggy" Spragg jammed his short stack with ace-queen into pocket aces.

The PokerStars EPT4Charity contest winner Jay "Blackoid" Kennedy was also among the very early casualties when his three-bet jam with ace-six came up second-best against ace-king. After the initial 45 minutes of play, only 344 contenders were still in the mix during the first scheduled break.

Big names such as Christoph "26071985" Vogelsang, Kenny "SpaceyFCB" Hallaert, Ludovic "ludovi333" Geilich, two-time SCOOP Main Event winner Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza, reigning 2020 WCOOP Main Event winner Andre "PTFisherman23" Marques, Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer, Mike "gorodski" Gorodinsky, and Andrey "ThePateychuk" Pateychuk followed.

Only 256 players had chips at their disposal on the second break and that number was then cut down to 160 on the third break, as the stone-cold money bubble had been reached. No longer in contention by then was Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis, who lost the remainder of his short stack with queen-ten versus ace-queen.

The Finnish high stakes regulars Jens "Jeans89" Kyllonen, Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden and Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro all missed out on the money, and Lander "tua133" Lijo had his kings cracked two off the money. Ultimately, it was the UK's "bartowskiFR" who ended up as the bubble boy when pocket tens came up short against a straight and flush draw.

Fintan "easywithaces" Hand, who started the day with the lead, suffered two major setbacks against Scott "Aggro Santos" Margereson and eventually collected a min-cash when he lost a flip with pocket sevens against ace-jack suited. The Irishman joined the EPT4Charity efforts and will be donating 5% of his cash to the CLIC Sargent charity of Jay "Blackoid" Kennedy, among others.

As the field raced towards the end of the day in a frantic post-bubble period, several former EPT Main Event champions missed out on a chance to win a second title in the virtual arena. Robin "robinho" Ylitalo (138th place), Arsenii "josef_shvejk" Karmatckii (108th place), Aliaksei "ale6ka" Boika (107th place), and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (100th place) all came up short of making Day 3.

Rob "batoelrob" Hollink (3,747,007) remains in contention for the double and former runner-ups Tremzin and Marton "noirduck" Czuczor (3,266,790) will aim to finish one spot better this time around. Plenty of talented high stakes regulars still have a shot at the title as well and the penultimate day promises plenty of excitement.

Stay tuned to find out who makes it to the nine-handed final table with resuming blinds of 40,000/80,000 and a big blind ante of 10,000 when the action gets back underway at 1.05 p.m. EST on Tuesday, November 17th, 2020. The PokerNews team will provide live updates from start to finish on a security delay of 30 minutes according to the cards-up broadcast on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels.

All remaining 72 players have completed their final hand of the night and will return the following day at 1.05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time to battle for their seat on the nine-handed final table. The full chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.

Within moments from each other, four players were eliminated and that reduced the field to the final 72 in a hurry to conclude Day 2.

First to bust was Joni "bustoville" Jouhkimainen followed by "colladito", who lost a large pot of nearly 7 million when they ran with into the of "vip25459" in a preflop contest.

The board ran out and it was all over on the turn already.

Laurynas "LaurisL91" Levinskas then raised to 198,198 on the button with 2,260,219 behind and Toby "sadface11" Joyce jammed the small blind as biggest stack on the table. Levinskas called and they turned them over.

Laurynas "LaurisL91" Levinskas:
Toby "sadface11" Joyce:

On a board of , the Irishman rivered a set to eliminate Levinskas.

Last but not least, a short-stacked Tommie "Godfatti" Janssen jammed first to act for the final 456,586 and Nuno "BrigaDatada" Capucho flat-called on the button.

Tommie "Godfatti" Janssen:
Nuno "BrigaDatada" Capucho:

Neither player hit anything on the board and ace-nine was enough to earn the pot for the Portuguese.

In a three-bet pot for 400,000 each, "PANIC.PLAYER" check-called a bet of 430,000 by "zoleykgb" on the flop and led the turn for 440,000. "zoleykgb" moved all-in for 1,666,958 and the snap-call of "PANIC.PLAYER" followed.

"zoleykgb":
"PANIC.PLAYER":

The flopped set had been outdrawn and the river bricked to eliminate "zoleykgb".

At nearly the same time, Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet opened to 184,000 from under the gun and called the shove of Pauli "Fiilismies" Ayras for 1,568,291 from one seat over.

Pauli "Fiilismies" Ayras:
Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet:

Van Fleet only had one overcard but hit that one right away on the flop. Nothing changed on the turn and the river was another blank.

As the first player to act, Dietrich "2pacnrw16" Fast opened it up to 160,000 from under the gun and Gleb "Ti0373" Tremzin made it 412,000 to go on the button. Fast piled his last 1,630,810 in and Tremzin called to set them up for a classic race.

Dietrich "2pacnrw16" Fast:
Gleb "Ti0373" Tremzin:

Fast remained ahead on the flop and the turn but the fell on the river to eliminate the German.

On a table filled with all but one unknown nicknames only, "vladxxxro" raised to 140,000 and Fabio "hdjgkfkgsdl" Sperling three-bet to 385,000. Out of the big blind, "AdoptAMonkey" four-bet all-in for the last 1,553,196 and "vladxxxro" folded while Sperling snap-called for a very specific reason.

"AdoptAMonkey":
Fabio "hdjgkfkgsdl" Sperling:

Both suits were covered and there was no upset on a board of to eliminate "AdoptAMonkey" in 80th place.

The next trio to hit the rail included Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph, "ShipitFTW911" and Fabiano "Kovalski1" Kovalski. The departure of the Brazilian whittled down the field to the final 80 contenders and he bowed out in a battle of the blinds.

Kovalski was down to 775,420 and jammed those in only for "mikki696" to call out of the big blind.

Fabiano "Kovalski1" Kovalski:
"mikki696":

The ace hit right away on the flop, leaving Kovalski with a guthot and back door diamonds. A second gutshot appeared on the turn but the on the river was a blank.

Saulo "sgsabioni" Sabioni made it 140,000 to go and was called by "Insertcr3dit" in the cutoff, who then bet the flop for 163,800. Sabioni check-called and did so again for another 202,451 on the turn.

The on the river was checkd by both and Sabioni's for the top pair won the pot.