Lewis Spencer and Maher Nouira, who were battling in the $50,000 Super High Roller at EPT Cyprus only a few days ago, were involved in a pot of 38,500 chips when they arrived on the turn on 5♥6♣2♦4♣.
Spencer bet 9,500 chips from the big blind and Nouira called from the hijack. The river then fell the A♠, a seemingly dreaded card as both players now checked.
Spencer tabled his 8♠8♣ for a pair of eights, but Nouira played the higher pocket pair with Q♥Q♦ and raked in the sizable pot with his pair of queens.
Pedro Neves raised to 3,500 form early position, and he was called by Cuoliang Wei in the cutoff, and by Jakub Michalak in the big blind.
Neves made a continuation bet of 4,500 on the flop 5♣7♠2♣. and once again, he was called twice.
The 8♣ came on the turn, and Michalak decided to bet 17,000. Neves immediately folded. Wei waited a few seconds to make a decision, but eventually folded.
Daewoong Song opened to 3,000 from under the gun, and Apoorva Goel defended from the big blind.
Both players checked on the flop 9♥10♠6♠. But on the turn 8♠, Goal took the lead and bet 3,000. Song called, and it was the last action of the hand as both players checked again on the river Q♠.
Goel revealed 2♦2♥ for a pair, but Song had J♣9♣ for a better pair.
Artur Martirosian had lost some chips at the start of the day before he shoved all in for 59,500 after earlier action from Eros Calderone on the button. Calderone then made the call with the covering stack and the cards were tabled.
Artur Martirosian: 9♥9♣
Eros Calderone: A♠Q♦
Calderona was visibly not happy when the board ran out J♦3♠J♥5♦K♣, resulting in him doubling up the Russian high roller while being left with less than ten big blinds in the process.
Pedro Neves opened the cutoff to 3,500 before the action made it to Vadzim Haiduk in the small blind who put in a three-bet to 11,000. Neves called and they were off to a flop heads up.
The 9♠4♣7♠ flop landed and Haiduk continued for 8,000. Neves called on their way to a 6♦ turn.
Action slowed down and checked through to a 6♣ river. Haiduk only took a few seconds and then led out for 35,000.
Neves burned a time bank as he thought it over but eventually he found a fold and Haiduk scooped.
A whopping 54 new entries have been made at the start of Day 2, increasing the total field size to 407 players. There are 205 players sitting with chips in front of them, and they are battling over a prize pool of $3,947,900.
Exact payout details will be announced once they are announced.
Things are getting serious in the $10,300 EPT High Roller of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa. After the first day of action, 151 players out of 353 entrants are back on Day 2, getting closer and closer from the money as 15% of the field will be paid. They will be joined by some new entrants, as late registrations remains open until the beginning of the first level of the day.
A total prize pool of $3,472,600 has been generated so far. And among all players, Selahaddin Bedir is the one who finished as the chipleader after Day 1 with 403,500 chips. The podium is completed by Paulius Plausinaitis (399,000) and Kubanychbek Abakirov (349,000), while Milos Petakovic (313,000), Maher Nouira (242,500) and Masato Yokosawa (241,000) reached Top 10.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Selahaddin Bedir
Turkey
403,500
269
2
Paulius Plausinaitis
Lithuania
399,000
266
3
Kubanychbek Abakirov
Kyrgyzstan
349,000
233
4
Milos Petakovic
Serbia
313,000
209
5
[Removed:452]
Montenegro
303,000
202
6
Floyd Rosner
Netherlands
285,000
190
7
Omar Del Pino
Spain
264,500
176
8
Ioannis Droushiotis
Cyprus
250,000
167
9
Maher Nouira
Tunisia
242,500
162
10
Masato Yokosawa
Japan
241,000
161
A lot of notable players made it through Day 1, such as EPT champions Nicolas Chouity, Steve O'Dwyer (175,000), Roberto Romanello (165,000), Anton Wigg (100,000), Artur Martirosian (99,500), Dimitar Danchev (87,500) and Adrian Mateos (54,500).
PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin Spragg also qualified with a large stack (206,000), like Juan Pardo (198,000), Leon Sturm (188,500), or Pablo Silva (172,000).
Juan Pardo
Day 2 will start at 12:30 p.m. local time on Level 11 (1,000/1,500/1,500). The tournament will continue on 60-minute levels, with a 15-minute break every two levels. There will also be a 45-minute dinner break at the end of Level 16 (around 7 p.m. local time).
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site to provide updates.
