During the last hands of the night, Paul Michaelis took on Romain Lewis and busted the Frenchman to jump into the top spot.
Michaelis raised to 6,500 from middle position and Lewis three-bet to 20,000 from one seat over, which Michaelis called. The flop came and both players checked. After the turn, Michaelis made it 33,000 to go and was called by Lewis before the river paired the board.
Michaelis moved all in and Lewis had a decision to make for his last 115,000 chips. After spending some time in the think tank, the clock was called and Lewis called it off to see Michaelis turn over . Lewis flashed and hit the rail.
Alexis Fleur called a raise to 7,000 by Rui Neves Ferreira to see a flop of and the Portuguese checked, while Fleur bet 9,500. Ferreira check-raised to 30,000 and Fleur moved all in for 95,300, which the Portuguese called to set up the following showdown:
Alexis Fleur:
Rui Neves Ferreira:
Fleur was ahead with the over pair and needed to dodge a nine, king and spades. He did so after two blanks on turn and river, and doubled in the last hand of the night.
William Kassouf, as always, is a man of many words. In this interview at the PokerStars Championship Prague 2017, he explains why he's back to reclaim his High Roller Prague trophy, as well as talk about his last year in poker and why he won't just jump into a 25k buy in after a big win.
All of the players who still had chips in PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event gathered in one room for the first time, with survivors of two starting days and last-minute registrants creating a field of 855 entries. At the close of six levels of play, that number has been reduced to only 140 hopefuls, just a few eliminations from the money bubble that will take place when 128 remain.
The top 127 will get chunks of a prize pool finalized during the opening hour of play, totaling over €4.1 million and paying out €775,000 to the winner.
The players who have best positioned themselves to claim that windfall after 14 levels include Paul Michaelis (630,500), Omid Mojaverian (597,500) and Erik Walfridsson (536,500).
Michaelis, who won a bracelet in 2015 in one of the last pot-limit hold'em events ever at the WSOP, will try to continue the modern poker tradition of Germans sweeping up all of the money out there. In a big hand late in Day 2, he got three streets of all-in value with a turned set of tens in a three-bet pot against a player who had paired on the flop with ace-king. Just before the day came to an end, Michaelis flopped another set and ultimately sent Romain Lewis to the rail to claim the top spot.
Day 1 chip leader and local Czech standout Michal Mrakes also followed up his big Day 1 with a solid Day 2. While his nearly $1 million in cashes speaks to his overall success, Mrakes seems to do especially well here in his home country, with cashes of €200,000 and €46,594 already this year.
While Mrakes couldn't hold his overall lead on the field, he still increased his stack from 202,700 to 333,000, good enough for almost two times the average.
Team PokerStars also performed well, with Fatima Moreira de Melo, Igor Kurganov, Jake Cody, Maria Konnikova and Marcin Horecki all still carrying the banner heading into Day 3.
Players who weren't so fortunate and found themselves hitting the rail on Day 2 included Timothy Adams, Koray Aldemir, Davidi Kitai, John Juanda and Adrian Mateos.
Jasper Meijer van Putten, the Dutchman who won the final EPT Prague here last year, also busted. He got his chips in way behind with top pair against a set held by Boris Kolev, and though a sweat arrived when Meijer van Putten turned trips, he was felted when the river bricked off.
Day 3 play picks up Friday at noon at Level 15 (2,000/4,000/500) and will see a switch to 90-minute levels. Come back to PokerNews then to continue following the development of one of the last big tournaments of 2017.