Day 2 Wraps With Romanello Still in Contention
Day 2 of the €1,090 "European Stimulus Special" is in the books, and we're down to our final nine.
The day began with 104 hopefuls still in contention, but the eliminations came brutally quick in the early levels. Peter Jetten couldn't make it out of the first hand of the day, though in fairness to him, he only had 6,000 chips when play began. Other early casualties included Dan Shak, Farzad Bonyadi, Richard Toth, and France's newest WPT champion Matt Waxman.
For a while, it looked like we were pushing toward a stacked final table, but the middle levels were equally cruel to the remaining familiar faces. Vanessa Selbst had her queens cracked by ace-queen to all but end her day, and she followed her pal Kevin MacPhee out the door with a middling cash. Other notables to fall by the wayside with small cashes were McLean Karr, Tyler Kenney, Nicolas Chouity, Toby Lewis, Dan Kelly, and November Niner Eoghan O'Dea.
That leaves us with just nine, and it's Italy's Gianluca Speranza out in front with 757,000. He'll have to deal with a tough cast of characters, and Andrew Hinrichsen might be the betting favorite with one day left. He begins in second place with 434,000, and he's followed by another tough player, Roberto Romanello. The Welshman had an above-average stack for the bulk of the day, but a late clash with Speranza cost him nearly half his stack.
The end-of-day chip counts are posted below, and those are the stacks they'll return to tomorrow. The final table is slated for 2:00 P.M. local time, and we'll be on hand as we crown the Series second bracelet winner. Can Romanello snag the Triple Crown? Or will Hinrichsen grab one for the Aussies? Check back here tomorrow afternoon to find out.
Until then, all that's left is goodnight!