Laszlo Bujtas opened for 5,400 early and Niall Farrell made it 19,200 in the small blind. Bujtas peeled and they saw a flop. Both players checked. Farrell checked the and Bujtas bet 20,000. Farrell called. The river brought a and another check from Farrell. Bujtas moved in for what turned out to be 79,200 effective. Farrell called about 15 seconds later.
Farrell:
Bujtas:
Ship the double to the €25K champ, who put a dent in Bujtas' huge stack.
Asi Moshe raised to 5,300 from mid-position and action folded to Vlad Darie in the big blind who called.
The flop came , Darie checked, Moshe bet 5,800. Darie responded with a raise to 17,000 and Moshe called.
The turn brought them the , Darie checked after thinking for a while, now it was Moshe's turn to try and decide what to do. After about 30 seconds Stefan Schillhabel called the clock. Moshe wasn't impressed and said something about it. Schillhabel apologized as he thought it was still Darie's turn. He asked if he could cancel the calling of the clock and that was fine.
Moshe then bet 20,000. Darie shoved for about 110,000 and Moshe folded immediately.
We found Mike Leah facing a bet of 70,000 on a board of . He put in a call and his opponent showed for a whiffed flush draw. Leah had and took it down.
Ramin Hajiyev opened for 5,300 in the cutoff and Ole Schemion made it 15,500 on the button. Hajiyev called and they saw flop. Hajiyev check-called 12,000. Both checked the and a completed the board. Hajiyev checked and Schemion bet 38,500. Hajiyev took off his sunglasses and removed his headphones, studying his fellow high roller. He then put in a call.
The board read and both Anthony Zinno and Philipp Gruissem had checked on a pot of about 28,000. Zinno showed for a pair of sixes with the eight-kicker.
"I've got my favorite hand and my favorite hand does it again!" Gruissem said with joy while showing for the same pair of sixes but with the nine-kicker.
The hand right after, Eusebiu Jalba raised to 5,000 from the hijack and Anthony Zinno called from the small blind. The flop came , Zinno check-called the 4,600 of Jalba. They both checked through the on the turn. The river completed the board with the , Zinno now bet 18,000 and Jalba called. Zinno showed for the rivered flush and Jalba had and angrily threw his cards into the muck.
Ryan Riess found in the cutoff and raised to 5,500. Julian Stuer three-bet to 19,000 with from the small blind. Riess shoved for 128,100 and Stuer snap-called having 114,300 behind.
The board ran out and Stuer doubled up leaving Riess with about 14,000.
Ryan Riess raised to 12,000 from the under-the-gun position with . Julian Stuer called with from mid-position. Mikhail Surin found in the small blind and called.
The flop came , Surin checked, Riess shoved for 1,700, Stuer called and Surin called too.
The turn brought them the , both Surin and Stuer checked.
The river completed the board with the , Surin checked and so did Stuer. Surin won with a pair of threes and eliminated Riess from the main event.
Alexander Lakhov nearly nabbed a bracelet, the last domestic one of the year, when he got second in this year's World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship. Unfortunately for the accomplished Russian, he fell heads-up to Sean Yu and had to settle for a payout of $183,527. Despite more than $3.2 million in cashes, Lakhov has yet to claim his first piece of WSOP gold.
It seems he's flown back across the pond hungrier than ever to finish what he came so close to accomplishing. At the close of Day 2 of the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, Lakhov bagged 424,000, putting him squarely in the top five.
Despite his hefty count though, Lakhov still trails overall chipleader Vishal Maini. The British player finished with a monstrous 651,500 at the close of the six levels of Day 2 play. He's got a few cashes totalling a little over $73,000, so the first-place prize of €1,115,207 here would represent quite the windfall for him.
With the close of registration at the start of play — and the customary last-minute entries of numerous high rollers, from the likes of Phil Hellmuth to a gaggle of German crushers — the prize pool was finalized early in the day. The aforementioned payout is of greatest interest of course, but it's also notable that the tournament did manage to inch past the €5 million guarantee with 529 entries, creating a total prize pool of €5,025,500.
Some of the players still in contention for the €1.1 million include bracelet winners Mike Leah, Kristen Bicknell, David Peters, Niall Farrell and Anthony Zinno, as well as defending champ Kevin MacPhee. Team 888poker is also well-represented with Vivian Saliba, Natalie Hof, Parker Talbot and High Roller for One Drop winner Dominik Nitsche making it through.
Former Main Event champ Ryan Riess, tabbed as a player to watch coming as he closes out a smoking-hot 2017, fell near the end of play. He lost most of his stack in a huge flip with jacks against the ace-king of Julian Stuer about an hour before players bagged up.
Others going bust included the aforementioned Hellmuth, as well as Adrian Mateos, Chris Moorman, Nick Petrangelo and John Racener. The elimination of the latter meant Chris Ferguson became the WSOP Player of the Year.
Day 3 play kicks off at noon on Tuesday with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a running ante of 500, so come back to PokerNews as the tournament marches toward the money bubble.