PokerStars.net EPT Prague, Day 2: Local Favorite Palovic in Front

December 12 2007, John Hartness

Of the 192 players that returned to the Hilton Hotel in Prague for Day 2 action in the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour event, 75 would go to the rail in the first two levels. The rapid bustouts of the first few hours saw popular pros such as Rolf Slotboom, Nicky Power and Katja Thater all eliminated, while relatively unknown players such as Jose Navarro picked up chips on their way to becoming many of the big stacks still standing at the end of the day.

Dag Martin 'dmmikkel' Mikkelsen was one of the early eliminations, crippled after a big hand with Suman Nebzib. Mikkelsen raised preflop and Nebzib re-raised all in. Mikkelsen made the call with , and Nebzib was in a race with . The board obliged Nebzib with the on the turn, and Mikkelsen was left on a short stack. Nebzib put the finishing touch on Mikkelsen soon after when he called Mikkelsen down with on a board of . Mikkelsen made one last stab at the pot, pushing all in on the river, but mucked when Nebzib called.

Navarro went on a tear midway through the day to bust two big stacks. First he sent Ken Lennaard to the rail with against Lennaard's . Then he got it all in with Stephen Devlin, who started Day 2 as the chip leader. Navarro raised preflop, and Devlin re-raised. Navarro called to see the flop of , then led out with a sizable bet. Devlin moved all in over the top for about four times the size of the pot, and Navarro called. Navarro tabled for bottom set, whil Devlin was on a big draw with for gutshot-straight and flush chances. No draw in the world was good enough, however, to save Devlin once the hit on the turn, giving Navarro quads, the pot, and a massive chip lead over the field. Navarro finished the day third in chips.

As the bubble neared, the pace of eliminations slowed slightly, with Florian Langmann going out shortly before the money bubble, as did Betrand 'ElkY' Grospellier. Immediately after the announcement was made that play was hand-for-hand, Nichlas Saarisilta busted, leaving the remaining 56 players in the money. After the bubble burst, the pace of play picked up quickly, with the final 24 players eliminated in less than two hours.

32 players remain at the end of Day 2, with local favorite Dag Palovic, president of the Slovak Poker Federation, the chip leader, followed by Mikael Norinder and Navarro. The top ten players at the end of Day 2 action:

Dag Palovic — 373,000
Mikael Norinder — 310,000
Jose Navarro — 295,000
Kristian Kjondal — 280,000
Arnaud Mattern — 235,000
Luis Sevilla — 235,000
Marc Karam — 227,000
Adrian Koy — 225,000
Adrian Schaap — 211,500
Nikolas Liakos — 195,000

Join PokerNews tomorrow at noon local time for all the live updates as the final 32 play down to the final table at the PokerStars.net EPT Prague main event.

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