PokerStars.net EPT Warsaw, Day 2: Minieri Near Top as Money Reached

November 18 2008, John Hartness

One hundred and nine players returned to the Casino Poland Warsawza for the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Warsaw Main Event today, with 85 of them going home disappointed. With a breakneck pace of play, the field was sliced to 24 in near-record time, and the remaining players all headed off for a rest with a guaranteed cash and a shot at the EPT Polish Open title. Among the chip leaders to kick off the day were Roland de Wolfe, Antony Lellouche, Ludovic Lacay and Dario Minieri. When the day ended, several of those names were still near the top of the leader board, while others were headed to the cash tables to try their luck there.

With nearly half the field eliminated in the first two levels, the pace on Day 2 was nothing short of frenetic. Johnny Lodden was one victim on Day 2, heading to the rail in the early rounds. Lodden took a huge hit to his stack early when he open-shoved from the button with pocket threes, only to find Gino Alacqua behind him in the small blind calling with . The big blind got out of the way, and Lodden fell behind on the flop as the board ran out . On the very next hand, Lodden moved all in again with from the cutoff, and Antony Lellouche called with and a huge stack. Lellouche hit the flop, and the on the turn was no help to either player. Lodden's tournament life was extended a little when the came on the river to give him the gutshot straight, but he was still extremely short-stacked.

The next hand saw Lodden all in once more, this time with to Jerzy Hajdamowicz' . The flop of was good for Lodden, and the was no harm, but the on the river gave Hajdamowicz the straight and sent Lodden packing. Other notable eliminations on Day 2 included Alex Kravchenko, Richard Gryko, Alan Smurfit and EPT Barcelona champion Sebastian Ruthenberg.

Antony Lellouche rode the biggest chip roller coaster of the day, taking the chip lead to start the day and becoming the first player to cross the 100,000 chip mark, then going card dead in the evening and busting out of the money. First Lellouche called Csaba Toth's all-in with pocket deuces, and was well behind Toth's eights. A flop of Q-8-8 gave Toth quads and left Lellouche drawing completely dead. Then he doubled up Nico Behling when his couldn't catch the fourth heart to crack Behling's .

Lellouche then got his money in extremely good against Arnaud Mattern when he called Mattern's preflop shove with . Mattern tabled , and the flop came down to keep Lellouche in the lead. The turn was no help, but the river gave Mattern a set and left Lellouche with just a shadow of his former stack. Lellouche's demise came at the hands of Andrea Benelli when Lellouche moved all in over the top of Benelli's preflop raise with . Benelli thought for a long moment before making the call with . The flop was good to Lellouche when it came down . The turn was no help or harm, but the river continued to be unkind to Lellouche when the came to send the former chip leader to the rail.

As the evening wore on, Dario Minieri continued the aggressive style that garnered him one of the biggest stacks to start Day 2. In one big hand he moved all in over the top of both a preflop raise by Ludovic Lacay and a re-raise from Stefan Rotach. Lacay folded quickly, but Rotach thought long and hard before folding, only to have Minieri table . The 10-8 was one of the stronger hands he showed down, as he pushed several players off pots with mediocre holdings throughout the day. His ploy of disguising his hand strength worked well for Minieri, but not so well for Marco Fantini, who busted late in the day when he ran pocket kings into Minieri's aces.

With the fast pace of Day 2, the decision was made to halt play for the day when the field reached 24 players, just after the money bubble burst. Hans Eskilsson was the victim in the final hand of the evening when he busted on the bubble. Eskilsson moved all in preflop with , and found a caller in Moises Parilla Ramos on the button. Arnaud Mattern then moved all in over the top from the big blind, and Ramos quickly got out of the way. Mattern tabled , and needed to fade three aces to end Day 2. The board ran out , and Eskilsson was the bubble boy.

Sergey Shcherbatskiy finished the day with the chip lead as Dario Minieri, Roland de Wolfe and Arnaud Mattern all bagged up huge stacks of chips. Other notable survivors included Ludovic Lacay, Marty Smyth and Isabelle Mercier, as the top ten chip stacks looked like this:

Sergey Shcherbatskiy - 265,900
Dario Minieri - 211,400
Roland de Wolfe - 169,900
Arnaud Mattern - 139,200
Uffe Holm - 127,900
Juan Manuel Pastor - 117,100
Nico Behling - 112,700
Kevin MacPhee - 97,200
Ludovic Lacay - 89,100
Joao Barbosa - 85,900

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