European Poker Tour London Day 2: Tommy Vedes Holds the Chip Lead

October 05 2009, Chris Hall

With the survivors of Days 1a and 1b forming a field of 318 for Day 2 of the European Poker Tour London Main Event, Nikolai Senninger led the way to start the day, having leap-frogged Jeff Lisandro at the end of Day 1b. When the day 2 ended, it was Tommy Vedes who claimed the role of chip leader.

Modification of the much-applauded event structure meant that all levels were 75 minutes, making the ante blind increase even more easily than in previous EPT main events. However, despite this slow rise, stacks disappeared in next to no time as almost 50 players were lost within the first level. Chief among these casualties was former WSOP Main Event finalist (as well as a high-roller finalist here) Dennis Phillips, whose A-K was neither big or slick enough to beat his opponent's pocket kings.

The new WSOPE champion, Barry Shulman, was also eliminated early on, making an over-bet push with on a board but against a player willing to take him on with . The latter made the nut flush with the on the river having already made top pair with the turn.

Jeff Lisandro continued his unprecedented year of good fortune, knocking out Eric Liu in a coin flip that once again put him among the top five chip counts for most of the day.

Annette Obrestad had a more turbulent day as her chip count swung up and down faster than the frequency of her Twitter updates. She finished above 300,000, though, having twice gotten her stack all-in holding a dominating ace toward the end of the day and the board managing to repay her in full both times.

Also in the leading pack is former international soccer player and 14th place finisher at the WSOPE, Teddy Sheringham. The ex-Manchester United and England striker made a real go of things today, eventually knocking out Christian Harder while also doubling through Joel Nordvist at the same time. With Harder all-in preflop, Sheringham and Nordvist saw a {Kx}{9x}{7x} flop, but all the major action happened on the {Qx} turn when Sheringham made the nuts holding against Nordvist's . Nothing changed when the {Ax} hit on the river, and Harder's pocket eights were no good either as Sheringham became one of the first players over the 400,000 mark.

The chip leader, though, at the end of the day was Tommy Vedes who amassed nearly 600,000 by the end of play despite sitting next to reigning WSOP Main Event champion Peter Eastgate.

Tomorrow, seven players will still go home with nothing as play returns on the precipice of the bubble since only 104 places are paid. With the plan to be finished with just three tables by the end of the day, it certainly looks as though Day 3 could be a long one.

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