On one side of the room we found short stacked Andrea Furlanetto moved all in for his last 59,000 from under the gun. It folded around to Lauren Polito who called from the small blind only to find that he was crushed.
Polito:
Furlanetto:
The board fell and Furlanetto was able to score a double up to about 135,000.
Simultaneously on the other side of the room, Mauro Mancin got all of his chips in before the flop against Thomas Gabriel Mancin's was racing with Gabriel's .
The flop was safe for Gabriel, as it came , but the on the turn paired Mancin, thrusting him way out into the lead. The rivered and sealed the deal for Mancin's double up to about 265,000. Gabriel, on the other hand, has fallen to about 160,000.
The PokerNews blog may only be focusing on the Main Event here at the 2012 PokerStars.com EPT Sanremo, but that doesn't mean great things are happening elsewhere.
For the past two days, the €2,000 No-Limit Hold'em side event has been running with Day 1a and 1b. The event held a re-entry format for the two starting days, and a field of 450 entries was generated. That has created a very hefty prize pool of nearly €900,000 worth fighting for. Of that, €210,000 will go to the winner.
Returning for today's Day 2 are 216 runners, and Greece's Sofianos Vergitsis leads the pack with 145,500 in chips. Here's a look at the top 10 chip counts:
Place
Player
Chips
1
Sofianos Vergitsis
145,500
2
Ognjen Sekularac
132,300
3
Ronny Kaiser
126,500
4
Leo Margets
124,300
5
Chris Sly
109,100
6
Dylan Linde
105,000
7
Nikolay Tyurin
97,600
8
Sergey Baburin
96,200
9
Melanie Weisner
94,800
10
Andrey Gulyy
92,900
Other notables returning to action are Team PokerStars Pros Angel Guillen (50,000), Ana Marquez (45,400), Johnny Lodden (38,000), Richard Toth (34,700), Max Lykov (22,800), Max Martinez (22,300), Eugene Katchalov (21,400), Jose "Nacho" Barbero (17,500), Alex Kravchenko (17,400), Victor Ramdin (12,000) and Jonathan Duhamel (9,100). Team Online's Mickey Petersen (17,100) will also be returning for Day 2.
The top 48 places are set to be paid with the players returning for Day 2 at 3:00 PM local time here in Sanremo.
Just after giving away a bunch of his chips to Francesco Lorenzini, Mike Watson took some back from his countryman Guillaume Rivet. Watson shoved his remaining stack of 50,000 in before the flop, and Rivet called.
Watson:
Rivet:
Watson needed help , which he instantly received as the flop came to pair his ace. The came on the turn as well as did the on the river, and Watson doubled up with two pair, aces and eights.
We're not sure of the preflop betting, but we do know that Morten Mortensen got his stack of 157,000 all in preflop and was at risk against Erik Olofsson.
Showdown
Olofsson:
Mortensen:
It was another flip, something we've seen on numerous occasions already in the first hour of play, and Mortensen was looking to dodge big cards. Wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what he did as the board ran out .
The bad day for former British EPT winners has continued with David Vamplew's exit. He fell to Jason Tompkins in a huge flip.
The Irishman opened to 17,000 from under the gun before Vamplew three-bet to 40,000 from the button. The blinds folded but Tompkins had other thoughts and four-bet to 116,000. Vamplew looked a little pained, his neck flushed; maybe with the anticipation of what was about to happen. He shoved for 463,000 and was called by Tompkins after he checked his cards one last time.
With the flop reading , Matt Salsberg checked to Lorenzo Sabato who fired 37,000 from the button. Salsberg slid out a check-raise to 107,000 and Sabato stuck around.
The turn paired the board with the and both players checked to see the come on fifth street. Salsberg tapped the table once more and Sabato moved 113,000 into the middle. Salsberg took off his headphones and looked distressed.
"That was the worst f-ing turn card," Salsberg said.
He mulled over the decision for well over a minute before finally dropped in a call. Sabato showed for a busted straight draw and Salsberg showed , which was enough to take down the pot. Salsberg is now just shy of 800,000 in chips.
Watson moved all in from the small blind, and Laurent Polito called from the big blind. Watson held the and Polito the .
On the flop, Watson got some help in the form of an open-ended straight draw when the fell. He also picked up a backdoor flush draw, but that didn't matter after the landed on the turn. What did matter is that Polito held the to take away some outs from the at-risk Watson.
The came on the river, which spelled the end of the line for Watson as he headed out the door. Polito stacked up to 645,000 and could is setting himself for another great performance in Season 9 of the European Poker Tour.
At the first stop in Barcelona, Polito took down the €10,000 High Roller for €270,229. He defeated a field of 111 entries and a final table that included the likes of Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Tobias Reinkemeier and Alex Bilokur.
On his record, Polito has two other EPT Main Event cashes. The first came in 2009 when he took 17th in the EPT Deauville Main Event for €15,500. Then in 2001, he took ninth in the same event for €50,000.
Many of the game's top pros, including Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson, are calling for a shot clock to be introduced in major live tournaments in a bid to stop the stalling epidemic that is spreading through the game. But is it viable? And if not, what can be done to stop the stallers? PokerStars Blog asks tries to find out.
and Furlanetto was able to score a double up to about 135,000.
was racing with Gabriel's 
.
, but the 
on the turn paired Mancin, thrusting him way out into the lead. The 
to pair his ace. The 
came on the turn as well as did the 
on the river, and Watson doubled up with two pair, aces and eights.
to offer no help to Rivet.
for a busted straight draw and Salsberg showed 
.
came on the river, which spelled the end of the line for Watson as he headed out the door. Polito stacked up to 645,000 and could is setting himself for another great performance in Season 9 of the European Poker Tour.
