EPT London Main Event Day 2: Surinder Sunar Surges Late

EPT London Main Event Day 2: Surinder Sunar Surges Late 0001

142 players returned to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on Thursday to continue the PokerStars European Poker Tour London Main Event, with stars such as Daniel Negreanu, Liz Lieu, Barny Boatman and Chris Moneymaker all returning to the table after surviving the dual Day 1 sessions. Moneymaker started the day near the top of the leader board, and remained strong throughout the day. The top ten chip stacks to start Day 2 looked like this:

Nicolas Levi (France) 100,300

Daniel Mangas (Spain) 98,500

Antony Phillips (UK) 94,600

Chris Moneymaker (US) 79,700

Ola Brandborn (Sweden) 73,100

Fredrik Haugen (Sweden) 63,800

Vijayan Nagarajan (Malaysia) 59,800

Joseph Mouawad (Lebanon) 59,700

Anthony Lellouche (France) 58,000

Fuat Can (Sweden) 57,500

Two members of Team PokerStars mixed it up separately in the early going, with very different results. Chris Moneymaker took the chip lead when he called a pre-flop raise from Age Spets to see a flop of 572. Spets led out on the flop, Moneymaker min-raised, and Spets re-raised. After a moment's thought, Moneymaker went all in over the top of Spets, who quickly called. Spets' AA was drawing thin against Moneymaker's flopped set with 22, and when the 2 fell on the turn, Spets was drawing dead against quads and the 2003 WSOP World Champion took over the top spot on the leader board. Moneymaker played strong all day to finish with a healthy stack going into Day 3.

At the other end of the spectrum, Moneymaker's Team PokerStars cohort Daniel Negreanu busted early in Day 2 when his AQ couldn't outrun Joseph Mouawad's pocket kings. Negreanu called Mouawad's preflop raise, and check-called on the flop of Q62. When the turn brought the 7, Mouawad led out and Negreanu moved all in. Mouawad called with his KK, and caught the Q on the river to give him the flush and send Negreanu to the rail.

The bustouts were plentiful early on Day 2, with Patrik Antonius, Barny Boatman, Liz Lieu, Mark Vos and Jeffrey Lisandro all eliminated. Nicolas Levi started the day the chip leader, but lost a big pot to Katja Svendsen when he ran a steal into Svendsen's aces. The Frenchman Levi busted before the end of Day 2.

Erik Friberg picked up a huge pot just before the last break of the day when he called a short-stack's all-in move, then called Tony Phillips' re-raise. Friberg's AA held up against Phillips' QQ and the short stack's KQ, and Friberg eliminated two players in one hand.

Friberg wasn't able to hold on to those chips, finishing the day with a micro-stack after getting involved in a huge pot with Surinder Sunar right before play ended for the day. Liam Flood raised from middle position pre-flop, and Sunar called from the button. Friberg called from the big blind, and the flop brought 984. Friberg checked, and Liam Flood moved all in. Sunar called, and Friberg check-raised all in. Sunar called Friberg as well, and the players revealed AK for Flood, 99 for Sunar, and 44 for Friberg. Sunar's top set held up as the 7 came on the turn and the 3 fell on the river. Flood went to the rail, and Friberg was left with just a few chips to bring back for Day 3.

That hand cemented Sunar's chip lead for the day, leaving him atop the field of 40 survivors. The top ten stacks at the end of Day 2 looked like this:

Surinder Sunar – 403,400

Ben Grundy – 220,000

Anthony Lellouche – 213,800

Lam Trinh – 207,400

Phidias Gerogiou – 200,200

Pascal Perrault – 172,800

Josh Egan – 162,300

Fredrik Haugen – 152,400

Stuart Nash – 125,100

Alan Smurfit – 122,100

Join PokerNews at 2PM London time on Thursday as we bring you all the live updates and chip counts from Day 3 of the PokerStars EPT London at the Vic.

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