Nino Pansier raised to 175,000 from the cutoff. "Appie" sat in the small blind and three-bet to 575,000, around half his stack. Pansier quickly put in the rest and "Appie" called off for his tournament life.
"Appie": K♠K♦Q♣5♠
Nino Pansier: A♠A♦7♦4♠
"Appie" remained hopeful preflop, and even when the 10♠10♥7♥ flop hit he held a positive outlook.
However, the 3♥ river had him stand up, and the 6♦ river indeed could not save his kings against the wrath of Pansier's aces, leaving him stranded in 16th place.
Spyridon Valakos got his stack of 700,000 in from the big blind against Tom Vogelsang on the button, who had the covering stack.
Spyridon Valakos: A♦Q♥Q♣7♦
Tom Vogelsang: A♠A♥9♦6♣
Vogelsang's aces faced little trouble on the 4♥8♥K♣ flop and 6♦ turn. The A♣ river gave him the final ace in the deck to make top set and eliminate Valakos in 20th.
"Alakazam" had three-bet for his stack of 335,000 over an open from Youness Barakat. Barakat quickly called and the cards went open as soon as the other tables finished their hands.
"Alakazam": K♦K♣8♣2♣
Youness Barakat: 10♥10♣6♥5♦
Alakazam had gotten it in relatively well with his kings, however, the J♣Q♦10♠ flop made Barakat a set to take a big lead.
The Q♠ turn upgraded him to a full house, and "Alakazam" failed to hit a king on the 3♥ river, setting his fate as the bubble boy in stone.
The remaining 27 players were all in the money, being guaranteed at least €10,600 for their efforts.
Gergo Nagy had opened from under the gun, after which Andrew Ige three-bet him for roughly 400,000. Nagy made the call to the 4♠J♦Q♠ flop, where led all in for 575,000.
Ige barely covered Nagy and made the call after some thinking time.
Gergo Nagy: A♥K♠K♣9♥
Andrew Ige: A♦A♣9♣8♣
Ige's aces had a sizable lead over Nagy's kings. the 4♣ turn and 6♦ river did not change anything, sending out Nagy two spots before the money.
In a pot of 260,000, Gergo Nagy checked out of the big blind to Christos Argyriadis in middle position. Argyriadis made a bet of 100,000, after which Nagy effectively put him all-in for 690,000.
Argyriadis' chips quickly flew in and the cards hit their backs.
Argyriadis had hit top set, and Nagy's flush draw was nullified on the A♠ turn as it gave Argyriadis unbeatable qudas. The 8♥ river was dealt as a formality while Nagy counted the chips he owed his opponent.
The tournament took a brief pause to announce the prize pool and payouts. The 225 entries created a prize pool of €1,057,500. The event will pay 27 players, with a min-cash of €10,600 and a first-place prize of €234,200.
"Alakazam" raised to 42,000 under the gun and was called by both Harry Casagrande in the hijack and Gergo Nagy on the button. Christos Argyriadis then made it 223,000 to go in small blind, after which "Alakazam" went all in for 483,000.
Casagrande quickly got out of the way and Nagy followed suit after some thinking time. Argyriadis, however, stuck in a call as the two players headed to showdown.
Just over two months ago, at 4:30 in the morning, Aaron Pahlawani won one of the first-ever Diamond Poker Series trophies by shipping the €5,200 Opener at the PLO Grand Slam for €176,100. Today, he is among the 42 players to return to Arena Casino Tirana for the final day of the very same tournament.
While Pahlawani's stack of 526,000 puts him near the bottom quarter of the leaderboard, he still has almost 44 big blinds to play with when Day 2 kicks off today at 2 p.m. local time. Pahlawani's heads up opponent from last November, Pavel Izotov made it through as well, playing a stack of 665,000 as he aims to claim the title this time around.
Pavel Izotov
However, they have their work cut out for them as both stacks dwarf in comparison to Youness Barakat, who captured the chip lead with a monstrous stack of 3,389,000. Interestingly, Barakat took home the bronze medal during the previous edition, looking to improve on that placement this time around. Closely following Barakat in the counts is Diamond Poker Series newcomer Nino Pansier with 3,281,000, while Day 1b chipleader Fabian Riebau-Schmithals sits in third with 2,976,000.
Other big stacks include PLO wizards Gergo Nagy (1,872,000) and Ronald Keijzer (1,569,000), while high-stakes hold'em regular Tom Vogelsang showed his four-card abilities by bagging 1,714,000.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Youness Barakat
Italy
3,389,000
282
2
Nino Pansier
Netherlands
3,281,000
273
3
Fabian Riebau-Schmithals
Germany
2,976,000
248
4
Harry Casagrande
Austria
2,435,000
203
5
Sean Rafael
United States
2,257,000
188
6
Gergo Nagy
Hungary
1,872,000
156
7
Tom Vogelsang
Netherlands
1,714,000
143
8
Ronald Keijzer
Netherlands
1,569,000
131
9
Leonid Yanovski
Israel
1,546,000
129
10
Bernard Larabi
Hungary
1,175,000
98
Tom Vogelsang
Other notable names who have a guaranteed seat at the start of the day include bracelet winners Tomas Ribeiro (1,024,000), Elie Nakache (909,000), Robert Cowen (814,000), Dario Alioto (618,000), and Nikolaos Lampropoulos (579,000). Diamond Poker Series Ambassador Max Kruse brings 293,000 to the table today, slightly more than the starting stack of 200,000.
With the starting flights getting 199 entries in total, the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool has barely not been met yet. However, with late registration remaining open throughout the first level of play today, the expectation is that the guarantee will be surpassed quite easily.
The first level of Day 2 will be 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante, with a break after to allow people to fire one final bullet. Afterward, the field will play as many 45-minute levels as it takes to play down to a winner. A break will be had after every three levels, with a dinner break scheduled around 6:30 p.m. Judging by last time, a marathon session might be in the cards for those lucky enough to run deep.
PokerNews will be live on the floor until the very end, so stay tuned to find out if Pahlawani can successfully defend his title or if a new PLO Grand Slam champion will be crowned.
