Day 2 of Event #15 started today at 3pm with 216 of the original 450 runners returning. EPT Tallinn winner and high stakes grinder Ronny Kaiser sits third in chips with 48 places paying. Check out today's starting seat draw and prize payouts by clicking through to the PokerStars Blog.
Matt Salsberg opened for 24,000 from early position and was met with a three-bet to 62,000 by Angelo Recchia in the small blind. Iulian Ruxandescu then moved all in for 129,000 from the big, Salsberg folded, and Recchia made the call.
| Showdown |
Ruxandescu:   |
Recchia:   |
It was the sort of flip we've become used to, and as we've seen many times in this tournament, the pair of tens would hold after the board ran out 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
900,000 | -150,000 |
|
300,000 | 171,000 |
Action folded around to current chip leader Inge Forsmo and he made it 20,000 from the cutoff. [Removed:163] called from the button and the blinds got out of the way.
The dealer tapped the table and spread out a flop of 
and Forsmo threw out a c-bet of 21,000. Sheikh called and the 
paired the board on fourth street. Forsmo kept up with the aggression with a bet of 36,000. Sheikh once again decided to stick around.
Both players checked the 
on the river and Forsmo showed 
. Sheikh mucked his hand and Forsmo added to his chip lead.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,425,000 | 100,000 |
|
|
450,000 | -101,000 |
Ioannis Kontonatsios started the day short stacked, but managed to stay alive until the middle of Level 20 before running his 
into Matt Salsberg's 
.
No eights came on the board as it ran out 
, sending Kontonatsios home and giving yet another boost to Salsberg's stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,320,000 | 110,000 |
|
Busted |
Picking up the action with the dealer counting Laurent Polito's chips for Negjdel Avdylaj's double up, the board read 
. A pair of queens — 
— lay in front of Avdylaj. Polito's hand had already been mucked, and the dealer took away 190,000 chips off his stack and pushed them to Avdylaj.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
315,000 | -340,000 |
|
283,000 | -67,000 |
Erion Islamay began the tournament on a strong note, ending Day 1a as the chip leading. He rode that success to a deep run here in the Main Event, but it has now come to an end.
Islamay moved all in from middle position for 141,000. Isaac Haxton called from the big blind for less at 126,000. Haxton held the to Islamay's 
. From there, the board came 
, and Haxton doubled.
Islamay was left with just 15,000 in chips and was eliminated on the next hand in unknown action.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
265,000 | 138,000 |
|
Busted |
We just saw a huge hand take place that inspired a celebration so boisterous that the entire room, including the €2,000 side event, grew eerily quiet.
It began when Eric Nhouyvanisvong opened for 22,000 and received a call from Micah Raskin in the cutoff. Luca Moschitto of PokerStars Team Online then moved all in from the small blind for 296,000. Nhouyvanisvong made the call, and then Raskin opted to move all in himself for 499,000 total. Nhouyvanisvong thought long and hard before making the call.
Showdown
Nhouyvanisvong: 
Raskin:
Moschitta:
Both Nhouyvanisvong and Moschitta seemed demoralized when they saw Raskin's red aces, but the flop made things interesting as it gave the Italian a flush draw.
"Heart, heart," Moschitta's girlfriend, Sofia Lovgren, yelled from one table over.
"Black," Raskin countered. The dealer obliged with the 
on the turn. "Black," Raskin said again knowing he was just one card away from the chip lead. This time the dealer did not listen and put down the . Muschitta hit his cards and celebrated at the top of his lungs, a celebration that caught the attention of everyone in the room.
Raskin was left shaking his head, though he did collect the side pot, while Nhouyvanisvong was crippled down to just 200,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
900,000 | 611,000 |
|
405,000 | -125,000 |
|
200,000 | -563,000 |
Justin Bonomo has a weird dynamic at his table. He has an average stack of a little less than 500k but almost all of his opponents have a lot less.
Two of those opponents, Sebastian Von Toperczer and Peter Dragar, just went to war over the course of two hands.
Von Toperczer open shoved from under the gun for around 100,000 and Dragar called all in from the big blind.
Dragar: 
Von Toperczer: 
The board ran 
to make Dragar a straight to stay alive.
Von Toperczer was left with 36,000 and called them off when Dragar set him from the small blind.
Dragar:
Von Toperczer: 
The latter got his revenge on the 
board.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
165,000 | 28,000 |
|
82,000 | -166,000 |
From early position, Isaac Haxton raised to 20,000. [Removed:163] reraised to 60,000 from the hijack position, then action folded back around the table to Haxton. After about 30 seconds, Haxton announced that he was all in.
"All right, I call," was the response from Sheikh as he looked at his stack just to double check things. He held the .
When Haxton saw Sheikh turn up the pocket tens, he wasn't impressed. With a shake of his head, Haxton tabled the .
The board ran out 
to keep Sheikh's tens in front and give him the double up. He was all in for 264,000 and moved to over 550,000. Haxton slipped back to just about 12 big blinds (127,000).
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
551,000 | 257,000 |
|
|
127,000 | -361,000 |
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,325,000 | 304,000 |
|
|
1,210,000 | -40,000 |
|
1,200,000 | 50,000 |
|
910,000 | 525,000 |
|
|
655,000 | 10,000 |
|
505,000 | 126,000 |
|
485,000 | |
|
443,000 | 41,000 |
|
|
405,000 | -117,000 |
|
390,000 | -20,000 |
|
315,000 | -174,000 |
|
200,000 | -305,000 |
|
155,000 | -39,000 |
