Main Event
Day 2 Completed
2012 PokerStars.it EPT Campione
Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2012 PokerStars.it EPT Campione
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€2,764,500
Entries
570
Level
32
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000
PokerStars.it EPT Campione Day 2: Botond Leads By Almost 150,000 Chips
Level 14
: 1,200/2,400, 300 ante
Day 2 of the PokerStars.it European Poker Tour Campione Main Event has come to a conclusion and it is Hungarian Balazs Botond who has ended the day with the most chips, 646,000 of them to be exact.
Botond started the day with 107,000 chips but despite this he was a relative unknown to the poker media. However, those same media people are now more than away of him and his ability to constantly accumulate chips. He flew under the radar for a large percentage of the day before we noticed a blue PokerStars hoodie-sporting man sat behind a huge pile of chips worth approximately 325,000 at a time when the player we believed to be chip leader was sat armed with 220,000 ceramic discs. From that point on we kept an eye on him in an attempt to see him running amazingly well, such is usually the case in these situations, but he wasn't running that well at all just playing superb poker — something those sat around him confirmed to us.
When play resumes at 14:00 CET on Thursday Botond will be on course for what will be his third cash in an EPT Main Event. The man from Budapest cashed in the 2010 Vienna main event and more recently at EPT Deauville in 2012 and is now just 11 eliminations away from the money here in Campione. If we liked to gamble then we would put out houses on him picking up money finish number three.
Hot on the heels of Botond is one of a handful of former EPT champions still in the field; Ronnie Kaiser. The Swiss national was poised to strike all day long, hovering above the average chip count but he won a huge pot with 
versus 
and 
to eliminate two players at once and see his stack swell past the 500,000 chip barrier. He bagged and tagged 505,900 chips when play came to a close after six 75-minute levels.
Other notables still in contention in this tournament include former EPT London champion David Vamplew (412,900), Olivier Busquet (353,100), the charismatic Roberto Romanello (331,000), Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree (300,900) and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (113,500) along with Nicolas Chouity (257,000) and Martin Finger (137,600).
A special mention must go to Miss Boeree who was down to just eight big blinds when at the 500/1,000/100a level only for he to stage the most epic of comebacks to end the day with almost exactly 100 big blinds! it is too early to talk about the possibility of a first double EPT champion but one cannot help but think Boeree's comeback would make an excellent story!
On Thursday afternoon the 99 surviving players will retake their seats each with a common goal --to avoid becoming the 89th place finisher and becoming the bubble boy or girl. The players will battle it out for as long as it takes to get down to just 24 players so join us on Thursday afternoon for all the action, as it happens, from the EPT Campione main event.
End of Day 2 Chip Counts (full)
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
646,000 | -54,000 |
|
506,500 | 6,500 |
|
436,000 | |
|
412,900 | |
|
382,400 | |
|
364,000 | |
|
353,100 | |
|
331,000 | |
|
317,500 | |
|
307,000 | 168,600 |
|
300,900 | |
|
292,600 | |
|
286,400 | |
|
|
273,200 | 48,200 |
|
257,000 | 136,000 |
|
255,100 | 133,700 |
|
246,500 | |
|
245,100 | 123,900 |
|
|
237,400 | |
|
236,400 | |
|
231,900 | |
|
|
220,600 | |
|
214,600 | |
|
|
214,000 | |
|
211,200 |
Last Three Hands...
Level 14
: 1,200/2,400, 300 ante
Players are playing their last three hands for the day.
Palovic Sent Packing
Team PokerStars Pro Dag Palovic has been grinding a short stack all day. His exhausting journey has come to an end after he lost a race.
With the blinds at 1,200/2,400 Andrey Demidov raised to 15,000 and called when the Slovakian three-bet all-in for 26,000.
Palovic turned a Broadway draw but failed to find a ten on the river.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |
Demontis Four-Bet Gets Through
Level 14
: 1,200/2,400, 300 ante
Carlo Savinelli, seated in early position, set the price to play at 5,100. One player folded and Roberto Romanello three-bet to 13,000. Olivier Busquet gets out of the way but Stefano Demontis stuck in a four-bet to 30,500. The small blind instantly folded but Salvatore Pengue tanks for close to a minute in his big blind before letting his hand go.
The action was then on the initial raiser, Savinelli, and he paused for another minute, hiding behind his oversized shades before flicking his cards to the dealer.
"I fold," said Romanello, tossing his bet to Demontis. "Will you show?"
"You show first, " came the reply.
"You put in the four-bet. You show," responded Romanello
Demontis obliged and showed which incidentally was the same hand Romanello held.
"Good fold. Very serious," Romanello was told but we don't think the Welshman is too happy with it.
Soul-Read?
Fabrice Soulier had bet 10,000 on the river of an 
board but was none too impressed when Andrey Gulyy made it 35,500 to go. The Frenchman took his time but ended up respecting his opponent's raise, mucking his hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
180,000 | 42,000 |
|
75,000 | -40,700 |
Boeree Bluffs Yunis
With the board reading 
Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree fired out an 11,500 bet on the turn and Nick Yunis made the call while Candido Goncalves folded. The river was the 
and Boeree carefully put out a bet of 26,000 which Yunis did not like. He rechecked his chip stack and cards, finally saying, "I can't believe I'm folding this..." before putting his hand into the muck.
Boeree flipped 
and David Vamplew, in between the two, began to giggle.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
260,000 | 32,000 |
|
105,000 | -9,000 |
Boeree Uses Broom to Trip Up Vamplew
Liv Boeree's remarkable comeback from eight big blinds earlier is showing no signs of slowing down.
She tangled and bettered David Vamplew to approach the quarter-million chip mark. We picked up the action on the turn where Boeree (cut-off) check-called a 25,000 from Vamplew (button). At the river the final board read 
and Boeree checked again.
Vamplew gave up and opened 
for a busted draw. The Team PokerStars Pro opened 
and scooped more chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
358,000 | -57,000 |
|
|
228,000 | 143,000 |
Nedellec Left With Crumbs
Level 14
: 1,200/2,400, 300 ante
The towers that once stood proudly in front of Marion Nedellec are now nothing but a couple of piles of rubble after her "Big Chick" ran foul of Danilo Donnini's pocket eights. The later was the all-in player but just as it looked like he would be heading out of the door the board ran out 
and a sad looking Nedellec was left with just 8,000.