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Not often can a player remain atop the leaderboard of a tournament throughout an entire day of poker. Today, Marian Virlanuta managed to stave off bad beats, win flips, and generally put on a spectacular display of his skills as the start-of-day chipleader of the $1,100 Eureka Main Event was also the one with the most chips at the end of eight levels of play.
Virlanuta, who started the day with 1,156,000 chips, expanded his stack steadily throughout the day, remaining in first position throughout the majority of it. In the end, he bagged up 4,680,000 and will start Day 3 with 117 big blinds as a result. The PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus stop seems like a lucky one for Virlanuta, as this is not his first deep run at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. Last year, he finished 34th in the $5,300 EPT Main Event for $21,500, the third-largest score of his career.
Cyprus native Georgios Tsouloftas ended up second in chips with 3,900,000, while the Russian pair of Igor Abelmasov and Andrey Pateychuk sit in third and fourth with 3,800,000 and 3,700,000, respectively. Muhtar Taysi from Turkey rounds out the top five with a stack of 3,170,000, being the only other player with more than 3,000,000 chips.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marian Virlanuta | Romania | 4,680,000 | 117 |
| 2 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | 3,900,000 | 98 |
| 3 | Igor Abelmasov | Russian Federation | 3,800,000 | 95 |
| 4 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russian Federation | 3,700,000 | 93 |
| 5 | Muhtar Taysi | Turkey | 3,170,000 | 79 |
| 6 | Alexey Badulin | Russian Federation | 2,960,000 | 74 |
| 7 | Guoliang Wei | China | 2,540,000 | 64 |
| 8 | Vladislav Dubanov | Russian Federation | 2,475,000 | 62 |
| 9 | Andre Marquardt | Germany | 2,400,000 | 60 |
| 10 | Sebastian Ting | Germany | 2,350,000 | 59 |
Other notables who made it through to Day 3 include overseas grinders Martin Zamani (2,090,000) and Michael Wang (490,000), French powerhouse Alexandre Reard (1,400,000), 2022 Eureka Prague winner Pieter Theelen (1,240,000), and PokerStars Ambassador Marle Spragg (695,000).
Day 2 Action
Day 2 started with 418 players returning from a total field of 2,803. All players had guaranteed themselves a min-cash of $1,680, which is what the likes of Aliaksei Boika, Bart Lybaert, and PokerStars’ Sebastian Huber received for their efforts as they bowed out very early in the day.
Huber’s fellow Red Spades Fintan Hand and Benjamin Spragg busted not much later, having made a pay jump. Georgina James (269th - $2,210), Benjamin Bruneteaux (250th - $2,210), and Barny Boatman (239th - $2,210) were all eliminated before the tournament got into the thick of it, with only Julien Brecard (68th - $5,030) coming close to joining Marle Spragg on Day 3.
Other notables who collected a payout today include Virlanuta’s fellow Day 1 chipleaders Sergei Bortsov (177th - $2,900), Azizjon Rakhimov (152nd - $2,900), Xiaosheng Zheng (110th - $3,810), and Mark Steven Smith (74th - $4,370); high stakes regulars Diogo Coelho (362nd - $1,680), Pablo Silva (322nd - $1,920), and Tom Vogelsang (150th - $2,900); as well as defending champion Ankit Ahuja (223rd - $2,210).
Preben Stokkan (82nd - $4,370), Victoria Livschitz (81st - $4,370), Casimir Seire (70th - $5,030), and Alexandre Vuilleumier (57th - $5,030) were among the final eliminations of the night before the 56 remaining players bagged up for Day 3.
They will return at noon local time on Sunday, October 13 to play out the penultimate day of the Eureka Main Event. Blinds will start in Level 25 with blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante and all levels will remain 60 minutes in length. Day 3’s plan is to play down to at least a final table of nine players. All players have secured $5,030 already, but all eyes will be on the massive sum of $386,210 which will be awarded to the first-place finisher.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $386,210 | 12-13 | $22,950 | |
| 2 | $241,290 | 14-15 | $19,120 | |
| 3 | $172,060 | 16-17 | $15,900 | |
| 4 | $132,120 | 18-20 | $13,260 | |
| 5 | $101,390 | 21-23 | $11,050 | |
| 6 | $78,770 | 24-27 | $9,190 | |
| 7 | $60,850 | 28-31 | $7,670 | |
| 8 | $46,600 | 32-39 | $6,660 | |
| 9 | $35,840 | 40-55 | $5,780 | |
| 10-11 | $27,560 | 56 | $5,030 |
Tune back in to PokerNews tomorrow to find out who will make it to the final table of one of EPT Cyprus’ biggest tournaments.
