Day 2 of the $5,300 Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event concluded after 10 levels of play at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel on the shores of Northern Cyprus. The day began with 342 players, but exactly 300 were eliminated, leaving just 42 players remaining from the total field of 1,260.
Azamat Lamkov is leading the field. According to Hendon Mob, this tournament will mark his biggest cash yet, with every player already guaranteed $24,000.
Lamkov is only 50,000 ahead of Leon Sturm, who managed to build up his stack during the day. The last two hours provided a significant boost for him. First, he won two big pots in a row, including busting Samuel Kabelitz, and then he won a big pot against Tom Talboom three hands before the day ended.
Sturm is closely followed by Assyl Tleuzhanov (17,000,000) and Damir Gabdullin (16,675,000).
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Azamat Lamkov | Russian Federation | 17,850,000 | 60 |
| 2 | Leon Sturm | Germany | 17,800,000 | 59 |
| 3 | Assyl Tleuzhanov | Kazakhstan | 17,000,000 | 57 |
| 4 | Damir Gabdullin | Russian Federation | 16,675,000 | 56 |
| 5 | Alex Keating | United States | 15,325,000 | 51 |
| 6 | Dmitrii Levin | Russian Federation | 14,600,000 | 49 |
| 7 | Birger Larsen | Norway | 14,475,000 | 48 |
| 8 | Kirill Shcherbakov | Russian Federation | 13,725,000 | 46 |
| 9 | Xiaoming Weng | China | 13,625,000 | 45 |
| 10 | Sergey Utenkov | Peru | 13,400,000 | 45 |
Among the notables near the top of the leaderboard after Day 2 are Alex Keating (15,325,000), Dmitrii Levin (14,600,000), and Matas Cimbolas (11,325,000). The chip leader of flight 1b, Mikhail Zavoloka (5,500,000), along with Stephen Song (5,175,000), Mihai Niste (4,975,000) and Kalidou Sow (1,875,000), are looking to increase their stacks when they return for Day 3 tomorrow.
Among the notables who saw their tournament cut short today were Dominik Nitsche, Renji Mao, Alessio Isaia, Boris Kolev, Stefan Lehner, Ami Barer, Jessica Teusl, and Teun Mulder.
The day commenced with 270 players returning from the three starting flights, along with an additional 72 from an extra turbo flight held late yesterday. With that, the event surpassed the guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000, with an extra $1,048,000 added. After three hours of play, the tournament director announced a halt in play after the current hand to initiate hand-for-hand play. However, six players had different plans and went all-in during this announcement, resulting in the bubble bursting, with four players sharing the prize for the 189th place.
Day 3 begins tomorrow at noon local time inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel in North Cyprus. Action will pick up on Level 23, with blinds of 150,000-300,000 and a 300,000 big blind ante, and will play down to the final table.
PokerNews will be back at the felt with the players at that time, bringing you all the action.
