Ghassan Yared was the one to open as he made it 6,000. His neighbor, Raffaele Sorrentino who he had battled with before, three-bet to 17,500. Action folded back to Yared and he called.
Yared checked on and called Sorrentino's 15,500 bet.
The hit the turn and Yared checked once more. Sorrentino fired 26,500 and Yared moved in for 110,300 total, 83,800 more to Sorrentino.
The 2017 PokerStars Championship Monte-Carlo champion (€466,714/$508,281) and 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona 3rd place finisher (€850,110/$999,318) tanked long and hard before he eventually called.
Ghassan Yared:
Raffaele Sorrentino:
Sorrentino needed a diamond but wouldn't get one. Instead, the popped up to complete the board and Sorrentino parted ways with the majority of his stack.
Jasper Meijer van Putten's bust out slip was handed to PokerNews, and we contacted him to find out what had happened to the defending champion.
Van Putten told us that Tsugunari Toma opened the cutoff with a raise and Boris Kolev, chip leader of the table with 400,000 at the time, called. Meijer van Putten defended his big blind with offsuit.
The flop came and Meijer van Putten checked. Toma bet the size of half the pot and his neighbor the chip leader raised small. Meijer van Putten shoved for 40,800, 17 big blinds. Toma folded but Kolev wasn't intending on doing the same and called with for middle set.
Meijer van Putten hit a on the turn to remain hopeful but a on the river didn't help him and the Dutchman exited the tournament area.
Thomas Mercier opened the button for 6,200 and small blind Jean-Jacques Zeitoun called. Big blind Timothy Adams squeezed all in for 57,600 and Mercier tanked long before releasing his cards into the muck.
Now it was Zeitoun with the decision and he tanked for a bit before deciding to call.
Jean-Jacques Zeitoun:
Timothy Adams:
The flop came and Adams asked for a seven. Instead, the hit and Adams now asked for a king. He got neither an no ace would appear either. The hit and Adams started to gather his things before exiting.
All of the players who still had chips in PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event gathered in one room for the first time, with survivors of two starting days and last-minute registrants creating a field of 855 entries. At the close of six levels of play, that number has been reduced to only 140 hopefuls, just a few eliminations from the money bubble that will take place when 128 remain.
The top 127 will get chunks of a prize pool finalized during the opening hour of play, totaling over €4.1 million and paying out €775,000 to the winner.
The players who have best positioned themselves to claim that windfall after 14 levels include Paul Michaelis (630,500), Omid Mojaverian (597,500) and Erik Walfridsson (536,500).
Michaelis, who won a bracelet in 2015 in one of the last pot-limit hold'em events ever at the WSOP, will try to continue the modern poker tradition of Germans sweeping up all of the money out there. In a big hand late in Day 2, he got three streets of all-in value with a turned set of tens in a three-bet pot against a player who had paired on the flop with ace-king. Just before the day came to an end, Michaelis flopped another set and ultimately sent Romain Lewis to the rail to claim the top spot.
Day 1 chip leader and local Czech standout Michal Mrakes also followed up his big Day 1 with a solid Day 2. While his nearly $1 million in cashes speaks to his overall success, Mrakes seems to do especially well here in his home country, with cashes of €200,000 and €46,594 already this year.
While Mrakes couldn't hold his overall lead on the field, he still increased his stack from 202,700 to 333,000, good enough for almost two times the average.
Team PokerStars also performed well, with Fatima Moreira de Melo, Igor Kurganov, Jake Cody, Maria Konnikova and Marcin Horecki all still carrying the banner heading into Day 3.
Fatima Moreira De Melo
Players who weren't so fortunate and found themselves hitting the rail on Day 2 included Timothy Adams, Koray Aldemir, Davidi Kitai, John Juanda and Adrian Mateos.
Jasper Meijer van Putten, the Dutchman who won the final EPT Prague here last year, also busted. He got his chips in way behind with top pair against a set held by Boris Kolev, and though a sweat arrived when Meijer van Putten turned trips, he was felted when the river bricked off.
Day 3 play picks up Friday at noon at Level 15 (2,000/4,000/500) and will see a switch to 90-minute levels. Come back to PokerNews then to continue following the development of one of the last big tournaments of 2017.