Most of Gianmarco Kovari's chips had gone in preflop, as he had only had a single T-5,000 chip left with around 60,000 in the middle.
The flop read 5♦9♥8♦ when he was put all-in for his final chip by Borja Diaz. Kovari took his time to think things through but, surrounded by media and onlookers, ultimately made the call for his tournament life.
Gianmarco Kovari: A♥K♠
Borja Diaz: J♦7♦
Kovari still had the best hand, but Diaz had a plethora of outs to choose from. The 3♦ turn gave Diaz the checkmark as he made his flush.
Kovari had no outs left to hit and officially bubbled the PSO Campione Main Event after the meaningless 6♥ river completed the board.
Davide Cojaniz had opened from early position when Axel Tambolla made it 43,000 in the small blind. Cojaniz then jammed all in for 136,000, sending Tambolla into the tank.
After about five minutes, the clock was called on Tamballo. Near the end of his countdown, he tossed in calling chips, and the players' holdings were revealed.
Davide Cojaniz: A♦K♦
Axel Tambolla: Q♥Q♦
Cojaniz did not improve on the 2♠10♦10♣ flop or 5♥ turn. The Q♣ river upgraded Tambolla to a full house, securing the pot and knocking Cojaniz out.
Tambolla offered Cojaniz a fist bump, but the latter declined, accusing his opponent of slow-rolling.
The rest of the table also scolded Tambolla for taking his time, but Tambolla just laughed and disagreed with the sentiment as he stacked up the chips.
The PokerStars Open (PSO) Campione €1,100 Main Event was already declared the largest-ever standalone 1K event in PokerStars Live history, and with a whopping 284 new entries during the first and only level of Day 2 with late registration open, the record was set at 2,423 entries. An accompanying prize pool of €2,326,080 was generated, with an eye-watering first-place prize of €363,000.
Over 1,000 players partook on Day 2 at Casino di Campione, but at the end of the night, only 198 remained, all in the money. Yossi Maymon appeared among the top of the counts just before the money, and he profited off the bubble play to end with a massive stack of 1,754,000, over 219 big blinds worth of chips at the start of Day 3. The Israeli player appears to play poker sporadically, only sporting a few small results since his first cash at EPT Loutraki in 2011, and is only a couple of payjumps away from taking home his largest-ever prize.
Alessandro Giordano (1,341,000) and Vincenzo D'Agostino (1,286,000) ended the day as Italy's only chip millionaires, good for silver and bronze on the podium. Meanwhile, Sebastian Kotowicz in fourth was the only player from the start-of-day top ten to make a reappearance, being the final seven-figure stack with 1,075,000.
Sebastian Kotowicz
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 3 Big Blinds
1
Yossi Maymon
Israel
1,754,000
219
2
Alessandro Giordano
Italy
1,341,000
168
3
Vincenzo D'Agostino
Italy
1,286,000
161
4
Sebastian Kotowicz
Poland
1,075,000
134
5
Michele Galeotafiore
Italy
990,000
124
6
Manel Montalban
Spain
924,000
116
7
Roberto Cilia
Italy
918,000
115
8
Karim Radani
Italy
882,000
110
9
Axel Tambolla
Italy
848,000
106
10
Daniele Casino
Italy
840,000
105
Benjamin Bruneteaux was the only PokerStars Ambassador to make it to Day 3, outlasting all his colleagues. Other notable players with chips include Fabio Peluso (768,000), start-of-day chipleader Darius Neagoe (450,000), and Ivan Banic (368,000). Gabi Livshitz doubled during the final few hands of the night to end up with a stack of 308,000, while Alessandro Pichierri made it through with a short stack of 96,000.
Day 2 Action
Team PokerStars had solid representation at the start of the day, but Sam Grafton, Adam Mckola, Rory Jennings, and Barny Boatman all fell just after the end of late registration. Alex Romero got a lot closer to the money but said his goodbyes a few dozen spots away.
EPT Champions Antonio Buonanno, Arsenii Karmatckii, Giuliano Bendinelli, Simon Brandstrom, and Grzegorz Glowny all fell short of cashing as well, until ultimately Gianmarco Kovari became the bubble boy when his ace-king was drawing dead after the turn.
Gianmarco Kovari
Once in the money, Vivian Saliba collected her min-cash of €1,790, while Conor Bergin and Dominik Panka made the pay jump to €2,050. Andriy Lyubovetskiy and PokerStars Ambassador Guillermo Sanz were among the latest eliminations of the night and collected €2,360 for their efforts.
That same amount is guaranteed for the 189 players as they will return tomorrow, March 15, at 12:30 p.m. local time for Day 3. The six-figure payouts for the final four are still some ways off, but nonetheless many dreams will be dreamt tonight about becoming the first-ever PokerStars Open Champion.
PSO Campione Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
€363,000
16-17
€14,860
2
€225,200
18-20
€12,370
3
€160,880
21-23
€10,320
4
€123,760
24-27
€8,600
5
€95,190
28-31
€7,280
6
€73,210
32-39
€6,330
7
€56,330
40-55
€5,490
8
€43,340
56-71
€4,780
9
€33,320
72-95
€4,160
10-11
€25,650
96-119
€3,600
12-13
€21,380
120-143
€3,130
14-15
€17,820
144-183
€2,720
184-189
€2,360
Day 3 will restart with 30 minutes to play in Level 21: 4,000/8,000 (8,000). The remaining levels will last 75 minutes each, with a break scheduled after every two of them. An exact end point has not been decided yet, but with the overwhelming turnout at PSO Campione, another late night is in the cards for the players.
Check back in with PokerNews tomorrow to find out how your favorite players fare as the PokerStars Open Campione Main Event will progress to the business end of things.
