Marius Gierse Leads the Final 15 Players After Day 2 of $15,000 Main Event
It was a one-of-a-kind day at the Landing Casino in the Jeju Shinhwa World Resort for Day 2 of the $15,000 Main Event. The marquee event on the schedule for the Super High Roller Series at The Lord Poker Tour (TLPT) stop in Jeju, South Korea was anything but boring with a $3,000,000 prizepool up for grabs.
A total of 191 entries were recorded throughout this event after staff extended the late registration period by an additional four levels today in hopes of reaching the guaranteed prizepool. They came up just short of their goal despite a wild and chaotic first couple of hours. After 12 levels of poker on Day 2, just 15 players remained in the fight for the title and the first-place prize of $750,000.
Leading the way heading into the third and final day is high-stakes tournament regular Marius Gierse who made the trek to South Asia all the way from Germany. Gierse is one of a few players who made his way through on just a single bullet in this event and managed to catch fire in the last couple hours of the day en route to bagging a stack of 7,545,000 chips.
With over $5.6 million in career tournament earnings, Gierse is one of the more well-known players still remaining in the field and will enter the final day as the odds-on favorite to add another title to his resume. Despite having a healthy chip lead, Gierse will have to keep his eyes on many other poker pros looking to chase him down including another German player, Martin Sedlak who is currently sitting in second place with 4,755,000 chips.
Day 3 Seat Draw and Chip Counts
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Quan Zhou | China | 2,140,000 | 27 |
| 2 | 2 | Stephen Song | United States | 3,330,000 | 42 |
| 2 | 3 | Martin Sedlak | Germany | 4,755,000 | 59 |
| 2 | 4 | Patrik Demus | Hungary | 2,250,000 | 28 |
| 2 | 5 | Junbo Qu | China | 1,370,000 | 17 |
| 2 | 6 | James Mendoza | Philippines | 4,085,000 | 51 |
| 2 | 7 | Ivan Zhang | China | 3,550,000 | 44 |
| 2 | 8 | Huawei Lin | China | 4,265,000 | 53 |
| 3 | 1 | Martin Nielsen | Faroe Islands | 3,505,000 | 44 |
| 3 | 3 | Haitao Lei | China | 985,000 | 12 |
| 3 | 4 | Gary Thompson | Ireland | 1,460,000 | 18 |
| 3 | 5 | Marius Gierse | Germany | 7,545,000 | 94 |
| 3 | 6 | Mauricio Salazar Sanchez | Colombia | 1,920,000 | 24 |
| 3 | 7 | Bin Leng | China | 1,915,000 | 24 |
| 3 | 8 | Jiaming Zhao | China | 4,685,000 | 59 |
Action from Day 2
There were just 58 players who returned to their seats from the Day 1 field that attracted 122 entries. However, with late registration being extended, many players took full advantage of the opportunity and wasted little time getting their entire stacks in the middle. For the first couple of hours to begin the day, it merely felt like the only option was to play for stacks in every pot. Ivan Zhang (3,550,000) was a prime example when he hit up the registration desk multiple times in a matter of minutes after sticking a starting stack in the middle blindly.
Once the registration period closed, a little more standard poker began to be played with players taking it a little more serious. A total of 92 unique entries along with 99 reentries comprised the total number of 191 entries recorded in this event. It was announced that 29 places would be paid and it was a mad dash to get to that number until the action seized just a couple players off of the money.
Tournament staff opted to go hand-for-hand two players off of the bubble which kept the action flowing at a good pace. Quan Zhou (2,140,000), a co-founder of the TLPT, was the big beneficiary of the bubble when Jiaming Zhao (4,685,000) got out of line with a couple of raggedy cards. Zhou looked down at pocket aces and scored a massive double which vaulted him into the chip lead at the time. Just a couple of hands later, it was Kaihua Liu who ran his ace-king into the pocket kings of Raffaele Sorrentino to burst the bubble.
Due to the extended late registration and double levels to start the day, tournament staff also had to amend the schedule and agreed to stop play when just two tables remained. In a pivotal hand of the tournament, Gierse got involved in a massive coin flip against Minh Quang Nguyen. The pocket queens for Gierse held up and Nguyen was sent to the payout desk, sending Gierse into the chip lead that he wouldn't relinquish on this day.
Some other notbales to keep an eye on as the final day unfolds include James Mendoza (4,085,000), Stephen Song (3,330,000), Mauricio Salazar Sanchez (1,920,000), and the only female remaining Huawei Lin (4,265,000). The remaining players have each locked up at least $38,000 for their efforts but the lion's share of the prizepool still remains with the top seven players earning at least $100,000 and the winner taking home a cool $750,000.
The cards are scheduled to go back in the air at 1 p.m. local time with just a few minutes remaining in level 22 and the blinds at 40,000/80,000 and an 80,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 50 minutes in length throughout the event with a winner being crowned tomorrow evening.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the updates, which be posted on a delay starting tomorrow to remain in sync with the YouTube live stream.