Rybin Regains Chip Lead at End of Day 2 WPT Merit Cyprus Classic
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Day 2 of the 2013 bwin World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Classic saw the survivors of Day 1a and Day 1b joined together into a field of 103 players. Action started an hour later than usual, and rightfully so, as the legendary Merit players' party went on into the early hours of the morning and everyone needed the extra bit of rest. At the end of five 90-minute levels of play on Day 2, only 31 competitors remain. Leading the pack at the end of a frantic day of poker was Day 1a chip leader Alexey Rybin with 858,000 in chips.
Rybin started the day third in chips and just kept pounding away on Sunday en route to finishing an astonishing 338,500 chips ahead of his nearest rival, Asaf Avci, who finished with 519,500. Third on the leader board is former WPT Regional champion Natalya Nikitina who has 468,000.
A day of crazy action was expected, and that's exactly what everyone got as the players did not down. What could not have been predicted, however, was just how fast and furious the action would turn out to be. Forty percent of the field was gone in the first two levels alone; 26 players fell in the first level of the day and 17 more in the second. Four- and five-bets were coming often, and players were check-raising like it was mandatory. "Get it all or go home" seemed to be the motto for a lot of the players.
Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi turned up just before the day started, under the impression that he could buy in for a second bullet before play began after having deliberately missed the opportunity on Day 1b. The tournament director stood firm, Mizrachi left disappointed.
An early casualty was PartyPoker Pro and famed television presenter Kara Scott. She called a bet for all her chips only to find out her opponent, Aston Astapau, had rivered a straight. Not long after that, it was game over for fan favorite Sam Trickett from England, who came second in the 2012 World Series of Poker $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, winning over $10,000,000. Trickett made a move with the 
on a player who seemed to have misread the action holding the 
. After Trickett shoved, his opponent made the call, and no ace came to the rescue. Trickett stalked off, no doubt in search of further action.
Canadian online qualifier and all-around bundle of energy Max Droege enjoyed a good day, picking his spots and grinding through to end with a decent stack of 224,500. He was spotted at the players' party very late last night, so we expect he will be getting a good night’s rest before Monday's Day 3.
Other notables still in contention are Sergey Rybachenko (216,000), Giacomo Fundaro (199,000), Manig Loeser (185,500), Tobias Peters (110,000), and Kfir Yamin (90,000).
All remaining 31 players will return on Monday at 1 p.m. for the start of action, and it will surely be a day you don't want to miss. Be sure to tune in with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team for all of the Day 3 coverage you can handle.
Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
, Elias Abou Saleh bet 33,000 with about 100,000 remaining only for Natalya Nikitina to check-raise all in. Saleh snap-called like a rattlesnake after its prey.
gave Nikitina a couple more outs and the 
river duly delivered. A disgusted Saleh ripped off his headphones and went straight for the exit.
but the latter managed to hit a three-outer to prevent what could've been a fun dynamic on table 1. Boo!
against former WPTR winner Natalya Nikintina's 
didn't look great but the 
gave the German some extra outs. The river 
wasn't one of them and Neumann hit the rail.
and Tricket’s Cyprus WPT run was at an end.
board, Aston Astapau put in enough chips in the middle to cover Kara Scott. The latter had around 25,000 left and tanked for about 30 seconds before making the call. Astapau flipped 
