Main Event
Day 2 Completed
2012 World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Classic
Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2012 World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Classic
Buy-in
$4,000
Prize Pool
$1,212,694
Entries
329
Level
31
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
20,000
Sam El Sayed Leads Into Day 3
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Level 15
: 1,500/3,000, 500 ante
131 players came back today with the volatile Chino Rheem leading with 291,500 in chips way ahead of Maxim Panyak who was in second place with 255,800. But at the end of five 90 minute levels, it was Sam El Sayed who finished at the top of the surviving 53 runners with 375,500 – just 4,000 ahead of Erik Cajelais. El Sayed had been one of the big stacks coming into the day but quietly took the chip lead right at the death despite other stacks having peaked over the 450,000 at points during the day.
We were expecting fireworks early on especially with Rheem sitting next to the 3rd placed Hüsnü Sincar. But the early action was elsewhere as two former EPT champions in Martin Finger and Nicolas Chouity clashed, the latter coming off worse running into the German's top set and getting eliminated.
Michael Mizrachi, who was briefly chip leader on Day 1b was also an early casualty leaving brother Robert as the sole representative from the Mizrachi clan to go into Day 3, he has 365,000 which is enough to put him in third place for now. Gaelle Baumann also disappeared earlier than she'd hoped, her 
being outpipped by El Sayed's 
.
There were a lot of casualties including Tuan Le, Lukas Berglund, Toni Judet and former November Niner Kelly Kim. We guess they'll just have to spend the rest of the week in glorious weather in this all-inclusive hotel, eating and drinking for free. So even though they're out, they're winners of a sort.
Tomorrow we'll be playing through the bubble and possibly down as far as the last two tables. Once again we'll be start at 1pm with 53 remaining, only 36 get paid though so expect the bubble to burst about halfway through the day.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will see you tomorrow!
Official End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)
Here are the official chip counts for the end of Day 2.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
375,500 | |
|
371,500 | |
|
365,000 | |
|
361,000 | |
|
356,500 | |
|
344,500 | |
|
337,000 | |
|
298,000 | |
|
279,500 | -150,500 |
|
277,500 | |
|
|
257,000 | |
|
251,000 | 116,000 |
|
|
242,500 | |
|
|
237,500 | |
|
|
237,000 | |
|
234,000 | 90,000 |
|
225,500 | -34,500 |
|
223,500 | 42,000 |
|
202,500 | |
|
|
198,000 | |
|
|
197,000 | |
|
196,500 | |
|
195,000 | |
|
|
186,500 | |
|
167,000 |
Some End-of-Day Chip Counts
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
375,500 | 227,500 |
|
|
371,500 | 11,500 |
|
|
365,000 | 135,000 |
|
|
361,000 | 46,000 |
|
|
356,500 | |
|
|
344,500 | 93,500 |
|
|
277,500 | -2,500 |
|
127,500 | 35,500 |
Four More Hands
Level 15
: 1,500/3,000, 500 ante
Recent World Series of Poker bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche drew a four from Matt Savage's deck of cards and that means we will be playing four more hands before Day 2 comes to a close.
Andrey Shatilov Climbs To The Top
Andrey Shatilov, the man who won the GSOP Live Grand Final back in April, is our new chip leader her in Cyprus. We just visited his table to see him armed with almost two complete 20-stacks of 10,000 chips!
We witnessed him open to 6,000 from the button and Chino Rheem make the call from the big blind. The flop fell 
, Rheem lead for 11,000 and Shatilov made the call.
The 
turn put a potential flush out there and Rheem checked its arrival. Shatilov set the price to play at 25,000 and Rheem did not take long to get out of there.
"If you had an ace it was good," said Rheem before adding, "Damn those black queens! Did you have an ace?"
"Maybe," came the reply.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
430,000 | 230,000 |
Did Sadineyad Fold Ace-King To A Rheem Three-Bet?
Level 15
: 1,500/3,000, 500 ante
Amirpasha Sadineyad claims he folded ace-king to a three-bet from Chino Rheem.
Sadineyad opened from late position to 6,000 and then went into the tank when Rheem three-bet to 25,000.
"Ace-king no good?" quizzed Sadineyad.
"There is no way you have ace-king," stated Rheem.
A few moments later Sadineyad folded and showed the 
.
"I really had ace-king," claimed Sadineyad, but we nor anyone at his table believed him.
Tihov Not Afraid Of "Mad" Marvin
Level 15
: 1,500/3,000, 500 ante
On a flop reading 
Marvin Rettenmaier checked in the small blind seat, two to his left was Rami Khaddaj and he checked, then the action was on Ivan Tihov in the cutoff. Tihov bet 12,500 and that put the action back on Rettenmaier.
The German PartyPoker sponsored pro check-raised to 31,500 and that was enough to fold out Khaddaj but Tihov had other ideas and raised it up to 63,500. Rettenmaier smelled a rat and got out of there as quick as he could.
One of the players asked Tihov to show a card and he obliged by flipping over the 
. Make of that what you will.
Less Than an Hour
Level 15
: 1,500/3,000, 500 ante
Around 52 minutes remaining of this level and 58 players are still in the tournament, we're very unlikely to make the money but we suspect there will be under 50 players by the end of the day.
Outfoxed
Level 15
: 1,500/3,000, 500 ante
Stuart Fox fired 10,000 at a 
flop against Jerfi Firalti but the latter called his bet before both players checked the turn.
Firalti then led for 29,000 on the 
river and Fox, no longer looking interested, quickly let his hand go.