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!
Per Ummer just had a lucky escape at the table but not in the poker sense of the word. We heard a large crack, then a bang and saw Ummer flat out on his back on the casino floor!
It appears part of his chair broke and left him sprawled out on the carpet, but thankfully he hasn't suffered any injuries; just a touch of bruised pride.
Stuart Fox is a rare breed in th WPT Merit Cyprus Classic, he's a British player who has chips to play with; 204,000 of them. However, he almost had much fewer but Lady Luck was shining down on him and helped him to crack the pocket aces of Oleg Lipkin.
It was Ran Ozar who opened the betting, making it 5,300 to play from the hijack. To his left was Fox and he flat-called the open but Alexey Makarov on the button squeezed to 15,300. Amazingly this was not the end of the betting as Oleg Lipkin moved all-in for 52,500 from the small blind. Lipkin's shove folded out the big blind and Azor but Fox came over the top and re-shoved! Makarov reluctantly folded and the hands were showndown.
Lipkin:
Fox:
Fox was in a whole world of pain but that would soon turn to a world of delight as the flop came down . The turn kept Fox's set in front and when the river was the it was game over for Lipkin and Fox flew up the chip counts.
There was a raise to 4,000 from under the gun and his raise started off a whole lot of action!
First Maxin Panyak, seated to Romanovskyi's direct left, made the call, then Said Chichba called two to his left. Hakan Dalokay folded and the action was on Martin Finger. He composed himself before moving all in for 24,700 chips.
[Removed:167] was in the small blind and he re-shoved in an attempt to isolate Finger and his plan worked as the other active players folded their hands.
Ehrhardt:
Finger:
Finger was in serious danger of being sent to the rail but he must have made a sacrifice to the Poker Gods this morning as the board ran out gifting Finger the most unlikely of straights and he now has a workable 53,000 stack.
German pro Manig Loeser is flying high and is now approaching a quarter of a million chips, thanks in part to a huge pot won from [Removed:2].
The board read and Maksoud checked over to pristine-white shirted Loeser who bet 27,100 into a pot containing over 100,000 chips. Maksoud took the bait and moved all-in and a calm and collected Loeser said,"I call," and showed for the nut flush, much to the annoyance of Maksoud.
It's the biggest pot of the tournament so far and its gone to Hüsnü Sincar. Chino Rheem had raised then four-bet against Sincar's reraise to see a flop. Rheem continued his aggression there but Sincar called to see the on the turn.
Rheem moved all in and Sincar snap-called.
Rheem:
Sincar:
The river was the and Sincar hit a huge double up, Rheem meanwhile, has gone out to have a cigarette break.
Chino Rheem has massively increased his lead, he had a 60,000 bet paid off on the river of a board by Hüsnü Sincar. Rheem showed for a rivered set of queens, Sincar said afterwards he had been holding aces.
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
being outpipped by El Sayed's 
.
. The 
turn kept Fox's set in front and when the river was the 
it was game over for Lipkin and Fox flew up the chip counts.
gifting Finger the most unlikely of straights and he now has a workable 53,000 stack.
and Maksoud checked over to pristine-white shirted Loeser who bet 27,100 into a pot containing over 100,000 chips. Maksoud took the bait and moved all-in and a calm and collected Loeser said,"I call," and showed 
flop. Rheem continued his aggression there but Sincar called to see the 
on the turn.
board by Hüsnü Sincar. Rheem showed