Angelo Arossi Bags Chip Lead as 24 Players Remain in WSOPC Liechtenstein Main Event
Day 2 of the CHF1,500 Main Event at the 2026 WSOP Circuit Liechtenstein played out inside the Grand Casino Liechtenstein, with 125 players returning to their seats already guaranteed a payout and looking to take another step toward the WSOP Circuit ring.
By the time bags came out again late in the evening, just 24 players remained, who will return on Monday, March 9, for Day 3. The tournament surpassed its CHF1,000,000 guarantee, with the prize pool reaching CHF1,071,792, and everyone still in the hunt for the CHF190,392 top prize.
Sitting comfortably at the top is Switzerland’s own Angelo Arossi, who built a stack of 4,525,000, good for 113 big blinds and is the only player to have breached the four million mark. Italy’s Eros Calderone sits second with 3,290,000, while Germany’s David Wintersberger rounds out the top three with 3,045,000.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angelo Arossi | Switzerland | 4,525,000 | 113 |
| 2 | Eros Calderone | Italy | 3,290,000 | 82 |
| 3 | David Wintersberger | Germany | 3,045,000 | 76 |
| 4 | Flynn Meichtry | Portugal | 2,705,000 | 68 |
| 5 | Florian Gehbauer | Germany | 2,605,000 | 65 |
| 6 | Samuel Klocker | Austria | 2,355,000 | 59 |
| 7 | Florian Geiger | Germany | 2,040,000 | 51 |
| 8 | Mathias Muehlebach | Switzerland | 2,000,000 | 50 |
| 9 | Kilian Kramer | Germany | 1,900,000 | 48 |
| 10 | Benjamin Hammann | France | 1,790,000 | 45 |
Day 2 Action
The start of Day 2 couldn’t have gone much better for Frédéric Delval, who immediately picked up aces against Mateusz Kaniowski's cowboys. Lulei Hu began the day with the chip lead but quickly lost a chunk after Gerald Karlic made trip nines.
Bracelet winners Gabi Livshitz and Weiran Pu were among the early casualties. Pu lost most of his stack with second pair and a flush draw against top pair and couldn’t recover. Despite Karlic’s promising start, things soon turned the other way. A failed triple-barrel bluff against Calderone left him short, and he was out not long after.
The Day 1a chip leader, Samuel Klocker, made a great call in a three-way pot with second pair against Flynn Meichtry, which helped him stay near the top of the counts throughout the day. David Wintersberger also showed good instincts, hero-calling Pascal Brechot on the river with queen-high.
Later, with four tables remaining, Wintersberger won a huge three-way all-in holding pocket nines against the overcards of Brechot and Semih Retzep. Brechot hit the rail in the hand, while Retzep was left with less than a big blind. Wintersberger finished him off a few hands later, helping lock up his place near the top of the leaderboard by the end of the night.
Arossi had Calderone on the brink of elimination in the penultimate level of the night when Calderone moved all in with queen-jack and ran straight into Arossi’s ace-queen. It looked all over, but Calderone drilled a straight on the turn to stay alive, and that double helped him build some momentum heading into the final level.
Vivian Saliba ducked and weaved her way through the day, often nursing a short stack and facing plenty of tough spots. Just after dinner, she made a hero call with two pair to double through Brechot, which helped keep her afloat for a few more levels. She later doubled again with king-high, but her run eventually came to an end in 25th place when her ace-ten could not improve against the ace-jack of Mihai Andrei-Munteanu.
Almost at the same moment as Saliba’s exit, Dieter Pichler became the final elimination of Day 2. After an open from Arossi and a call from Calderone, Pichler squeezed all in with ace-five. Arossi got out of the way, but Calderone made the call with ace-jack and held to send Pichler to the rail, bringing the day to a close and securing his spot second in the counts heading into the penultimate day.
Some other notables who couldn’t make it through the day included bracelet winner Ivo Donev (111th), Oskar Bonifacio (106th), Lorenzo Arduini (96th), Kevin Abecassis (95th), and recent WSOPC ring winner David Carvell (86th). Also hitting the rail were Lukas Pazma (78th), brothers Dinesh Alt (66th) and Chandru Alt (41st), while Mihai Tabac (34th) and Hu (30th) both fell short of advancing.
Play resumes at 1 p.m, with 33 minutes remaining in Level 22, where blinds are 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante. The plan for Day 3 is to continue until the final table of eight players is reached. Everyone is guaranteed CHF5,800, although they will surely have their sights set on the bigger prizes awaiting them should they make it to the final day.
Starting tomorrow and running through the end of the tournament, a live stream featuring cards-up action will be broadcast on a 30-minute delay.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHF190,392 | 10-11 | CHF10,600 |
| 2 | CHF121,300 | 12-15 | CHF8,500 |
| 3 | CHF84,500 | 16-23 | CHF7,000 |
| 4 | CHF60,200 | 24 | CHF5,800 |
| 5 | CHF43,000 | ||
| 6 | CHF31,100 | ||
| 7 | CHF23,100 | ||
| 8 | CHF17,500 | ||
| 9 | CHF13,500 |
Stay locked into PokerNews for continued coverage of the Main Event as the final 24 players return for the penultimate day of the series, and the race toward the WSOP Circuit ring and the CHF190,392 top prize continues.