Hellmuth had an outstanding day finishing with 364,900 chips while Grospellier built the massive stack he brought into action today up to 326,700.
Both players are chasing lesser-known Ukrainian Sergii Baranov who finished as the overwhelming chip leader with 607,000.
Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu also had a very strong day and finished just outside the top 10 with 290,000 chips.
In total 77 players will continue their quest for European glory tomorrow including:
Dan Smith (274,500) October Niner Jesse Sylvia (209,000) JC Alvarado (206,700) Kyle Julius (205,300) defending champ Elio Fox (201,300) Jason Mercier (195,800) Toby Lewis (152,000) Liv Boeree (140,800) Eugene Katchalov (123,900On the flip side, among the 153 players to bust on Day 2 were big names Vanessa Rousso, Tristan Wade, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen, Roberto Romanello, Mclean Karr, Antonio Esfandiari, Steve O’Dwyer, Harrison Gimbel, Jonathan Duhamel and Faraz Jaka.
Mizrachi, Thomas, Duhamel Bust in Late Stages of Day 2
Perhaps the most shocking elimination of the day was none other than the player who started Day 2 as the overall chip leader: Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.
Mizrachi lost a series of pivotal pots and then went quietly into the night shoving king-ten into his opponent’s ace-four.
One of the sickest hands of the day occurred during the final level of the day between October Niner Russell Thomas and Timothy Reilly.
Thomas moved all-in on a K♥ Q♣ 7♣ 9♠ board with pocket aces against Reilly’s A♠ K♦. Reilly was down to a king and only a king to survive and that’s just what came when the river finished with the K♠.
Reilly shipped the 200,000+ chip pot and Thomas was crippled. The Octo-niner busted a few hands later.
Action resumes at 12:00 CET tomorrow and we’re almost guaranteed to see the money bubble, which begins with 48 players remaining, burst.
The Top 10 in Chips:
1 Sergii Baranov 607,000 2 Axel Pergolizzi 419,400 3 Vladimir Troyanovskiy 375,100 4 Phil Hellmuth 364,900 5 Maxime Conte 342,300 6 Lifeng Chen 340,500 7 Hui Chen Kuo 339,950 8 Max Silver 333,600 9 Joseph Cheong 328,400 10 Bertrand Grospellier 326,700Visit www.pokerlistings.com