After a slow and steady day Fox, who has built up $2.8 million in live earnings without any backers, knocked out one of the biggest threats in the tournament, Mike "Timex” McDonald, to jump up to second overall in the chip counts.
After a pre-flop raising war with another player in the middle, McDonald called off Fox's all-in with tens only to find AA in return.
The board changed nothing and Fox’s 571,500 in chips now sits only behind the 694,000 of Canadian Marco Lang to start Day 3 tomorrow.
Blain, Lewis and MacPhee Look Strong
Just 78 players remain from the 567 entries with the money ready to kick in at 72 players.
Joining Fox in the top half of the chip counts are Irishman Dermot Blain (530,000), Brit Toby Lewis (417,000), Americans Kevin MacPhee (312,000) and Jason Mercier (285,000) and Germany’s Fabian Quoss (209,000).
After starting the day with under 20k in chips, Mercier called it "one of the best Day 2 performances of his life."
Making it to Day 3 in the next tier of the chip counts are Norway’s Elisabeth Hille (175,500), France’s Nicolas Levi (169,500), American Shannon Shorr (169,500), Dane Lars Bonding (155,500) and American Keven Stammen (72,000).
Notables to hit the rail today included Eugene Katchalov, Steve O’Dwyer, Faraz Jaka, Thor Hansen, the aforementioned Timex, Jonathan Duhamel and Leo Margets.
Play picks up with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a 500 ante tomorrow and will play down towards the final few tables.
Action starts at 1 pm local time; follow the WPT live updates here. With the 567 total buy-ins, first place will pay a tidy €325,000 plus a $25k WPT Championship seat.
The top 10 in chips heading into Day 3:
1. Marco Lang 694,000 2. Elio Fox 571,500 3. Pawel Brzeski 544,000 4. Manuel Bevand 537,500 5. Dermot Blain 530,000 6. Oleksii Khoroshenin 513,000 7. Konstantin Danilov 465,000 8. Mikhail Mazunin 440,000 9. Jussi Nevanlinna 438,500 10. Toby Lewis 417,000Visit www.pokerlistings.com