99 of the 325 who started the day will advance to Day 3, with Botond sitting on almost 150,000 more than Ronny Kaiser, his nearest competition.
Kaiser. who won the 2011 EPT Tallinn main event and plays high-stakes online poker under the screen-name “1-ronnyr3”, has 506,500 to Botond’s 646,000.
Kaiser is joined in the top ten by two more former EPT champions.
Scotland’s David Vamplew, who won the 2010 EPT London main event, finished in fourth position with 412,900 while 2010 EPT Prague champ Roberto Romanello bagged 331,000, good for eighth place.
11 more players will be eliminated when play resumes tomorrow before the event reaches the money, with the first payout awarding €7,500.
Here’s a look at the top ten going into Day 3.
1 - Balazs Botond - 646,000 2 - Ronny Kaiser - 506,500 3 - Alexander Andermatt - 436,000 4 - David Vamplew - 412,900 5 - Stefano Demontis - 382,400 6 - Massimiliano Bellon Bellucci - 364,000 7 - Olivier Busquet - 353,100 8 - Roberto Romanello - 331,000 9 - Ivo Donev - 317,500 10 - Primoz Adamie - 307,000Well-Known, Well-Stacked
Looking beyond the top ten chip stacks reveals another crop of big name players who will be returning tomorrow to contend the more than €2.76 million up for grabs.
Team PokerStars Pro and former Italian EPT winner Liv Boeree just missed a spot on the leaderboard. The British bombshell will return tomorrow with just over 300,000.
Start-of-day chip leader and 2010 EPT Grand Final champion Nicolas Chouity finished in 15th position with 257,000.
Other notables through to Day 3 include Matt “ch0ppy” Kay (231,900), Per Linde (199,600), Rupert Elder (161,600), Fabrice Soulier (120,500), Todd Terry (117,500), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (113,500) and Tobias Reinkemeier (95,500).
Busted, Broken, Out
226 players lost their tournament lives on Day 2, among them a few very familiar faces.
Chris Moorman nearly survived until day’s end but went broke making a move, three-bet shoving Q-5 suited and getting called by 2011 EPT Prague champion Martin Finger with A-J.
Monaco local Patrik Antonius also failed to make it through the day. The high-stakes legend was crippled with top pair on a queen-high flop against pocket kings and, despite managing a small double-up, went broke shortly after.
Also taking their leave on Day 2 were Victor Ramdin, Eugene Katchalov, Luca Pagano, Alex Kravchenko, Olympic gold-medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo, MMA heavyweight Heath Herring, Jeff Rossiter, Melanie Weisner and Laurence Houghton.
Action continues tomorrow on Day 3 at the Casino de Campione. Check our Poker News Section for more updates.
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