The cream rose to the top on Day 2 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event, as two of the biggest names in poker finished one and two on the leader-board at the end of the day. John Juanda will be the chip-leader heading into Day 3 with 732,400 chips, while Ilari “ziigmund” Sahamies is in second place (but still well behind Juanda) with 523,500 chips.

How Juanda managed to accumulate so man y chips is a bit of mystery as he was seated at the featured table for most of the day (making it hard for live bloggers and reporters to get near the action) but Juanda did explain a key hand to PokerNews.com where there was some heavy pre-flop action and Juanda managed to flop bottom-set. Another player apparently went berserk with Top Pair Weak Kicker and Juanda snap-called his 300,000 chip all-in raise.

Of the 600 players who began the day a mere 202 remain, and the money-bubble (set at 160) will likely burst early on Day 3. Some other big names that racked-up chips on Day 2 were EPT Monte Carlo runner-up Lucille Cailly (360,700), Jason Wheeler (320,000), Jonathan Karamalikis (317,600), and Daniel Negreanu (249,000).

Here is a look at the Top 10 chip counts heading into Day 3 of the EPT Barcelona Main Event:

1. John Juanda — 732,400

2. Ilari Sahamies — 523,500

3. Shahriar Soltaninassab — 460,000

4. Samuel Rodriguez — 455,800

5. Guy Bachar — 448,000

6. Aku Joentausta — 420,000

7. Marcos Fernandez — 403,400

8. Lucille Cailly — 360,700

9. Anders Hansen — 338,000

10. Joni Jouhkimainen — 332,000

Other big names that will be back in action on Day include Xuan Liu, Juan Manuel Pastor, Sebastien Ruthenburg, Matthias De Muelder, Sam Holden, Randal Flowers, Jani Sointula, Jake Cody, Juha Helppi, Ana Marquez, Theo Jorgensen, Elisabeth Hille, Leo Margets, Mohsin Charania, Roberto Romanello, Nicolas Levi, Barry Greenstein, Todd Terry, Melanie Weisner, Phillip Gruissem, Mike Mizrachi, Johnny Lodden, and Dan Smith.

As far as the players that saw their EPT Barcelona dreams end on Tuesday were

Jason Mercier, Gus Hansen (who started the day with one of the biggest stacks in the room), Andy Frankenberger, Triple Crown with an asterisk winner Davidi Kitai, Sami Kelopuro, Kyle Julius, Faraz Jaka, 2011 WSOP Champion Pius Heinz, Lex Veldhuis, Dominik Nitsche, Ville Wahlbeck, and the Season 8 EPT Barcelona winner Martin Schleich.

Wednesday will see the level structure change, going from 75-minute to 90-minute levels, and the action will get underway at Noon local time (about 6 AM EDT) and I would expect the money-bubble within the first hour of play.

 

Tags: Barry Greenstein, Charania, Daniel Negreanu, Hille, Jani, Jason Wheeler, John Juanda, Johnny Lodden, Jorgensen, Juha Helppi, Leader Board, Main Event 1, Mike Mizrachi, Mohsin, Randal, Romanello, Samuel Rodriguez, Sointula, Weisner, Xuan Liu

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 at 7:49 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.