The field combined on day two at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour San Remo with 469 players taking to the felt from a total of 1,178.
Some notable players sure to mix it up included Isabelle Mercier, Jani Vilmunen, Joe Elpayaa, Juha Helppi, Marcel Luske, Marcin Horecki, Nasr el Nasr, Ramzi Jelassi, and Tristan Clemencon.
However it was not to be for last year’s champion Jason Mercier as he busted in the first round of day two. Elsewhere David Saab acquired one player’s chips with A-A vs A-K early on to give himself a very playable stack but he was eliminated around dinner break.
Young online pro Laurence “rivermanl” Houghton was busted out of the tournament early by the nut-straight of Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelipuro.
Marcin Horecki doubled his chips early in the session, busting two players, while perennial EPT challenger Arnaud Mattern was short-stacked on just 11,000 chips with the field falling under 400 players in the first hour.
Katja Thater and Peter Hedlund were also eliminated during the carnage of the mid session.
Former EPT winner Pascal Perrault hit the rail during the early evening and later on victims included Isabelle Mercier, Luca Pagano, and Marcel Luske.
The story of the day was undoubtedly the growing menace that was Croatian Dragan Galic who was busing players for fun and putting some considerable distance between himself and his nearest challenger. It will remain to be seen if he can keep this pace up during day three.
At the end of play for the day the top 10 in chips were:
- Dragan Galic (Croatia) — 552,900
- Constant Rijkenberg (Holland) — 393,100
- Giuseppe Argento (Italy) — 365,500
- Maurilio Mergiotti (Italy) — 284,100
- Robert Flink (Sweden) — 280,000
- Fitzgerald Urquhart (Canada) — 252,700
- Francesco Santo Trimboli (Italy) — 245,800
- Steven Silverman (USA) — 226,400
- Fabio Mazzarello (Italy) — 216,000
- Pietro Marras (Italy) — 199,100
The bubble will burst today with player 113. The rest will all receive a minimum payment of €5,800 while the majority will have their eye on the top prize of €1.5 million.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com throughout the day as we bring you updates from all the action in San Remo.
