Day 2 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Snowfest saw the survivors of day 1A and 1B unite, only to be quickly torn down from 268 to 81 across six 75-minute levels. Within the first level, 52 players were knocked out, setting the tone for the day.
Austria’s Alpine Palace Hotel, set amid the beautiful, snow-covered mountains of Saalbach-Hinterglemm, witnessed a good deal of drama on the felt, but one player who seemed to sneak up into the lead without ruffling too many feathers was Philip Meulyzer. Meulyzer was second in chips with 188,100 to start the day, and the Belgian clearly kept the pace up as he finished with 623,500 for the lead.
Both starting day chip leaders vanished off the top 10 scoreboard. Day 1B’s leader Vladimir Geshkenbein lost out on a big pot early on in the day against Ramin Henke. Henke bet 2,300 from middle position and Geshkenbein made it 5,800 from the button. Henke moved all in for 43,000 and Geshkenbein made the call. It was A
Q
for the Russian and pocket fives for Henke. The flop came A
Q
10 and Henke prepared to leave as the turn came down the 4. He sat back down however when a 5 came on the river to keep the German in the game.
Geshkenbein played a steady game throughout the rest of the day and finished just seven spots off the leader board with 275,000. Day 1B chip leader Martins Adeniya is within the top 30 with 227,200.
One name grabbing attention throughout day 2 was Team PokerStars pro Luca Pagano. The Italian neared the top of the leader board throughout the day, finally settling for seventh with 351,400 by end of play. The Team pro is en route to breaking his own record for most cashes on the EPT (17 so far), as with 72 players getting paid, the event only needs to lose nine for those remaining to receive a guaranteed minimum pay-out of €5,250.
Some of those who will be taking to the slopes today instead of the felt are James Sudworth, Sofia Lovgren, Jack Ellwood, Casey Kastle, Manuel Bevand, Vitaly Lunkin, Kevin MacPhee, Marcus Golser, Artur Wasek, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Anton Wigg, and Team PokerStars Pro players Salvatore Bonavena, Joao Nunes, Max Lykov, Liv Boeree, and Johannes Strassmann.
With a €1,636,390 prize pool on the line, day 3 will begin to decide who gets what as the money bubble bursts high up in the Austrian alps. One fortunate player will go home with €390,000 for first place, but for now here are the 10 players in prime position:
Philip Meulyzer (Belgium) 623,500
Giacomo Maisto (Italy) 517,500
Cristian Tardea (Romania) 411,000
Alessandro Speranza (Italy) 374,900
Wim Bos (Netherlands) 372,300
Koen De Visscher (Belgium) 352,500
Luca Pagano (Italy) 351,400
Hans Erlandsson (Sweden) 344,900
Simon Ravnsbaek (Denmark) 341,800
Morten Mortensen (Denmark) 337,400
Stay with CardPlayer.com as EPT Snowfest moves towards the finishing line. Check out the PokerStars blog feed as day 3 plays out today, and for the final two days of the main event, be sure to check back in for the EPT Live video feed.
