After the 12-level Day 1s, Day 2 was a very different affair with just seven levels put onto the schedule. They were all an hour long to be fair (rather than 45 minutes), but it still meant for shorter day. It made those interested in tonight's player party, where the Spain vs Turkey game will also be shown on a big screen, very happy.
Apart from the shorter than usual Day 2, it was business as normal on the poker front. Lots of players busted early, then a slow down as the bubble had to be swallowed, followed by another mass of players hitting the rail. There were players that came back from fumes and those who turned towers into dust. Actually the bubble period was a little out of the ordinary, but more on that later.
First of all to the chip leader. Rodrigo Strong is having a very good 2016 at PokerStars events around the globe. Before securing a cash here today, he cashed the IPT, Eureka and most impressively the LAPT. We say most impressively as that cash was a victory at LAPT Chile in March for $120k. He secured his place at the top of the counts (1,184,000) by winning a big pot in the last level. He moved all-in with jacks on the river of a ten high board and was called by Darren Millar who held ace-ten.
He'll be chased on Day 3 by Nikola Ristivojevic (1,026,000), Marko Simic (1,002,000), Milos Skrbic (914,000), Albert Sapiano (911,000), Michael Ozimek (755,000), David Greene (692,000), Javier Zufia (684,000), Lucas Blanco (598,000), Janina Burger (403,000), Kjell Lindqvist (338,000), Miguel Riera (270,000), Kevin Monroe (265,000), James Mitchell (263,000), Yannis Liperis (193,000) and June Jenkins (154,000). A total of 55 players made it through and you can see the full list by clicking here. And for the Day 3 seat draw click here.
Nick O'Hara, the floor man in charge of the Main Event at the time, boldly predicted that the bubble would last five hands at most. He was wrong, very wrong. It spanned a 90-minute period where around 15 all-in players found a way to double up and survive into the money. The first player not to survive was Davide Ferrari, who was coolered in a hand versus Neil Raine. Both players had a the nut straight when the chips went in on the turn, but the Briton had a redraw to the nut flush and hit it on the river.
Other players who busted before the money include: Ben Warrington, Kevin Whelan, Kully Sidhu, Mateusz Moolhuizen, Niko Koop, Seun Oluwole, and Asif Warris. Those hoping to have made Day 3, but happy to cash at least include: Vicente Delgado (121st), Alain Roy (111th), Anh Tuan Hoang (95th), Leo Margets (90th), Renee Xie (89th), Diego Gomez (86th), Rasmus Agerskov (83rd) and Neil Raine (58th). Raine moved tables six times today and it was last table that cost him, going from 400,000 to out in just over an hour, and close to the end of the day. Payouts so far (to be updated overnight) can be found by clicking here.
The plan for tomorrow is to play (from midday CET) down to a final table or ten levels, whichever comes first. Now it's time for all the players (as well as a few staff and media members) to get to the hotel poolside for drinks, finger food and football on the big screen. It's a tough life sometimes but Team PokerStars Blog will attend just to bring you guys some updates tomorrow!
PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May and Rene Velli. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog