American Brian Altman will lead exactly 200 players on to Day 3 at the EPT Prague Main Event tomorrow after bagging the overnight chip lead.
Altman, an online grinder now living in Canada, stacked up 704,100 chips to end the night well ahead of second-place Gustav Nordh.
Day 1b chip leader Andrey Zaichenko fell back in the pack, as did Vanessa Selbst, but both still managed to hang on for Day 3.
With registration still open at the beginning of Day 2 today 13 more players bought in to bring the total field number up to 1,107, breaking the EPT Prague record by 100.
The €5m+ prize pool means the eventual winner will pocket an astounding €969,000 - the biggest ever in Prague.
Lots of notables still can claim it including Triple Crown winner Davidi Kitai (342,300), Shannon Shorr (322,200), Mustapha Kanit (322,000), Sam Grafton (273,100) and Liv Boeree (179,000).
For a full round-up of the day's action check the PokerStars blog or watch the live stream replay of Day 2 right here. The current Top 10 and chip counts:
- 1 Brian Altman 704,100
- 2 Gustav Nordh 584,000
- 3 Omar Lakhdari 568,000
- 4 Stephen Graner 558,200
- 5 Andras Nemeth 442,800
- 6 Rhys Jones 411,900
- 7 Pablo Sanz Quiles 397,600
- 8 Jonathan Wong 397,100
- 9 Simon Boss 372,600
- 10 Peter Turmezey 371,000
One Orbit, One Champion – Liv Boeree on Fire
Liv Boeree has been a big deal in the poker world since her triumph at EPT San Remo in April 2010 (although insiders still like to refer to her first job at the WSOP in 2006 when she did a short-but-famous interview with porn actor Ron Jeremy).
Not just a PokerStars team pro she'ss one of the most popular players on the circuit, always quick with a joke and very entertaining to follow on Twitter or her blog.
Boeree has had several big results since her EPT win and, as most of you know, she holds a degree in astrophysics and is an enthusiast heavy metal guitarist.
In short, she’s cool. We followed her play for one orbit and it was quite spectacular.
It is level 13 on Day 2, the blinds are 1000/2000/300, and Boeree has recently almost doubled up to a stack of around 180,000 chips. The average chip stack is c. 111,000.
As we approach her she is sitting two seats before the big blind.
1) UTG+1
Liv folds without hesitating.
2) UTG
Liv raises to 4,500 and the player to her left calls. Everyone else folds and we are off to the flop 8♥ 8♦ Q♣.
Liv bets another 7,500 and takes down the pot.
3) BB
There is a raise from middle position to 4,000 and Liv decides to defend. The flop is 3♣ 9♠ 5♠. Liv checks and then calls a bet of 4,500.
The turn 2♦ is checked by both players, but on the river 7♦ Liv bets 7,800 which is good enough to win the hand.
4) SB
It's folded around to the button who moves all-in for 15,900. Liv checks her hand and calls. The big blind folds. Liv shows A-Q, while the button has K-9.
The board runs out a rainbow K-4-A –Q–Q and Liv’s full house busts another player.
5) Button
It's folded around to Liv. She limps in with 2,000 but the SB raises to 10k. Too much for Liv, she lays it down.
6-8) CO, HJ, MP
None of these hands catch Liv’s interest so she just folds them and protects her stack.
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During this orbit, Liv Boeree plays three hands and wins them all. In one of them she takes a player off the table and she only has to show her cards once.
The UTG raise in Hand 2 represented a strong range and the paired 8-8-Q flop is good for a lot of hands. Liv has the lead and it's hard for her opponent to have hit anything there.
Defending the big blind she finds a low board which hits her defending range pretty well. An opponent with high cards cannot get to showdown here without paying more than he wants.
Getting A-Q in the SB is of course a bit lucky but the hand still has to hold up, of course. All in all, Liv pays only 15,00 in antes plus the limp-call of 2,000 in this orbit while winning both hands in the blinds plus another one.
The result is a win of almost 40,000 chips, catapulting her into the top 25 of the leaderboard. She has put herself in a position where she can exert a lot of pressure on the smaller stacks.
Our guess is she’ll still be there on Day 4.
Decision of the Day – What's Your Name Again?
Today we find a situation during Day 2 of the EPT Main Event. Two players have been battling until the river.
The player first to act moves all-in, meaning that his opponent has to call all-in unless he gives up his hand.
The player last to act is apparently not sure what to do. He tanks for a while and then addresses his opponent:
“What’s your name?” No answer. “What’s your nationality?” No answer.
Now the player asks the dealer to tell him the name and nationality of the all-in player. The dealer says she’s not going to take the responsibility and asks the floor over.
The ruling: The floorman decides that none of the information has to be disclosed. He sees the inquiries as a double strategy to gather information.
Firstly, to get a tell from the other player, and secondly, to exploit the image the player’s nationality might have.
Thus the player’s questioning is deemed fishing for extra information, which is not according to the rules.
