Barbosa logs record cash at EPT Dortmund

Alongside his victory at EPT Warsaw, Joao Barbosa has cashed five more times during Season 5.

Four former European Poker Tour champs have cashed and three are still alive at PokerStars.com EPT Dortmund after Day 2 action.

Among the 35 who made it out of the Casino Hohensyburg alive on Thursday are former German Open champs Mike "Timex" McDonald (Season 4) and Andreas Hoivold (Season 3).

The two men join EPT5 Deauville champ Moritz Kranich as the only EPT titleholders still in contention after 17 full levels of action.

EPT5 Polish Open champ Joao Barbosa also cashed, finishing in 36th place and taking €11,600 in his record sixth cash of EPT Season 5.

"It's a very good result, of course," Barbosa said. "Some of the times I've cashed I've been lucky, but in this tournament I felt that I played very well - up until the point where I was eliminated."

Team PokerStars Pro pros William Thorson and Luca Pagano also ended Day 2 with chips, joining PokerStars.de Shooting Stars survivors Florian Langmann and Sandra Naujoks among those still in contention.

Shooting Stars Johannes Strassmann, Jan Heitmann, Sebastian Ruthenberg and George Danzer were among those to lose their tournament lives on Thursday.

Despite finding himself eliminated early on Day 2, Strassmann was upbeat when asked for his impressions of the event.

"It was really nice," he said. "There were lots of bad players. The structure was pretty good and it's really nice to play in my home country."

Also eliminated outside of the money were Nicolas Levi, Michael Keiner, Julian Thew and Max Pescatori, the latter of whom found himself eliminated just shy of the bubble in a painful hand.

Pescatori's swan song saw the Italian Pirate's pocket aces cracked by countryman Umberto Vitagliano, who rivered a heart flush in a battle of the blinds to send the Full Tilt Poker pro packing in 66th place.

Sixty-four players in total will be paid for their time.

At the close of play, chip leader was Holger Kanisch with $526,500. Mark Gork ($441,500) and Naujoks ($410,500) round out the top three.

Day 3 action will commence at 3 p.m. Central European Time and continue until an eight-handed final table has been reached. Check out all of the action in the PokerListings.com Live Tournament section.