Vasil Medarov Bags Second-Biggest as Guarantee Smashed on Day 2 of €10,300 PLO Grand Slam Championship

Frank Visser

Level 17 : Blinds 25,000/50,000, 50,000 ante

After an action-packed day of four-card poker, 11 players remain in the €10,300 PLO Grand Slam Championship, organized by Diamond Poker Series at Arena Casino Tirana. Day 2 started with 37 returning players from 96 entries on Day 1, but across the two levels of late registration, 32 new entries would be made to crush the €1,000,000 guarantee and set a prize pool of €1,203,200.

Bagging biggest after the eight levels of Day 2 was the anonymous player under the moniker of "Phil Ejri". He amassed 5,925,000 over the course of the day and took nearly 100 big blinds to Day 3. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Vasil Medarov sits in second with a stack of 3,705,000. Medarov is an Omaha specialist, with all his recorded cashes, including two six-figure ones, from the past few years stemming from PLO tournaments. If Medarov takes down the tournament, he will win the second trophy of his career and boost his lifetime earnings to more than one million.

Greek player Dimitrios Amoiridis possibly had the swingiest day as he traded seven-figure pots back and forth. He ultimately ended up in third on the leaderboard with 3,365,000. His fellow countryman and bracelet winner Nikolaos Lampropoulos sits in fourth with 2,660,000, while Day 1 chipleader Harun Ertural and Canadian crusher Alex Livingston also made it through to Day 3, albeit with shorter stacks than they had hoped for as they were among the top for a large part of the day before losing significantly near the end.

End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Day 3 Big Blinds
1	"Phil Ejri"		5,925,000	99
2	Vasil Medarov	Bulgaria	3,705,000	62
3	Dimitrios Amoiridis	Greece	3,365,000	56
4	Nikolaos Lampropoulos	Greece	2,660,000	44
5	Lautaro Guerra	Spain	2,150,000	36
6	Harun Ertural	Germany	1,800,000	30
7	"Benjamin N"		1,425,000	24
8	Stefan Polster	Austria	1,240,000	21
9	Belarmino De Souza	Brazil	1,220,000	20
10	Aaron Pahlawani	Austria	1,075,000	18
11	Alex Livingston	Canada	1,050,000	18

Day 2 Action

Late registration was open for the first two levels of the day, but bracelet winners Amir Mozaffarian, Cesar Garcia, who fired seven bullets in total, and Oleksii Kovalchuk decided to call it quits early and forwent their option for a maximum late entry after busting early in the day.

The eliminations came in rapidly once registration had been closed. Within half an hour, the 40 remaining players had been dwindled down to just 25. Among the early casualties were Aku Joentausta, who took the crown for most entries at eight, of which six on Day 2. €5,200 Opener final tablers Hristo Bogdanov, Giorgos Tsoupras, and Youness Barakat failed to make their second cash of the series as they were also found among the early departures.

The play slowed down at the final three tables as the bubble came in sight with 17 places paid. Nordic poker legends Joni Jouhkimainen and Tom-Aksel Bedell would not make it that far, and neither would €5,200 Opener runner-up Pavel Izotov. After Gergo Nagy's departure in 19th, Daniel Montagnolli became the bubble boy when he got his aces cracked against "Phil Ejri".

One would expect the bust-outs to roll in after the pressure of the bubble had dissipated, but the opposite turned out true. For two and a half hours, an improbable number of 20 double-ups in a row took place. All-in 21 saw the at-risk "Diego Armando" get two-outed for a massive pot, however, and Chris Dowling busted simulteanously at another table as the two players picked up their min-cash of €19,000

As if a curse had been broken, four more knockouts followed in the final level of the night. After two anonymous players received €20,000 for finishing in 15th and 14th, Ka Kwan Lau added his remaining chips to "Phil Ejri"s big stack as he fell in 13th, while Vadim Zakharyan was the final elimination of the night in 12th.

The 11 remaining players will return to the arena tomorrow, November 10, at 3 p.m. local time to play down to a winner. The blinds will restart in Level 18: 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 big blind ante, and all levels will remain 60 minutes in length. They have all secured themselves €25,000 already, but the eye-watering first-place prize of €302,200 will be all that matters to most of them.