Max Martinez Leads the EPT Grand Final Day 2
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Day 2 of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo? Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final has concluded and we have a Team PokerStars Pro at the top of the chip counts. Max Martinez started the day with 63,400 chips and when the 130 players bagged up and departed for good night's sleep Martinez had increased that stack to 456,300.
It wasn't plain sailing for the Italian and at one point he really did have to dig deep into his poker reserves. It was the penultimate level of the day when Martinez picked up pocket aces at the same time that Fabrice Soulier picked up pocket queens. The two of them decided to play for stacks and it was a pre flop pot worth 210,000 and a top ten spot in the chip counts. Soulier hit one of his two outs on the flop and Martinez was reduced to 65,000 chips and when we left him he was muttering to himself in despair.
Rather than tilt and blow his final 65,000 chips, Martinez went on what could only be described as a monumental tear. In the last level of play Martinez turned 65,000 chips into 456,300 chips climaxing in the elimination of Ivan Kudriavtcev when his pocket sevens ran into the pocket tens of the Team PokerStars Pro.
The chip leader at the start of the day was Nick Yunis and he will not be joining us in the line up for Day 3. Yunis was sat on 143BB when his six-bet shove was called by Mohsin Charania. Charania held pocket aces and Yunis held 
and five community cards later Charania was sitting on 380,000 chips and for a long time seemed likely to be the end of day chip leader. In the end Charania ended the day in 2nd place with 413,500 chips. The third prominent player is the man who has won more live tournament dollars that anyone who has ever graced this planet. Erik Seidel has had a frugal 2012 and today he quietly amassed 360,200 chips, once again proving he can rise on the big occasions.
Team PokerStars Pros in the bag for Day 3 are the likes of Johnny Lodden (46,200), Richard Toth (265,800), Nacho Barbero (185,000), Pierre Neuville (82,500) & Sandra Naujoks (127,700).
Notable eliminations included Phil Ivey, Samuel Chartier, David Vamplew, John Eames and Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Rousso, Liv Boeree, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein.
We return for 12:00 (CET) so join us at Pokernews for all of the action. In the meantime check out the full chip counts of the end of Day 2 below.