Santiago Plante opened to 30,000 from the cutoff and Giacomo Raddi defended from the big blind.
The flop came 8?7?3?. Raddi checked, Plante bet 65,000 and Raddi made the call.
Both players checked through the A? turn to see the 9? river. Raddi bet 140,000 only for Plante to announce all in, putting Raddi to the test for his remaining stack of approximately 350,000. Raddi thought over his decision for approximately three minutes before making the call.
Raddi showed down 9?7? for a rivered two pair but Plante tabled J?10? for the nut-straight to secure the elimination and catapult up the chip counts, surpassing two million chips in the process.
Theodoros Ampelikiotis at the same table has also recently surpassed two million chips, making himself and Plante among the biggest stacks in the tournament currently.
Andrea Roner raised to 50,000 on the button and was three-bet to 140,000 by Athanasios Fergiatakis in the small blind. It was folded back to Roner, who announced he was all in. Fergiatakis quickly called all in for his last 500,000 and hands were revealed.
Athanasios Fergiatakis: K?K?
Andrea Roner: A?Q?
The 4?6?Q? flop kept Fergiatakis in the lead, but the Q? turn provided Roner with trips queens and a commanding lead.
The A? improved Roner to an unnecessary full house and Fergiatakis was sent to the rail.
Israel's Tom Orpaz won another PokerStars Spade this week when he took down €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em at PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona for a career-best live cash of €255,480.
Orpaz, a real estate and sports betting entrepreneur, got through a field of 28 runners in the event that created a prize pool of €672,280.
Orpaz defeated fellow high-stakes regular Kayhan Mokri during heads-up play after high roller elites Timothy Adams and Nacho Barbero bowed out in third and fourth.
Orpaz has had plenty of success on the EPT and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) circuits. He won APT High Roller and Bounty events in 2022 and picked up an EPT Spade at EPT Malta in 2016.
The €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event at Casino Barcelona has reached its final 153 players at the end of Day 2 with Ukraine's Igor Kaufman (4,365,000) leading the way with a stack of 4,365,000. Not far behind are PokerStars' own Parker Talbot (3,995,000) and Ukraine's Vasyl Laba (4,075,000)
The ESPT drew a record-breaking field of 7,398 entrants (up from last year's record-breaking field of 6,313) across eight starting flights and saw 1,109 players return for Day 2, all of whom were in the money and guaranteed a payday of at least €1,750.
Among the players to advance to Day 3 are Day 1 chip leaders Avihai Smadga, Benjamin Tessier and Frederik Johansen, as well as James Akenhead, Ewen Trevidy and Vladas Tamasauskas.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
RANK
PLAYER
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Igor Kaufman
Israel
4,365,000
109
2
Vasyl Laba
Ukraine
4,075,000
102
3
Parker Talbot
Canada
3,995,000
100
4
Manuel Oshea
Spain
3,700,000
93
5
Jeremias Mendoza
Argentina
3,675,000
92
6
David Hareuveni
Israel
3,495,000
87
7
Eduard Barsegyan
Russia
3,470,000
87
8
Lucas Silva Rocha
Brazil
3,200,000
80
9
Ferdinando D'Alessio
Belgium
3,140,000
79
10
Ewen Trevidy
France
2,940,000
74
With the money bubble already burst, it didn't take long for the bustout line to start growing.
Some of the players who fell early on Day 2 include Sweden's Alexander Norden (1,106th - €1,750), Julien Mariani (960th - €1,880), Switzerland's Dinesh Alt (945th - €1,880), the Netherlands' Frank Visser (948th - €1,880), Austria's Daniel Rezaei (847th - €2,020) and PokerStars Team Online ProBenjamin Spragg (774th - €2,290).
Benjamin Spragg
Another player who didn't make it through the day was Ali Alnuaimi, who was eliminated in the most brutal way possible as he called off his stack with aces full, losing to the quad queens of Aristidis Theodoridis in a bustout he is unlikely to forget about any time soon.
Aristidis Theodoridis
Later in the evening, Athanasios Fergiatakis had his kings cracked by Andrea Roner, who held ace-queen and flopped a queen before hitting another on the turn.
One player whose big hand did hold up was Carlos Leiva, who tripled up in an aces versus queens versus jacks confrontation against Ferdinando Dalessio and Sandro Pitzanti that skyrocketed the Argentinian up the chip counts.
Other players who didn't make it to bagging time include Uri Reichenstein (300th - €4,650), Jack Salter (408th - €4,040), Teun Mulder (446th - €3,500) and Conor Beresford (453rd - €3,500).
Day 3 action will kick off at noon local time on Level 25 with blinds of 20,000/40,000/40,000. There's still another day to go after that before a winner is crowned on Day 4 on Aug. 27.
Don't go anywhere as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here on the coast of Spain and will continue providing updates on the ESPT and EPT Barcelona action.
