Jonathan Little Bags the Chip Lead After Day 2 of $10,300 MILLIONS High Roller
Another exciting day in the $10,300 MILLIONS High Roller has come to an end at the Melia Caribe Tropical resort in Punta Cana. The day started out with 43 players returning from Day 1 but registration remained open until the end of level 12. By the day's end, there are just 19 players remaining with Jonathan Little substantially ahead of the rest of the field.
Little is no stranger to the poker world with over $6.5 million in career tournament earnings. You could say he is not a regular high-roller participant but this is one of those stops that you just can't miss. Little started off the day rather slowly, hovering around 1.0 million chips. Things changed in the second half, however, as Little started to catch fire and ran up a stack to around 7.0 million.
In the biggest pot of the tournament thus far, Little got involved in a hand with chip-leader Steffen Sontheimer. Sontheimer flopped a set of deuces but Little turned a set of kings to win a pot, vaulting him way in front of his competitors. When all was said and done, Little managed to bag 15,080,000.
Other notables that will be returning tomorrow include Preben Stokkan from Norway who made a late charge as well, winding up with 11,210,000. He was the only other play to bag an eight-figure stack and will surely be giving Little a run for his money on Day 3. Kenny Hallaert (7,950,000), Barry Hutter (7,520,000), Sergio Aido (7,135,000), partypoker Sponsored pro, Roberto Romanello (2,100,000), and Ryan Riess (2,030,000) will all be back for Day 3 as well.
When late registration finally closed, there were a total of 103 entries making up a prizepool of $999,100. There will only be 11 places getting paid with a min-cash worth $20,000 and the winner going home with a first-place prize of $275,000.
Unfortunately for many, the day ended earlier than they hoped for. Steve O'Dwyer led the field in the category nobody wants to be apart of, re-entries. O'Dwyer fired a total of six bullets but still fell short. Not far behind him was the #1 ranked player on the GPI, Bryn Kenney. Kenney found himself in for four entries and also bowed out earlier in the day.
Day 1 chip leaders, Francois Billard and Daniel Dvoress, had a tough day and were also eliminated shortly after registration closed. Partypoker Chairman, Mike Sexton, took his turn at the tables but came up empty along with partypoker ambassadors, Sam Trickett and Joao Simao, and partypoker Sponsored pros, Anatoly Filatov and Kristen Bicknell.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 1 | Roberto Romanello | United Kingdom | 2,100,000 | 18 |
| 12 | 2 | Michael Watson | Canada | 3,335,000 | 28 |
| 12 | 3 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 5,300,000 | 44 |
| 12 | 4 | Jonathan Little | United States | 15,080,000 | 126 |
| 12 | 6 | Sean Winter | United States | 6,005,000 | 50 |
| 12 | 7 | Ryan Riess | United States | 2,030,000 | 17 |
| 12 | 8 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 4,220,000 | 35 |
| 13 | 1 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 1,610,000 | 13 |
| 13 | 2 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 5,110,000 | 43 |
| 13 | 4 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 7,135,000 | 59 |
| 13 | 5 | Pascal Lefrancois | Canada | 2,810,000 | 23 |
| 13 | 6 | Felix Bleiker | Switzerland | 2,300,000 | 19 |
| 13 | 7 | Felipe Ramos | Brazil | 1,815,000 | 15 |
| 14 | 1 | Dmitry Makarov | Russian Federation | 2,300,000 | 19 |
| 14 | 2 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 7,780,000 | 65 |
| 14 | 3 | Preben Stokkan | Norway | 11,210,000 | 93 |
| 14 | 5 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | 7,950,000 | 66 |
| 14 | 6 | Barry Hutter | United States | 7,520,000 | 63 |
| 14 | 7 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 7,290,000 | 61 |
The action will resume at 12:00 P.M. on Sunday with the final 19 players gathering to play down to a winner. The blinds will start off at 60,000/120,000 with a 120,000 button ante. Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team as we bring you all of the live update coverage.