Martirosian Leads 94 Survivors After Day 2 of the 2021 MILLIONS North Cyprus $2,200 Warm Up
The 2021 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North Cyprus festival is in full swing and the first major highlight on the schedule is one step closer to crowning a champion. In the $2,200 Warm Up, the late registration was available for another four levels on Day 2 which boosted the field to 745 entries. That created a prize pool of $1,370,800, nearly tripling the initial guarantee, and the top 89 finishers are slated to receive a portion of it, though the bubble will be looming for the penultimate tournament day.
Only 94 players advanced after ten levels of 60 minutes each and none other than rising Russian star Artur Martirosian topped the leaderboard by some margin. Martirosian has sweet memories of the five-star Merit Crystal Cove Hotel Casino & Spa as he took down the $100,000 Super High Roller for $1.4 million a few weeks ago. He is on track for another major payday as he topped Day 2 with a stack of 3,226,000. His nearest followers Viktor Ustimov (2,400,000) and Muharrem Atsiz (2,370,000) are already trailing by more than 40 big blinds.
Other big stacks belong to Georgios Tsouloftas, Jim Sue Pan, Karolis Sareika, Jim Sue Pan, Fahredin Mustafov, Mustafa Biz, and Andreas Christoforou to name all but a few notables above the current average of 792,553. When the action resumes on Sunday, September 19 at noon local time, the blind will be 10,000-20,000 with a big blind ante of 20,000. More than a dozen players are between seven and 15 big blinds, which may make for a tense start just five spots away from the money.
Top 10 Counts After Day 2
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | 3,226,000 | 161 |
| 2 | Viktor Ustimov | Russia | 2,400,000 | 120 |
| 3 | Muharrem Atsiz | Turkey | 2,370,000 | 119 |
| 4 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | 1,852,000 | 93 |
| 5 | Kush Vinod Kataria | United Arab Emirates | 1,787,000 | 89 |
| 6 | Jim Sue Pan | Netherlands | 1,615,000 | 81 |
| 7 | Basel Khabbazeh | Syria | 1,480,000 | 74 |
| 8 | Karolis Sereika | Lithuania | 1,450,000 | 73 |
| 9 | Karolis Ciudaras | Lithuania | 1,439,000 | 72 |
| 10 | Piotr Sowinski | Poland | 1,320,000 | 66 |
The Action of the Day
With the late registration available for the first four hours, there was a steady influx of new players and re-entries to boost the field size. More than 200 entries were recorded during these four levels and three players dominated the early stages, as Fahredin Mustafov, Nicolas Chouity, and Artur Martirosian were the first to reach a seven-figure stack. That number soon grew further with notables such as Alessio Isaia, Bart Lybaert, Danilo Velasevic, Arunas Sapitavicius and recent WSOP Circuit Main Event winner Andrea Ricci among the notable early casualties.
Selahaddin Bedir ran his pocket sevens into the kings of Lachezar Petkov and found no help to bust mid-way through the day.
Veselin Mareshki soared into the spotlight when he scored three double ups but the stack of the Bulgarian businessman then vanished in two massive pots in quick succession as he came up short against Milen Stefanov and Fadi Alakzam.
During the later stages, big names such as Stoyan Madanzhiev, Manig Loeser, Paul Newey, Milad Oghabian, Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy, Tomas Jozonis, and Niko Koop all departed. Oghabian fell victim to the hot run of Artur Martirosian when he jammed a jack-high turn with a gutshot and nut flush draw but bricked against the top two pair. From there on, Martirosian used his big stack near the looming money bubble to cement his status as the overnight chip leader.
Once the final hands of the night were completed, the money bubble was all but reached and five of the remaining 94 contenders will walk away empty-handed. The penultimate tournament day recommences at noon local time and will aim to play down to the nine-handed final table. Stay tuned to find out who makes it one step further then, as the PokerNews team will provide as many key hands as possible until a champion has been crowned.