Vaitiekunas Bags Slight Lead After Day 2 of Event #14: €10,350 Main Event

Adam Lamers

Level 13 : 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante

After another six levels of poker, Day 2 of Event #14: €10,350 Main Event has drawn to a close at the World Series of Poker Europe. It was a packed room at King's Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic when the day began with 279 players returning to their seats. That number filtered down to just 129 by the end of the day and Paulius Vaitiekunas bagged the largest stack with 1,221,000 chips.

Vaitiekunas came into the day as a top-ten stack and really got his momentum rolling when he turned a pair of kings in a four-bet pot into a bluff. He got his opponent to fold middle set on the river on a relatively dry board and from there Vaitiekunas continued to accumulate chips. It was mostly "small ballin'" poker as Vaitiekunas called it that earned him the chip lead after two days.

The Lithuanian poker pro came close to his first gold bracelet when he finished in fifth place at the Global Casino Championship earlier this year. Vaitiekunas claimed his first WSOP Circuit ring in March, topping the field in the €777 Lucky 7s Event. Over the course of his short two-year reign at the live felt, Vaitiekunas has racked up over $170,000 in tournament winnings and is looking to add to that number in a big way this week.

Heading into Day 3, he will be closely followed by Ahmad Achegsei who finished strong with 1,213,000 chips. Daan Mulders held the lead in the last few minutes but lost a pot in one of the final hands to wind up with 1,191,000. Alexandros Kolonias was the only other player to finish in the seven-figure club as he busted Freek Scholten in one of the last hands. Kolonias wound up bagging up a stack of 1,115,000 chips.

Day 2 Action

The action kicked off at 12 p.m. local time and empty seats were quickly filled with late entries. A starting stack of 100,000 chips was still worth over 60 big blinds at the start of the day and players took full advantage. There were nearly 100 entries on Day 2 that brought the total to 541, setting a new record for the WSOP Europe held at King's Resort. The €5,000,000 guaranteed prizepool was reached early on as players were re-entering faster as fast as they were being eliminated.

Kahle Burns struggled on Day 2 of the Main Event

It was a rough day for one of the chip leaders Kahle Burns who was up and down throughout but eventually was sent to the rail. Burns hit a couple of rough patches in the middle levels and eventually found himself on a stack of 20 big blinds. He got his chips in the middle with top pair against a straight draw and his opponent rivered a straight to eliminate the 2x bracelet winner at the 2019 WSOP Europe.

Many other big names took to the felt in search of making a deep run in the Main Event but things didn't go their way either. Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan, Dominik Nitsche, Ole Schemion, Christoph Vogelsang, William Kassouf, Sam Grafton, Phil Hui, Ryan Riess, and Alex Livingston all failed to find a bag. That left Shaun Deeb as one of the only players in the field still in contention for the Player of the Year race, bagging up a stack of 118,000 chips.

Alex Foxen came into the day as the overall chipleader and rode a wavy rollercoaster through each and every level. Things got sour in a hurry but Foxen recovered his entire stack and then some by the time dinner break rolled around. However, a couple of double ups to his neighbor Adi Rajkovic left Foxen with 200,000. In the last level of the night, Foxen spun it up once more, with a large portion coming when he flopped set over set to score an elimination. He finished the day with 813,000, more than what he started with which is the goal every time.

It was a rollercoaster Day 2 for Alex Foxen

A few other big names to make it through the day include Jan-Peter Jachtmann (851,000), Martin Kabrhel (793,000), Joao Vieira (715,000), Dario Sammartino (687,000), Anton Morgenstern (600,000), Jeff Madsen (404,000), Benjamin Pollak (350,000), and defending champion Jack Sinclair (272,000).

When the players return to the felt on Day 3, they will have their sights set on the money bubble. With 129 players remaining and only 82 making the money, the bubble could come faster than players expect. A min-cash will be worth €15,089 all the way up to the winner receiving €1,133,678.

Another six levels are on the schedule for Day 3 and the action will get underway at 12 p.m. local time. There will be a 15-minute break after every level and a 60-minute dinner break after the fourth level. The PokerNews team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the big pots and all of the action throughout the day.

2019 WSOPE Main Event Day 3 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
80	1	Pierre Mothes	Germany	475,000	79
80	2	Artur Jarek	Poland	292,000	49
80	3	Dennis Wilke	Germany	368,000	61
80	4	Duco Ten Haven	Netherlands	880,000	147
80	5	Michal Lubas	Poland	646,000	108
80	6	Sergio Ruiz	Spain	163,000	27
80	7	Gergely Voeroes	Hungary	348,000	58
80	8	Tobias Peters	Netherlands	241,000	40

81	1	Alessandro Laubinger	Germany	279,000	47
81	2	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	218,000	36
81	4	Michael Sklenicka	Czech Republic	386,000	64
81	5	Charbel Salloum	Lebanon	532,000	89
81	6	Per Reevcrona	Sweden	107,000	18
81	7	Georgios Vrakas	Greece	362,000	60
81	8	Dario Sammartino	Italy	687,000	115

82	1	Markus Dürnegger	Austria	874,000	146
82	2	Anatoly Filatov	Russia	200,000	33
82	3	Quan Zhou	China	501,000	84
82	4	Jorma Nuutinen	Finland	293,000	49
82	5	Karol Konopka	Poland	445,000	74
82	6	Francesco Delfoco	Italy	360,000	60
82	7	Adrian Galipienso	Spain	737,000	123
82	8	Tomas Knespl	Czech Republic	164,000	27

83	1	Marek Blasko	Slovakia	273,000	46
83	2	Yake Wu	China	125,000	21
83	3	Abdelhakim Zoufri	Netherlands	436,000	73
83	4	Alex Foxen	United States	813,000	136
83	5	Bertrand Grospellier	France	323,000	54
83	7	Viktor Walter	Germany	201,000	34
83	8	Philipp Zukernik	Israel	484,000	81

84	1	Mehrzad Moadeli	Denmark	449,000	75
84	2	Raz Alon	Israel	152,000	25
84	3	Setki Ajruli	Macedonia	390,000	65
84	4	Gianluca Speranza	Italy	273,000	46
84	5	Martin Kabrhel	Czech Republic	793,000	132
84	6	Paulius Vaitiekunas	Lithuania	1,221,000	204
84	7	Aymon Hata	United Kingdom	362,000	60
84	8	Fernando Habegger	Switzerland	212,000	35

85	1	David “ODB” Baker	United States	720,000	120
85	2	Zhong Chen	Netherlands	236,000	39
85	3	Saar Wilf	Israel	449,000	75
85	4	Michael Duerk	Germany	413,000	69
85	5	Didier Rabl	Switzerland	92,000	15
85	6	Ahmad Achegsei	Germany	1,213,000	202
85	7	Enrico Campanile	Italy	283,000	47
85	8	Jakob Madsen	Denmark	352,000	59

94	1	Bleron Maliqi	RKS	292,000	49
94	2	Vlada Stojanovic	Serbia	486,000	81
94	3	Julien Martini	France	887,000	148
94	4	Emmanouil Fountoulakis	Greece	362,000	60
94	5	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	207,000	35
94	6	Jeff Madsen	United States	404,000	67
94	7	Balazs Bistei	Hungary	102,000	17
94	8	Mustafa Biz	Turkey	777,000	130

95	1	Kristoffer Rasmussen	Denmark	491,000	82
95	2	Joao Vieira	Portugal	715,000	119
95	3	Paul Theobald	Germany	62,000	10
95	4	Jack Sinclair	United Kingdom	272,000	45
95	5	Roberto Romanello	United Kingdom	425,000	71
95	6	Sergey Verkhoturov	Russia	320,000	53
95	7	Daniel Rezaei	Austria	911,000	152
95	8	Roman Sahin	Switzerland	228,000	38

96	1	Maria Lampropulos	Greece	248,000	41
96	2	Ghattas Kortas	Sweden	568,000	95
96	3	Aleksandr Merzhvinskii	Russia	94,000	16
96	4	Enrico Camosci	Italy	655,000	109
96	5	Leonard Maue	Germany	414,000	69
96	6	Alfred Kovezman	Israel	329,000	55
96	8	Oleg Pavlyuchuk	Russia	267,000	45

97	1	Michal Mrakes	Czech Republic	227,000	38
97	2	Christopher Frank	?land Islands	284,000	47
97	3	Negjdet Avdylaj	RKS	423,000	71
97	4	Kasparas Klezys	Lithuania	97,000	16
97	5	Bernd Gleissner	Germany	350,000	58
97	6	Roberto Morra	Italy	454,000	76
97	7	Daan Mulders	Netherlands	1,191,000	199
97	8	Jan-Peter Jachtmann	Germany	851,000	142

98	1	Nadim El Ammar	Germany	310,000	52
98	2	Claas Segebrecht	Germany	670,000	112
98	3	Dennis Martin	Germany	134,000	22
98	4	Anton Morgenstern	Germany	600,000	100
98	5	Anders Kjellerup	Denmark	387,000	65
98	6	Manuel Bulut	Germany	223,000	37
98	8	Warwick Mirzikinian	Australia	288,000	48

99	1	Faramarz Safari	Austria	639,000	107
99	2	Alexandros Kolonias	Greece	1,115,000	186
99	3	Giorgiy Skhulukhiya	Russia	190,000	32
99	4	Ihor Yerofieiev	Ukraine	267,000	45
99	5	Anthony Zinno	United States	430,000	72
99	6	Roland Israelashvili	United States	337,000	56
99	7	Shaun Deeb	United States	118,000	20
99	8	Dash Dudley	United States	508,000	85

108	1	Julian Menhardt	Germany	439,000	73
108	2	Nicolas Sievers	Germany	167,000	28
108	3	Adi Rajkovic	Austria	633,000	106
108	4	Vadzim Lipauka	Belarus	964,000	161
108	5	Jozef Bartalos	Slovakia	251,000	42
108	6	Benjamin Pollak	France	350,000	58
108	7	Artur Rudenkov	Czech Republic	550,000	92
108	8	Rainer Kempe	Germany	159,000	27

109	1	Besmir Hodaj	Albania	287,000	48
109	3	Anas Belatik	France	405,000	68
109	4	Christian Rudolph	Germany	116,000	19
109	5	Philipp Luetkemeier	Germany	306,000	51
109	6	Christofor Stefanidi	Germany	239,000	40
109	7	Rene Mueller	Germany	648,000	108
109	8	Hongbin Guo	China	507,000	85

110	1	Bartlomiej Machon	Poland	302,000	50
110	2	Shahar Levi	Israel	622,000	104
110	4	Harry Ross	United Kingdom	164,000	27
110	5	Jakub Oliva	Czech Republic	251,000	42
110	6	Jacob Baumgartner	United States	362,000	60
110	7	Deniz Dogan	Germany	445,000	74
110	8	Dragos Trofimov	Moldova	861,000	144

111	1	Felix Schulze	Germany	714,000	119
111	2	Antonio Madreira De Andrade Dos Santos	Brazil	447,000	75
111	3	Mykola Kostyrko	Ukraine	333,000	56
111	4	Karl-Theodor Schoepf	Germany	115,000	19
111	5	Maxim Lykov	Russia	196,000	33
111	6	Martin Kristeller	Germany	1,100,000	183
111	7	David Gnirs	Germany	435,000	73
111	8	Marius Gicovanu	Romania	277,000	46

112	1	Anh Do	Czech Republic	313,000	52
112	2	Thomas Hammerl	Germany	225,000	38
112	3	Guillaume Diaz	France	85,000	14
112	5	Rifat Palevic	Sweden	593,000	99
112	6	Sasa Lalos	Austria	296,000	49
112	7	Raphael Braun	Austria	444,000	74
112	8	Robert Skopalik	Czech Republic	694,000	116