Former EPT Champ Ben Wilinofsky Leads after EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 2

Casino News Daily

The EPT Barcelona has over the years made a name for itself as a record-smashing festival and this year showed no diversion from this trend. The brand-new edition of the €5,300 Main Event drew a record number of 1,931 entries (including 457 re-entries) who generated a massive €9,365,350 prize pool.

And if the starting flights of the prestigious tournament were packed with action, Day 2 was sizzling and blazing. Among other things, the eventful second day of play saw the money bubble burst. Guillaume Diaz became the unfortunate bubble boy who left in 297th place just an arm’s stretch away from a min-cash of €8,150.

The massive field of the tournament was reduced to just 259 players by the end of Day 2. They all bagged for the night and will resume play later today at the host venue, Casino Barcelona.

Ben Wilinofsky, who came into Day 2 as the chip leader from Day 1A, maintained his great momentum from the tournament’s starting flight to squeeze the largest stack of the night at the closure of the second day of play. The player, originally from Canada, bagged 850,000 in chips last night.

It is important to note that winning an EPT Main Event is not a strange experience to Wilinofsky. The player took down the EPT Berlin Main Event in 2011 for a cash prize of €825,000. This was Wilinofsky’s first in-the-money finish in a live tournament and has been his largest cash to date. That may well change within the next few days as the player, together with all the remaining survivors, is contending for a first-place prize of €1,611,500.

Who Else Is Still In Contention

Wilinofsky is leading a pack of 259 hopefuls with his 850,000 stack. He is ahead of David Petrzelka with 771,000 and Ali Imsirovic with 723,000, who too comprise the top three chip stacks of the night. It could be said that Imsirovic dominated action towards the end of Day 2 and could have easily been the chip leader, if it were not for Patrik Antonius who won a key hand to trim him back. Despite that setback, Imsirovic is still in a good position to attack the first-place cash on Day 3.

Team PokerStars Pro Jaime Staples was the only brand ambassador for the poker room still left in contention at the end of Day 2. The player bagged 196,000 in chips to make it to the the middle of the chip counts chart.

France’s Benjamin Pollak headlines a plethora of prominent poker pros, including the likes of Shaun Deeb, Antonius, Viktor Blom, Mustapha Kanit, and Chris Moorman. Pollak himself came into the Main Event fresh off his triumph in the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller.

Main Event action at Casino Barcelona is set to resume today at noon local time. The 259 remaining contenders are all vying for the €1.6 million first-place prize, but it will elude many of them as the field will be further whittled down. The Main Event finale is set to be played on Sunday at the host casino.

The post Former EPT Champ Ben Wilinofsky Leads after EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 2 appeared first on Casino News Daily.

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