In almost a complete contrast to the Main Event, the High Rollers paused at their Day 2 dinner break with a field from which it would be difficult to pick out players you’d never seen before — follow all the action on our live coverage page.
As players now leave the Hofburg Palace in search of fried food covered in breadcrumbs and served with potatoes, they are led by German pro Benny Spindler who plays a stack of 898,999 right now, some way ahead of a surge of Russian players eager to take him on, including Andrey Filatov on 695,000 and Vitaly Lunkin on 610,000.
Spindler could become only the second player after ElkY to win two High Roller titles, if this form continues tonight and into tomorrow. His previous title came in Sanremo back in 2012.
Benny Spindler
Play pauses at a critical stage of the High Roller event, with 29 players spread across four tables, with the top 27 players finishing in the money. There are a few short stacks still hanging on. None of them will digest their dinnertime schnitzel very well.
As is the way these early levels of Day 2 saw the leader’s stacks increase, bolstered by the stacks of those no longer in the field.
Almost from the start flagship players began to fall to the rail. Ole Schemion, Stephen Chidwick, Olivier Busquet and Timothy Adams were soon out, followed by Deauville High Roller winner (and PCA champ) Dominik Panka.
Olivier Busquet
Sebastien Trisch had gone deep in the main event and jumped straight into the High Roller event. Today he jumped straight back out again. Dominik Nitsche, this week’s €2k turbo winner Martin Jacobson, Dimitar Danchev and Ronny Kaiser did the same.
Martin Jacobson
There would be more eliminations, with the likes of Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand Grospellier, Anton Wigg, Philipp Gruissem, Johannes Strassmann and others playing no further part.
Eugene Katchalov
The rest play on with the bubble now in clear sight. From the starting field of 181 the top 27 will finish in the money, with the first prize of €392,900 up for grabs tomorrow.
So who does that leave? As ever, a tough field. Theo Jorgensen plays on, as do Johannes Strassmann, Jonathan Duhamel, Sam Trickett and Alex Bilokur.
Theo Jorgensen
There are others, all of whom are listed on the chip count page as part of our live coverage which continues into the night. Keep tabs on all the scores until play finishes at around midnight.
The Hofburg Palace tonight
Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter.
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