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It is not often that we see the chip leader at the start of the day early on in major poker tournament make it to the end of that same day in the same position, but Tuesday was one of those days. Iosif Beskrovnyy entered Day 2 of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague Main Event with 239,000 chips, most of any of the 462 players remaining in the field. At night’s end, he found himself at the top of the mountain again, and with 625,200 chips he was way ahead of the next closest player, Martin Hanowski, who held 484,000 chips.

A total of 864 players registered for the €5,000 + €300 EPT Prague Main Event, creating a €4,190,400 prize pool and a first prize of €835,000. About 15 percent of the field – 128 players – will make the payouts, which start at €8,000. The money bubble will burst Wednesday, as 167 survived to Day 3.

Should Iosif Beskrovnyy continue his run, he will be in foreign territory. While he has had a few near misses, coming close to winning, none of the final tables he has made have been in tournaments with buy-ins greater than €1,000 or fields larger than 105 runners. For example, he had a second place finish in a €1,000 tourney at the 2011 EPT Snowfest, but there were only 19 entries, so he didn’t even triple his buy-in. His best cash was at 2011 EPT Barcelona when he placed third in the €1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty event for €5,750. That tournament had a field of 105. Just making the money today at EPT Prague will be the best cash of Beskrovnyy’s live tournament career.

Beskrovnyy wasn’t a wire-to-wire chip leader on Tuesday, despite his massive lead to end the day. About three hours before the end of the night, he was only at 280,000 chips, not even that much more than his starting stack. Todd Terry held the lead at that point with 425,000 chips, followed by Jason Helder with 365,100, Vincent van der Fluit with 315,000, and Mariusz Klosinski with 301,000. But Beskrovnyy found another gear, not only surging back into the lead, but putting a healthy gap between himself and the rest of the field.

Play has gotten underway already at the Hilton Prague Hotel as some players try to hold on to make it a profitable tournament, while others position themselves for an even deeper run. Somewhere from five to seven levels will be played Wednesday before calling it a night.

2012 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders

1.    Iosif Beskrovnyy – 625,200
2.    Martin Hanowski – 484,000
3.    Sergio Aido Espina – 416,400
4.    Cesar Garcia Dominguez – 410,900
5.    Robert Kokoska     – 403,400
6.    Fabrice Soulier – 396,200
7.    Todd Terry – 392,300
8.    Chris Brammer – 389,900
9.    Mads Amot – 377,400
10.    Dany Parlafes – 375,000

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