The 320 survivors from the two starting flights of European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin came together in a combined field for Day 2 on Wednesday, each looking to possibly show a profit for the tournament by night’s end. All 102 runners who bagged chips when play came to a close were happy, as they all made the money; the bubble cut-off was 112 players. Day 1A chip leader Vladimir Geshkenbein dominated most of the day, but he was overtaken late by Sweden’s Anton Wigg. With stacks approaching 700,000, the two are head and shoulders above the rest of the field going into Day 3.
Neither man is a stranger to success on the European Poker Tour. Wigg won the 2010 EPT Copenhagen Main Event, taking home DKr 3,675,000 ($672,818), while Geshkenbein made €390,000 ($552,901) for winning last year’s EPT Snowfest. Both have earned over $1,000,000 on the live tournament circuit.
Wigg’s run to the top of the leaderboard didn’t begin in earnest until the last couple hours of play. With less than 20 eliminations remaining until the money bubble burst, Wigg, Calvin Anderson, and another player got into a raising war pre-flop. Eventually, Wigg got it all-in, likely feeling pretty good with pocket Queens. After the other player bowed out, Wigg called with pocket Kings. Nothing helped Anderson on the board and his EPT Berlin came to a sudden end. With that hand, Wigg increased his stack by 176,000 chips to 370,000.
A bit later, Wigg made it up to 470,000 after a betting on every street on a T-5-2-Q-4 board, eventually forcing Philipp Gruissem to fold on the river.
Just before play ended for the night, Wigg made his leap past the 600,000 chip plateau. Working pre-flop, Stephane Albertini raised to 8,500 and Wigg re-raised to 18,500. Davidi Katai wanted in on the action, so he re-popped it up to 45,000. Albertini got out of the way and Wigg made the call. The flop came down Q-T-7 and Kitai threw out a 55,000 chip bet. Wigg raised to 118,000, which got Kitai to fold after some thought. He showed Wigg A-K and Wigg teased him by revealing just a 5.
The plan for Day 3 on Thursday is to whittle the field down from 102 to just 24, or three tables. If nothing goes awry, everyone who moves on to Day 4 will be guaranteed at least €20,000.
2012 European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event – End of Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Anton Wigg – 695,000
2. Vladimir Geshkenbein – 675,500
3. Cesar Garcia Domínguez – 526,500
4. Pascal Hartmann – 450,000
5. Bahram Zohri – 445,000
6. Bahadir Kilickeser – 435,000
7. Zachary Korik – 430,000
8. Dan Smith – 420,000
9. Vanessa Selbst – 374,500
10. Kasper Kjeldsen – 374,000
