The European Poker Tour’s (EPT) San Remo Main Event is scheduled to run for six days (seven when you count both flights of Day 1), but that doesn’t mean that the tournament’s organizers wanted to spread the action too thin. Running overtime to make sure that enough players were eliminated so that there would be enough room for the four preliminary events on Monday, Day 2 went a full seven levels; with breaks and dinner, that mean those who survived the day and night were there for twelve hours. It was a successful plan, as the field was trimmed from 482 to just 145, though they are still 18 eliminations away from the money. Leading the way going into Monday’s Day 3 is California’s Saguhyon “Joseph” Cheong with 632,000 chips.
Cheong wasn’t really a known quantity on the live tournament circuit until last year, but he announced his arrival with a bullhorn when he placed third in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, winning $4,130,049. Since then, the 25-year old has had a number of strong finishes, including a win in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 Festa Al Lago ($142,635), a second place finish in the £10,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Turbo tourney at the 2010 EPT London (£162,280 or $253,951), and another runner-up finish in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Rebuy event at the 2010 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic ($57,000). He banked another $54,851 in the WSOP Main Event this year after being eliminated in 114th, an impressive run after last year’s November Nine appearance.
Cheong will begin Day 3 with by far the largest chip stack at his table, as only one player will have more than half his stack size. That player at Table 14 is the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Vinklarek, who currently sits in ninth position on the chip count leader board with 396,000 chips. Overall, however, the table should be competitive if Cheong doesn’t steamroll his opposition, as three of the other six players have stacks in the mid-to-upper 200,000 range.
Other tables which could be competitive, based on chip counts include Table 9, which has Nick Yunis at 435,500 along with three over 200,000 and one just about at 200,000, and Table 5, which has Mustapha Kanit sitting behind a 577,000 chip stack going up against four stacks that are 200,000 or greater. Table 8 is top heavy with a 504,500 chip stack (Sergey Tikhonov), two stacks over 300,000, and then no others greater than 163,500.
The “I’m just trying to survive” table is Table 12, which has one stack at 233,500 and nobody else in six figures. Two stacks are below 20,000.
Play will resume at the Casino San Remo at 2:00pm local time on Monday as those on the bubble try to hang on to cash and those with big stacks try to position themselves for a possible final table run.
2011 European Poker Tour San Remo Main Event – End of Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Joseph Cheong – 632,000
2. Daniel Neilson – 584,500
3. Mustapha Kanit – 577,000
4. William Thorson – 508,500
5. Sergey Tikhonov – 504,500
6. Vanessa Selbst – 497,000
7. Nick Yunis – 435,500
8. Christopher McClung – 402,000
9. Ondrej Vinklarek – 396,000
10. Jon Spinks – 355,000
