Oftentimes in large, multi-day poker tournaments, the chip leaders at the end of early days fall off the next day, never to be seen again in the event. Not so this weekend at the European Poker Tour (EPT) London stop. Germany’s Benny Spindler, who started Sunday’s Day 2 as the second largest chip stack with 160,800 chips, finished the day as the overall leader, entering Monday with 469,800 chips. The rest of the top five from the start of Day 2 – Lukasz Golczyk, Rajesh Vohra, Mustapha Kanit, and Umberto Vitagliano – are all still in the mix as well, though not nearly in as good of shape as Spindler.
Spindler is new to the live poker tournament scene, only having recorded results since 2007. It wasn’t until 2009 that he really made his mark, though, when he placed third in the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, winning $1.1 million. Over the next couple years, he put together a string of 5-digit cashes, including a $44,575 payday at this same EPT London event for a 12th place finish. This year, he made a final table at EPT Berlin ($48,389), placed second at the EPT Grand Final High Roller event ($469,017), and a win in the $10,000 Single Reload event at EPT Talinn ($71,017). For his career, Spindler is just shy of the $2 million mark on the live tournament circuit.
With 160 players remaining to start Day 3 and 104 leaving with a profit from the £5,250, the money bubble should burst on Monday. The min-cashers will win £7,500, while first place will bank £750,000. The final six players will all take home paychecks in the six-figure range.
Other notables still in the field include John Gale (223,700 chips), 10-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and poker legend of legends Doyle Brunson (202,400), Andrew Feldman (193,300), Team PokerStars pro Sebastian Ruthenberg (169,900), Humberto Brenes (151,500), 2009 WSOP November Niner James Akenhead (136,800), Jake Cody (125,200), Brian Hastings (93,700), Jason Mercier (88,300), Todd Terry (52,400), Sorel Mizzi (26,900), and Freddy Deeb (26,700).
Those who will have to find somewhere else to play poker this week were, among others, 2006 WSOP Main Event Champ Joe Hachem, Vicky Coren, Barry Greenstein, Eugene Katchalov, former tennis great Boris Becker, Ivan Demidov, 2009 WSOP Main Event Champ Joe Cada, and Vanessa Rousso.
Day 3 play is already underway at the Hilton London Metropole as some players try to position themselves to cash while others try to position themselves to make a run at the final table. That final table will be played on Thursday, October 6th and will be filmed for television along with the rest of the EPT London Main Event.
2011 European Poker Tour London – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Benny Spindler – 469,800
2. Jamie Rosen – 405,000
3. Basile Yaiche – 403,600
4. Martins Adeniya – 395,000
5. Jonathan Layani – 363,000
6. Matthijs Remie – 353,500
7. Sandor Demjan – 350,500
8. Andre Klebanov – 349,900
9. Steven Kelly – 346,200
10. Hugo Loureiro – 327,000