The money bubble drew ever closer Tuesday at the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event as the field was slashed by about two-thirds. With just 32 players getting paid and 65 remaining going into Wednesday’s Day 3, the field will still need to be cut by half before anyone can exhale even a little bit. Leading the way into the midpoint of the tournament is Poland’s Dzmitry Urbanovich with 374,800 chips, followed closely behind by JC Alvarado.
Urbanovich is one of the players that almost no casual fan, and even most die-hards, has heard of, but he has put together quite the live tournament record. With over $3.8 million in live tournament earnings, according to TheHendonMob.com database, he is Poland’s all-time money winner. Ranked 21st in the Global Poker Index, he has had quite a run in this calendar year alone, racking up 20 cashes going into the WSOP Europe Main Event. His biggest cashes of the year were €1,446,600 ($1,595,368) for a runner-up finish in the Super High Roller Event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final and €841,500 ($949,967) for another second place finish in the Super High Roller 8-Max tourney at EPT Barcelona. He also rolled through EPT Portomaso in March, winning four preliminary events, including the High Roller Event for €572,300 ($605,929). He only has one WSOP cash in his career, coming just last week at WSOP Europe.
Urbanovich dominated Day 2, winning pots with both great hands and garbage. In one of the most significant hands of the day, he, Shannon Shorr, and Georgios Karakousis got into it pre-flop with Urbanovich ending up all-in (while getting a massage, according to WSOP.com) and Karakousis calling all-in (Shorr folded). Karakousis obviously felt confident about his A-K, but Urbanovich had him dead to rights with pocket Aces. Karakousis was bounced from the tournament and Urbanovich saw his stack climb to 250,000 at that point.
Later, Urbanovich moved all-in from the small blind with just 3-5 and Allen Kessler defended his big blind by calling all-in with a short stack. His 4-4 looked good, but Urbanovich turned a 3 and rivered a 5 to eliminate Kessler.
As this is being written from the United States and the tournament is going on across the Atlantic Ocean, Day 3 of the WSOP Europe is already in full swing as the remaining competitors try to get on the right side of the money bubble and then continue towards higher and higher paydays. Six levels will be played today before calling it a night.
2015 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Dzmitry Urbanovich – 374,800
2. JC Alvarado – 356,300
3. Johannes Becker – 309,700
4. Niall Farrell – 300,900
5. Adrien Allain – 297,000
6. Ola Amundsgard – 284,900
7. Özgür Arda – 269,200
8. Maurice Hawkins – 261,200
9. Charles Coultas – 249,700
10. Erik Seidel – 238,600
