The survivors of the two starting flights combined into a single, 132 player field Monday at the 2012 World Poker Tour (WPT) Merit Cyprus Classic, allowing the competitors the chance to take a good look at everyone who stands in between them and a WPT title. With just 53 players remaining after Day 2, Switzerland’s Sam El Sayed jumped from the fourth largest stack to the chip lead, with just a 4,000 chip advantage over Canadian Erik Cajelais. With the top seven players separated by just 38,000 chips, it should be an exciting race to the finish this week.
Sam El Sayed may have surprised himself with his standing atop the leaderboard. Less than three hours before the night’s end, he was struggling to make heads or tails of anything and found his stack whittled down to just 85,000 chips from 214,300. He pressed on, though, more than quadrupling his chips from there to end the day with 375,500.
El Sayed has seen success on the World Poker Tour in recent years. In November 2010, he won the WPT Amneville (France) Main Event, a score of almost $600,000. At the end of that season, he placed 8th in the $25,000 WPT Championship, good for $119,464. Not bad for his only two WPT cashes.
David “Chino” Rheem, the chip leader heading into Day 2, looked like he might run away with the tournament, taking his chip stack over the half million mark. But he cratered and looked like he might not even make the money. Very late in the day, though, Rheem got into a pre-flop raising war with Andrey Shatilov, culminating in the two of them going all-in. Rheem showed A♠-Q♠ while Shatilov turned over 8♥-8♣ for a good, old coin flip. The flop came out A♥-K♠-6♥ to give Rheem the lead. Shatilov couldn’t find one of the two remaining 8’s or runner hearts to make the comeback and Rheem doubled-up to 269,000. He was able to tack on about 100,000 more before the night was over, allowing him to get back into the top five.
The money bubble will burst Tuesday, as the tournament pays to 36 places. With just 53 players left heading into Day 3, it should not be too long before the money line is crossed. A total of five more 90 minute levels will be contested today before the players head to bed.
2012 World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Classic – End of Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Sam El Sayed – 375,500
2. Erik Cajelais – 371,500
3. Robert Mizrachi – 365,000
4. David “Chino” Rheem – 361,000
5. Vyacheslav Stoyanov – 356,500
6. Aubin Cazals – 344,500
7. Andras Nemeth – 337,000
8. Tolga Demirel – 298,000
9. Andrey Shatilov – 279,500
10. Manig Loeser – 277,500
