Alen Sabic raised to 225,000 under the gun and Candido Cappiello called in the big blind.
Sabic continued for 175,000 on the J♦7♣2♣ flop and Cappiello raised to 650,000. Sabic called to see the 4♥ turn.
Cappiello then bet 1,050,000 and Sabic quickly called. The river was the 9♣ and Cappiello moved all in.
Sabic had around 3,600,000 remaining and tanked for several minutes. A big crowd had gathered around the table by this time as Sabic pondered the decision, but he eventually opted to fold as Cappiello took the big pot without a showdown.
The action kicked off when the cutoff raised it to 200,000. Iman Ghashayar, sitting on the button, wasn’t about to let that go unchallenged, so he three-bet it up to 625,000. But then Rachid El Yaacoubi in the small blind decided to shake things up with a four-bet to 1,500,000, making the cutoff fold pretty quickly.
Back to Ghashayar, he wasn’t backing down either and pushed all in. El Yaacoubi went into the tank, really thinking it over. But after some deliberation, he decided to fold. Ghashayar proudly showed his cards—K♥K♦—and walked away with a nice pot without even needing to see a flop.
Dimitrios Anastasakis raised to 500,000 under the gun, leaving himself just 100,000 behind. "Why stop there? Let's put the rest in," Gary Tatavarti said as he moved all on the button. The blinds got out of the way and Anastasakis committed his last chips.
Dimitrios Anastasakis: J♣J♠
Gary Tatavarti: 10♣10♠
Anastasaskis was poised for a double up with his jacks as the board ran out K♥5♠3♣8♦A♥, keeping his hopes of making it to Day 3 alive.
PokerNews jumped into the action just as Thomas Eychenne pushed all in as the last player to act with the board reading 9♥A♠2♠4♠2♣. The spotlight shifted to Giorgi Barabadze, who took a moment to think it over before ultimately deciding to call, putting himself at risk. When Eychenne revealed K♠6♠ for a flush, he snagged the win, sending Barabadze to the rail.
A massive pile of chips totaling around 2,000,000 was already in the middle as Candido Cappiello and Xiaohua Yang went heads-up to the A♦5♠Q♦ flop. Cappiello then bet 550,000 from the big blind and Yang called in early position.
Both players checked the 9♠ turn. Cappiello also checked the J♦ river and Yang fired out 2,000,000.
Cappiello spent a few minutes in the tank before he called. Yang shook his head and turned over 10♦10♠. Cappiello showed K♦K♣ as he dragged in the massive pot, overtaking Yang for the chip lead in the dying moments of Day 2.
In the final hand of the day, with the pot swelling to around 570,000 and the flop revealing 7♣8♠2♣, Alen Sabic pushed all in for a hefty 2,825,000. The decision now fell to Anthony Mahaut, who took his time weighing his options before ultimately deciding to make the call.
Alen Sabic revealed his hand: 8♥2♦ for two pair, while Anthony Mahaut showed 9♣9♦. At that moment, Sabic was in the lead, but Mahaut needed some serious luck from the turn and river to stay in the game.
Unfortunately for Mahaut, the turn brought the A♦ and the river followed with the 5♦, leaving him empty-handed. With that, Mahaut's run in the tournament came to an abrupt end, and he was sent packing.
A total of 1,286 players entered the €1,350 Mini Main Event at the 2024 World Series Of Poker Europe (WSOPE), but now only 29 remain in the hunt for the elusive bracelet and the €213,350 top prize.
At the top of the pack sits Candido Cappiello after a sensational last level left the Italian player holding the chunkiest bag out of all the survivors with 12,665,000 chips.
The Netherlands' Iman Ghashayar sits closely behind in second with a stack of 10,780,000, and those two were the only players to clear the ten-million chip milestone. Ghashayar is no stranger to King's Resort in Rozvadov as he has five final table appearances inside the venue, including a sixth-place finish in the opening event at the 2023 WSOPE.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Candido Cappiello
Italy
12,665,000
106
2
Iman Ghashayar
The Netherlands
10,780,000
90
3
Thomas Eychenne
France
9,175,000
76
4
Xiaohua Yang
China
8,380,000
70
5
Alen Sabic
Bosnia and Herzegovina
7,650,000
64
6
Luc Ramos
Switzerland
6,325,000
53
7
Frederik Thiemer
Germany
6,195,000
52
8
Rachid El Yaacoubi
France
5,500,000
46
9
Vazha Kometiani
Georgia
4,880,000
41
10
Vladas Burneikis
Lithuania
4,550,000
38
The day began with 303 hopefuls all looking to make it into the money and beyond. Bracelet winners Josef Gulas, Sergiu Covrig, and Jessica Teusl all failed to make the money, as did Samuel Ju, Georgios Tsouloftas, and Fahredin Mustafov.
When the bubble approached, the usual hand-for-hand play never got started as Yuet Wong, Eden Anzio, Victor Dota, Yann Abitbol, and Giuseppe Bellusci were all eliminated in quick succession, which left the usual bubble spectacle to be sidelined.
Abitbol was the official bubble boy once all was said and done, which meant Anzio, Bellusci, and Wong all split a min-cash and received €800 each. The remaining 192 players were all guaranteed a payday of €2,400.
Vivian Saliba
The eliminations then came thick and fast as Bixi Yao (188th), Gab Yong Kim (168th), Ran Koller (154th), Anson Tsang (148th), Lukas Zaskodny (104th), Emil Bise (92nd), Vivian Saliba (90th), Tobias Peters (69th), and Dave Stann (45th) all fell short of the penultimate day.
It's no surprise to see Thomas Eychenne near another final table as he bagged up 9,175,000 chips. Eychenne started the day as one of the chip leaders and sprung up the leaderboard during Level 22 when he turned a full house with pocket kings to beat the ace-eight of Faramarz Safari, who flopped trips.
Eychenne then sent Germany's Florian Sarnow to the rail in a straight-over-straight situation, which sent his name flying up the leaderboard during Level 24.
Thomas Eychenne
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
€213,350
8
€31,050
2
€145,550
9
€26,250
3
€105,850
10-11
€22,850
4
€78,650
12-14
€20,280
5
€59,950
15
€9,930
6
€46,850
16-23
€8,020
7
€37,650
24-29
€6,585
*the top fourteen payouts include a €10,350 WSOPE Main Event Day 1a seat
Xiaohua Yang started the day as chip leader and almost stuck his name at the top of the counts again, but a big pot in the final few hands of the night saw the baton get handed over to Cappiello.
The only bracelet winner remaining in the field is Stephen Nahm, who bagged a middling stack of 4,325,000, which is good for twelfth in the counts. The short stack coming into Day 3 is Metodi Peychev with 1,245,000 — around ten big blinds.
Day 3 kicks off at 2 p.m. local time where the final 29 players will come back to battle it out with the plan being to reach the final table. Blinds will start at Level 27 — 60,000/120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante. The average stack sits at just over 4,400,000 — around thirty-seven big blinds.
Be sure to tune into PokerNews to see who can make it to the final table of the €1,350 Mini Main Event here at King's Resort in Rozvadov.
