Weiran Pu opened to 320,000 from under the gun and Florian Guimond shipped all in for around 1,400,000 in the small blind. The action folded back to Pu who quickly called to put Guimond at risk.
Florian Guimond: A♦Q♠
Weiran Pu: J♥J♦
The flop came K♠7♦4♥ and Pu was still in the lead with his pocket jacks. The 9♦ on the turn and the 7♥ on the river were no help to Guimond who was ousted in 12th place.
Igor Pihela Jr open-jammed 2,200,000 chips from under the gun. Tom Orpaz was in the next seat over and rejammed for 2,800,000. Walter Ripper sat in the big blind with a stack of around two million as well and tanked for a while before eventually forfeiting his hand. The other two players were ordered to show down.
Igor Pihela Jr: A♠Q♥
Tom Orpaz: A♥K♠
Pihela Jr's hopes of a double diminished significantly as Ripper revealed he folded ace-queen as well. Indeed, neither of the two remaining queens appeared on 4♣A♣8♥5♦2♦ and that spelled the end of Pihela Jr's tournament life. He finished in 11th place and the €2,200 FPS High Roller is now on the final table bubble.
Enrico Camosci raised to 475,000 in the small blind and Marco Lupino shoved all in for 1,005,000 in the big blind. Camosci quickly called and the cards were tabled.
Lupino showed K♠5♣ and Camosci was live with 9♣6♠. The board ran out K♦J♦10♦8♣10♣ and Lupino's two pair was good for a double-up.
On the next hand, Camosci shipped all in for 3,200,000 on the button and Lupino quickly moved all in for just over 2,000,000 in the small blind. The big blind folded and the cards were on their backs again.
Marco Lupino: A♥A♦
Enrico Camosci: 5♠5♥
The flop fell 9♥6♥5♦ with the five in the window to give Camosci a set of fives. The 4♣ turn and the 3♥ river eliminated Lupino in 10th place.
Tom Orpaz shoved all of his 1,080,000 chips in the middle from the hijack and Walter Ripper rejammed from the small blind for a little more. Sim Kok Wai folded his big blind and the other two players revealed their cards.
Tom Orpaz: Q♦10♦
Walter Ripper: K♣Q♥
Ripper had the dominating hand, though the A♣7♣7♠ flop brought some chop outs. Orpaz was yelling for a queen to grace the turn, but the 3♦ appeared instead. He tried the same trick one more time on the river, but this time the 4♠ showed up.
Orpaz shook hands with his opponents and excused the Brazilian rail for celebrating loudly. He was the first player to bust from the €2,200 FPS High Roller final table and stuffed his wallet with €37,630 as a result.
Enrico Camosci raised to 500,000 in the hijack and Sim Kok Wai announced all in for 3,530,000 on the button. The blinds folded and Camosci called after a shrug of the shoulders.
Sim Kok Wai: A♥Q♥
Enrico Camosci: Q♠Q♣
The flop came K♣10♠2♠ and the Italians rose to their feet as Camosci still held the lead. The K♥ on the turn changed nothing but the A♦ on the river vaulted Wai into the lead, leaving Camosci with just two big blinds.
A couple of hands later, Paolo Boi raised to 500,000 on the button and Camosci called the rest of his chips from the big blind. Boi was in a dominating lead with A♦10♣ against the A♥6♦ of Camosci. The board ran out K♥10♥8♥8♠J♣ and Boi's two pair eliminated Camosci.
It was another long day at the office at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® with over 13 hours of poker taking place. Eventually, Day 2 was brought to a close with seven players remaining in the €2,200 FPS High Roller and they will be forced to crown a winner tomorrow.
There was never a runaway chip leader throughout the day and there still isn't heading into the final day tomorrow. The big headline with just seven players remaining is Yiannis Liperis who is looking to better his performance from last year. In 2022, Liperis made a deep run in this same event where he finished in fourth for just shy of €100,000.
Liperis will be returning with a stack of 7,850,000 chips when the cards go back in the air and would like nothing more than to be holding the trophy when all is said and done. The poker pro from Cyprus has cashed for nearly $2.5 million in his career and has his sights set on another six-figure payout.
The competition will be tough and it is still anyone's game with everyone hovering around an average stack. Sim Kok Wai will be entering Day 3 as the slight chip leader with 8,650,000 chips. Wai was able to capture the chip lead after spiking an ace on the river in a key pot in the last level of the night for a big double-up.
Final Table Seating Assignments
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Yiannis Liperis
Cyprus
7,850,000
26
2
Marco Regonaschi
Italy
4,800,000
16
3
Weiran Pu
China
5,175,000
17
4
Paolo Boi
Italy
2,000,000
7
5
Candido Cappiello
Italy
4,625,000
15
6
Walter Ripper
Brazil
3,900,000
13
7
Sim Kok Wai
Malaysia
8,650,000
29
Day 2 Action
There were 182 players who returned to the felt for Day 2 and they were all guaranteed at least a min-cash of €3,340. There was no shortage of action at the start of play as the field dwindled down to less than 80 players at the first break. Some of the notable early eliminations belonged to Harry Lodge, PokerStars ambassador Benjamin Spragg, Conor Beresford, Maria Konnikova, and Mauricio Salazar Sanchez.
As the day dragged on, the pay jumps started to become more significant and the action slowly crept to a halt. Upon reaching the final table bubble, the two tables were forced to go hand-for-hand due to some excessive stalling. In the end, it was Marco Lupino who was eliminated in tenth place when his pocket aces got cracked just one hand after he doubled up.
While the other nine players joined in celebration with their rails, it was time to get back to business with the day winding down. It was determined that a winner could not be crowned this evening and so the table agreed to play one more level and then return for Day 3 on Monday. In that period of time, it was Tom Orpaz and Enrico Camosci who were sent to the rail in ninth and eighth place, respectively.
Orpaz was grinding the short stack for much of the day after an early cooler but managed to work his way to the final table. However, his table talk was not enough to will the cards in his favor late in the night. As for Camosci, he was on the receiving end of Wai's ace on the river for a chip-lead pot. Camosci's Italian rail felt the pain as he was eliminated just a couple of hands later.
Sim Kok Wai holds the chip lead
Any aggressive action completely ceased in the last 20 minutes of the night as players were carefully trying to bag their chips for Day 3. The chips will have to be on the move when the action resumes as the average stack is less than 20 big blinds and the chip leader will be sitting on just 29 big blinds.
The cards are scheduled to go back in the air at 11:00 a.m. local time with the blinds resuming on level 34 at 150,000/300,000 and a 300,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 40 minutes in length until only three players remain and then they will be shortened by half. Each player has locked up at least €63,610 thus far, but the winner will be taking home €406,670.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to bring you live updates and all of the eliminations en route to crowning a winner.
