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.
With the average stack being just over 20 big blinds, most pots are taken down preflop, either by raises or three-bets. However, Paolo Boi and Sim Kok Wai played one of the few postflop hands when Wai made it 500,000 from the hijack and Boi defended his big blind.
The flop saw 5♣7♠9♦ hit the felt and Boi checked to Wai, who put in a continuation-bet of another 500,000. Boi had some tricks up his sleeve though, as he put in the check-raise to 1,450,000. Wai put in the million owed and the two went to the turn.
The 9♥ paired the board and saw Boi revert to checking again. Wai retook the betting lead by announcing ''all-in'', covering Boi's 2,200,000 remaining chips. Boi did not spend much time thinking about the situation as he quickly let his hand go, leaving himself nine big blinds behind.
Wai, on the other hand, is flourishing on the final table and is playing a stack of roughly nine million chips.
The action is finished for the night on Day 2 and the final seven players will return tomorrow (actually later today) at 11 a.m. local time to play down to a winner. The full chip counts and a recap of the day's action will be posted shortly.
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.
