The race to the money is on when Day 2 of the €888 888poker Live Madrid Main Event begins at 5 p.m. local time.
The Casino Gran Via poker room will again be full as a massive field returns to play today. They are led by Francisco Togores, who built up a stack of 383,000 yesterday to take the overall chip lead. Alejandro Perez (380,000), Iztio Petrysiu (334,000), Iaron Lightbourne (300,000), and Adrian Rivero (285,500) round out the top five.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Francisco Togores | Spain | 383,000 | 192 |
| 2 | Alejandro Perez | Spain | 380,000 | 190 |
| 3 | Iztio Petrysiu | 334,000 | 167 | |
| 4 | Iaron Lightbourne | United Kingdom | 300,000 | 150 |
| 5 | Adrian Rivero | Spain | 285,500 | 143 |
| 6 | Haodi Shi | 261,000 | 131 | |
| 7 | Alexander Stevic | Sweden | 249,500 | 125 |
| 8 | David Sayago | Spain | 248,000 | 124 |
| 9 | Vali Gasparyan | Russia | 245,000 | 123 |
| 10 | Soufiane Saada | France | 244,500 | 122 |
Other top stacks include inaugural EPT champion Alexander Stevic (249,500), defending champion Manuel Ledesma (222,000), and 888poker Pro Ian Simpson (172,500). Further down the leaderboard are Tarmo Tammel (172,500), WSOP bracelet winner Paolo Boi (88,000), Tom-Aksel Bedell (85,500), and David McConachie (65,000), while Team 888 members Lucia Navarro (62,500), Ricardo Mateus (46,000), and Vivian Saliba (23,500) will have some work to do today to get into contention.
The first three starting flights built a total field of 346 entries, with 173 making it to Day 2. There is also a turbo Day 1d flight currently ongoing, while late registration remains open until the start of the day so the field should grow larger by the time the prize pool is confirmed.
The action picks up on Level 12 with blinds of 1,000-2,000 and a 2,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 60 minutes long for the remainder of the tournament. The plan is to play down to the final table today.
Stay tuned as PokerNews brings you all the action from the heart of Madrid.