Artiom Poddubnii Leads Final 58 in Event #3: €1,350 NLH Mini Main Event
Day 2 of Event #3: €1,350 NLH Mini Main Event has come to an end here at the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe at King's Resort in Rozvadov. Leading the charge is Artiom Poddubnii, who amassed 10,740,000 in chips by the time the dust settled.
Poddubnii busted several players en route to bagging the chip lead, including a hand where he cracked aces late in the day for a large pot. Poddubnii's best live cash came back in 2021 after winning the Grompoker Ukraine Poker Open Main Event for $20,000, but he now finds himself in pole position to make a serious run at the €300,000 first-place prize.
In total, the tournament generated a total of 1,729 entries across four starting flights. Of those, 461 returned for Day 2 to compete for the lion's share of the €2,000,000 prize pool. However, by the time play concluded, just 58 players remained.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artiom Poddubnii | Moldova | 10,740,000 | 107 |
| 2 | Marius Gicovanu | Romania | 7,290,000 | 73 |
| 3 | Lazare Kalebashvili | Georgia | 6,945,000 | 69 |
| 4 | Jamel Ghizaoui | France | 6,900,000 | 69 |
| 5 | Omar Eljach | Sweden | 6,575,000 | 66 |
| 6 | Matthew Davenport | United Kingdom | 6,445,000 | 64 |
| 7 | Levan Rcheulishvili | Georgia | 6,020,000 | 60 |
| 8 | Aleksej Grenz | Germany | 5,805,000 | 58 |
| 9 | [Removed:446] | Mongolia | 5,180,000 | 52 |
| 10 | Elia Salerno | Italy | 5,120,000 | 51 |
With 260 players making the money, it didn't take long for the field to play down to the bubble, which resulted in a three-way preflop all in between aces, kings, and queens. David Taborsky was the unfortunate bubble boy after his queens failed to improve against Anthony Mahaut's aces as the short stack.
Defending WSOPE Main Event Champion Omar Eljach, who also won his second bracelet just a couple days ago in Event #2: €550 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Max, is among the chip leaders after bagging 6,575,000 and will be looking to improve upon his already stellar poker resume.
Among the less fortunate who busted before they could find a bag include Martin Kabrhel (219th - €1,880), Ran Kollerr (131st - €2,510), Peter Kamaras (114th - €2,715), Renji Mao (104th - €2,715), Oleksii Kovalchuk (91st - €2,975), and Jason Wheeler (81st - €3,305).
Event #3: €1,350 NLH Mini Main Event Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €310,350* | 10-11 | €29,120* |
| 2 | €183,850* | 12-13 | €25,275* |
| 3 | €136,750* | 14 | €22,375* |
| 4 | €103,350* | 15-17 | €12,025 |
| 5 | €79,650* | 18-26 | €9,800 |
| 6 | €62,550* | 27-35 | €8,075 |
| 7 | €50,050* | 36-44 | €6,750 |
| 8 | €40,950* | 45-53 | €5,700 |
| 9 | €34,150* | 54-58 | €4,890 |
*Payouts including €10,350 WSOPE Main Event Day 1a ticket
Day 3 is scheduled to begin on November 3 at 2 p.m. local time and play down until a final table is reached. Play will resume on level 26, which features 50,000/100,000 blinds with a 100,000 big blind ante.
Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action leading to the final table and the next WSOPE gold bracelet winner!