EPT11 Barcelona: Vojtech Ruzicka with big lead over big field as Day 2 ends

Amid fears that tournament staff would really find sufficient room to seat them, some 906 players made their as far back as Casino Barcelona today, the survivors of what have been a record setting EPT Main Event field.

Wall to wall: the Day 2 field

While the registration desk staff may never full recover, it marks a celebratory highpoint for the tour, which was capable of release details of a prize pool powerful enough to make everyone day-dream for only a moment: €7,255,600 in total, with €1,261,000 to the winner. As Edgar Stuchly put it, that is life changing money.

But first things first. Many here bagging up chips may have their first target in sight a while tomorrow--a min-cash worth €8,050 to the highest 239 players when the bubble bursts. But then that would not apply to everyone, by no means the chip leader tonight Vojtech Ruzicka, who closed on a stack worth 617,100.

Vojtech Ruzicka bagged up the lead tonight

As he bagged up chips Vojtech, a former EPT High Roller winner in Deauville, said his day had involved knocking out Bryn Kenney within the second level, then Dominik Nitsche in a while. Then he got set over set against an "old guy" who came to the table with 200,000. Vojtech busted him just after he had sat down. The result, a large lead going into Day 3.

He was among a suite of players who vied for the lead tonight, including the likes of Tobias Rohe, Martin Finger and at one stage no less than Michael Mizrachi, who bludgeoned instead of grinded his way up the chip counts, building on his chip lead from Day 1A, before building it down again, closing with a brief stack.

Pound, bludgeon or wallop, whatever works for The Grinder Michael MizrachiAmong the contenders today: Martin Finger

No one player had it for terribly long, instead they leap-frogged one another throughout six levels, with the leading group made of some familiar and never so familiar players. The list of notables from a surviving field of roughly 310 returning tomorrow seems like this.

Vojtech Ruzicka - 617,100Nima Ahrary - 519,600Martin Finger - 502,000Berthold Wimz - 443,000Tobias Rohe - 435,000Oliver Price - 352,900Andres Jeckeln - 352,400Ramin Hajiyev - 351,700Alexander Kuzmin - 325,900Pavel Plesuv - 325,100Hossein Ensan - 324,900Josh Prager - 320,700Marko Neumann - 316,100Mikhail Korotkikh - 315,600Daniele Scatragli - 304,300Max Pescatori - 294,000Zoltan Szabo - 294,000Daniel Dvoress - 292,500Rumen Nanev - 286,200Raymond Baker - 285,900Pedro Marques - 271,800Hugo Pingray - 268,700Mark Randal Flowers - 268,000Grzegorz Mikielewicz - 264,900Dimitar Danchev - 263,300Fedor Holz - 260,600Sylvain Loosli - 256,200Julian Panchyrz - 253,300Kent Lundmark - 237,700Scott Seiver - 216,400Emil Patel - 212,000Cheng-Wei Yin - 206,700Michael Dwyer - 206,000Jan Heitmann - 203,000Mikalai Pobal - 196,300Dan Shak - 188,400Konstantin Puchkov - 175,000Sam Greenwood - 159,900Philippe D'Auteuil - 153,000Timo Pfutzenreuter - 141,600Dominik Panka - 139,500Mike McDonald - 130,200Andoni Larrabe - 125,600Ole Schemion - 82,400Martin Jacobson - 72,300Robin Ylitalo - 65,400Andre Akkari - 55,500Michael Mizrachi - 41,900

The list of the vanquished was an extended one today. Fears that an additional level could be required tonight proved unfounded, largely for the reason that rate of attrition was so high.

Anton Wigg, David Vamplew, Dan Smith, Eugene Kathalov, Theo Jorgensen, Marcin Horecki, Leo Margets, Liv Boeree, Dermot Blain, Ivan Demidov, Daniel Negreanu (who talked earlier today about his own clip at the EPTs best moment ballot, that you could find here), Matthias De Meulder, Ronnie Bardah, who shared a couple of musical tips with us earlier, Jake Cody, Alex Kravchenko and Johnny Lodden, all among those working their solution to the rail, while others speculated on what made EPT Barcelona so successful.

Daniel Negreanu can be back tomorrow

You can look back available for hand coverage on our dedicated page, while catching up at the stories of the day, from a player perspective on tips on how to handle a previously unknown player arriving with three hands left at the day, to George Danzer's bugbears and plans for the WSOP Player of the Year leader board. We also learned slightly more concerning the game from Alec Torelli.

Out of the primary Event but with plenty to play for: George Danzer

We continue tomorrow with coverage from 12 noon. We'll have more from the tournament floor as we approach and burst the bubble. See then you definately.

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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