After Day 2 of the WSOPE Main Event in Berlin, Polish player Dzmitry Urbanovich is back in contention looking for his next big score.

Already a candidate for almost every Player of the Year Award in 2015 Urbanovich skyrocketed up the chip counts today to finish in pole position heading into Day 3.

From a starting field of 313 just 65 players remain for Urbanovich to overcome but, as expected, the field is still filled with well-known pros.

Big names finishing the day with plenty of chips include JC Alvarado (356,300), online high-stakes pro Ola “no_Ola” Amundsgard (285,000), Erik Seidel (238,600), Konstantin Puchkov (215,100) and 888poker pro Dominik Nitsche (166,100).

Also still around are Jason Mercier (140,900), Fedor Holz (38,400), Liv Boeree (67,000) and Brian Hastings (62,600).

WSOPE Berlin Main Event Quick Stats

• Players: 65/313 
• Buy-In: €9,800 + €650
• Prize Pool: €3,067,400
• Chipleader: Dzmitry Urbanovich

Urbanovich Continues Torrid Pace

Players had the option to late reg until the start of Day 2 but no player elected to enter that late with only 50 big blinds. Thus the prize pool was set at roughly €3m with 32 places paid.

Not the last time we’ll see this.

A min cash is €20,000 and the winner will walk away with €883,000. And Dzmitry Urbanovich might just take it all.

The Rising Star from Poland has already has a fantastic year with winnings exceeding $3.6m and four titles at EPT Malta.

In this year’s WSOPE Main Event he’s on his way to adding even more cash and fame to his name, in part thanks to a pivotal hand where he got slightly tricky with aces and laid the foundation for his great run today.

In the hand Shannon Shorr opened, Urbanovich called and Greek player Georgios Karakousis made a small 3-bet to six big blinds. Shorr called and Urbanovich came over the top with a 4-bet to 14 big blinds.

Shorr let go of his hand but Karakousis re-raised yet again, this time for 24 big blinds. Finally Urbanovich shoved all-in for more than 80 BBs (roughly 100k chips). Karakousis called but was devastated when he saw his opponent’s cards:

• Urbanovich: A♠ A♦
• Karakousis: A♣ K♥
• Board: 7♣ 7♠ 6♦ J♥ 6♥

No help for Karakousis and the Greek player was eliminated while Urbanovich claimed the chip lead. After this hand Urbanovich was on fire and eliminated Allen Kessler with five-three, which he open shoved from the small blind. Kessler called with pocket fours but lost to a five on the river.

Urbanovich continued to add chips to his stack for the rest of the day and finished with 375,000 chips, roughly 188 big blinds. The current Top 10:

1. Dzmitry Urbanovich (Poland): 374,800
2. JC Alvarado (Mexico): 356,300
3. Johannes Becker (Germany): 309,700
4. Niall Farrell (UK): 300,900
5. Adrien Allain (France): 297,000
6. Ola Amundsgaard (Norway): 284,900
7. Özgür Arda (Turkey): 269,200
8. Maurice Hawkins (USA): 261,200
9. Charles Coultas (USA): 249,700
10. Erik Seidel (USA): 238,600

Harsh Setups and Harsh Honesty

Former WSOP Main Event winner Barry Shulman and his wife Allyn busted almost at the same time quite early in the day.

Barry ran his kings into Jason Mercier’s aces and missed the suck out. While Barry had the poker gods to complain for his bust, Allyn blamed only herself:

Out of Day 2 #WSOPE Main cuz of my moronic squeeze play after 12hrs of patient poker Day1 Somebody just kick me..— Allyn Shulman (@ajaffrey) Oct 20th 2015

Another setup caused Jonathan Duhamel‘s bust. The Canadian Main Event Champion from 2010 shoved all-in on a J♥ T♦ 9♦ flop with queen-jack (top pair and a straight draw).

But Duhamel’s decent hand was completely dominated by Kevin MacPhee who flopped the nuts with king-queen. MacPhee called, won the hand and finished the day in the upper half of the chip count.

While Duhamel’s bust was slightly unpleasant for him, Italian poker player Sabina Hiatullah busted in downright brutal fashion. She got it all-in for more than 60 big blinds with queens against Charles Coultas, who was a clear underdog with jacks.

But poker can be cruel sometimes and the flop came down J♣ 6♣ 2♦, giving Coultas top set and the win after two blanks on turn and river.

Almost and Actual November Niners Leave Scene

Almost November Niner Gaelle Baumann (10th place WSOP Main Event 2012) didn’t last very long this day.

It was Niall Farrell, the Day 1A chipleader, who eliminated her when both were all-in preflop – Baumann with ace-queen, Farrell with queens. The queens held and Baumann was sent to the rail.

Actual November Niner Zvi Stern, who started the day as one of the chipleaders, had a rough day which came to an end just before the dinner break.

He lost four-fifths of his stack before getting his remaining chips in with king-queen. German hopeful Johannes Becker called with ace-queen, floped an ace and eliminated Stern.

Other players to fall today were Scott Clements (who lost a flip against Jeff Rossiter), Dominik Panka, Justin Bonomo, Ismael Bojang, Benny Spindler, Brian Rast and John Juanda, who busted right before the end of Day 2.

Day 3 Will Begin with 65 Players

Play will resume tomorrow at noon local time and the bubble will be reached sometime in the middle of the day.

The final table will be played on Saturday and the action right through until the finish can be followed live on Twitch or wsop.com.