Can't beat Brito

Joao (pictured in Madrid) is holding up well

The bad beats may be impacting players all around us but when you're sitting on over 200,000 chips, the pain of a little rough luck hardly applies.

Joao Brito had continued his steady progress into monster stack territory in the early stages of Day 2 and though the PP blog witnessed his first real setback, he was still able to wield 180,000 by the end of the hand.

Brito has three-bet Pedro Piazuelo Ferrero pre-flop and earned a call by the time the dealer flipped 9♥6♣8♣. Both men checked the flop and it was the K♣ on the turn that prompted the action.

Ferrero led out and Brito shoved over the top, but his rival insta-called and showed 10-7s for a flopped straight. It left the Portuguese drawing dead, but he seemed untroubled as he re-counted the tower.

Alright for some!

You've been Spaandonked

Many a player is departing the Gran Casino card room with a bad beat tale to tell, as the chips continue to fly on Day 2 of the PPT Main Event.

Of course winning a big tournament such as this requires a fair share of good fortune and it seems Lady Luck is siding with the likes of  Frank Van Spaandonk, who swelled his big stack further with one notable suckout.

Van Spaandonk had driven the action on a Jack high board, raising all-in against a medium-stacked opponent, only to have his AQs called by KK. An ace duly arrived on the turn to win Frank the hand.

The PP blog has also tracked down Steve Hill's executor-in-chief - and it was none other than Christos Xanthopoulous, PPT London 2010 champion! Christos is no on around 44,00 chips.

Heading for the Hills

Hilly's Main Event adventure has come to an end

A despondent Steve Hill saw his ParadisePoker Tour dreams come to an end in the last few minutes as despite entering the day on the average stack, he came off the worse for a duel with one player.

Hilly the Fish - as he is known through his work for Poker Player magazine - had won the key battles on Day 1 despite admitting to being on the outskirts of much of the action.

Each time he had entered a pot, he had almost always come out with a stack enhancing outcome, including a big call with TPMK for half of his chips and a number of short stack eliminations.

Day 2 was far less kind, as having opened with AK Hill called a shove and found himself a big favourite vs AQ,  only for a river Queen to rob him of most of his chips.

His nemesis was not done there, however, as a shove with 10s a short time later earned a call from the same villain, whose QQ then proceeded to hold up.

Steve will be writing about his experiences on the PPT in an upcoming edition of Poker Player magazine, so be sure to order a copy if you can get your hands on one.

Carlos steals an early march

Oliveira is sitting on around 100k

Popular Portuguese player Carlos Oliveira has made early strides in the first level at the Gran Casino... and that's something of an understatement when you consider he now has around 100,000 chips.

Among the shortest stacks overnight, with just 13,700 to work with and sitting in 118th position, it was inevitable that the pro would have his stack in the middle within a short time of the restart.

He found few willing callers however, and with the antes and blinds making for sizeable pre-flop pots, he soon found himself closer to the average stack before picking up KK.

With his table image allowing him to make maximum value, he shoved once more and was called by AJ, with the villain finding now help on the board.

That will please his Fantasy Poker owners!

UPDATE - A little misinformation as to the order of events going around, but what is fact is that Carlos was on around 130,000 chips when we last spoke. The Portuguese is having a good day.

Fantasy Poker Update

Fantasy Poker has produced some fine performances so far, with six teams bringing all three of their players back to the tables for Day 2.

There are a couple of players that represent a common theme, with Alejandro Rodrigo Gutierrez - aka Jandrulo - picked by three of the teams, while Spanish Poker School guru Fernando Martin was also a popular choice.

The key perhaps are the players unique to each team, so much rests on the shoulders of players like Steve Hill, Michal Biegala, Guillermo Fernandez Rodriguez and David Montoro.

Plenty of teams still have two players in the game, it must be noted, with as many as 40 still hoping their men can help overtake the early leaders.

Here are the six teams with three players still in the game:

Day 2; shuffle up and deal

Day 2 is just moments away and our 124 remaining players will be contending with 500/1000 blinds + a 100 ante.

With the average chip count standing at 47,096, expect many of the short stacks to start fast as they look to double up or get ready for tonight's party at Carpe Diem!

Chip Count, Fantasy Poker implications

Leading the way as we head towards Day 2 is Santiago Soriano Ramos, a local player who boasts over 150,000 chips with just 124 players remaining.

No Fantasy Poker team was lucky enough to bag the Spaniard, but 8 TEAM was smart enough to pick the man who sits some 2,300 chips behind in Francisco Comesana Blanco.

Four teams backed the talents of Joao Brito, one of our regular Portuguese players on the PPT circuit, but the owners of Carlos Oliveira and Guillermo Fernandez Rodriguez will be praying for a poker miracle as their men teeter on the edge of the exit.

One casualty from last night that we missed was the considerable scalp of Zoltan Kapitany, meaning the three most popular picks have all been eliminated.

Play restarts at 4.30pm local time here (3.30pm GMT) and we're looking forward to whittling the field down to the money - and perhaps even the final table - by the end of of Day 2.

Official Chip Count

SORIANO RAMOS, SANTIAGO - 150,600

COMESAÑA BLANCO, FRANCISCO - 148,325

RODRIGUEZ SIERRA, DANIEL - 142,750

ZAWADOWICZ , PAWEL - 136,000

PIAZUELO FERRERO, PEDRO JAVIER - 135,450

BRITO , JOAO - 109,350

COSTA RIBALTA, ANDRES - 104,850

VAN SPAANDONK , FRANK - 101,200

D ANIELLO , MICHELE - 100,250

PATON BAO, MARCOS - 99,100

SANAHUJA FUENTES, IVAN - 87,650

VICENTE LANZAROTE, CARLOS - 80,950

FRESNEDA PIÑA, DANIEL - 78,800

BLUMLEIN , FRANK - 78,775

GIL HERNANDEZ, PASCUAL - 78,250

MONTORO SANCHEZ, DAVID - 75,200

RADLER DE AQUINO, RINALDO - 74,100

BANK , GABOR - 73,950

SOLER PULLES, ALEX - 72,400

BERMEJO DELGADO, DIEGO - 72,250

GARCIA DUFFOUR, JORGE - 71,325

SAPERAS SANTOS, BERNAT - 71,150

FRANCO , SONNY MARCEL - 70,500

VENDRELL SCHWAIGER, JOSE MARIA - 68,850

MESAS COLLADO, JOSE MARIA - 68,100

CZARTORYSKI , PAWEL - 66,350

ANTAS PEREZ, JUAN CARLOS - 65,250

GALINDO LOPEZ, JOSEP MARIA - 64,550

BEL ROIG, JOAN FRANCESC - 64,450

TONIN , PAOLO - 64,300

HERRANZ GIMENEZ, GREGORIA - 63,425

ASENOV , ALEKSANDAR - 60,300

BALLESTEROS BLANCO, ALVARO - 59,875

ALONSO DE VAL, JORGE - 58,900

LORENZO MORENO, MIGUEL ANGEL - 57,700

TRUJILLO GONZALEZ, JOSE - 57,000

GONTARCZYK , RAFAL - 56,975

CHERIF VIDAL, HAYKEL - 53,725

FARERI , MARIO SALVATORE - 52,600

DIMITROV , DIMITAR - 51,875

DALMAU BAYLE, LUIS - 51,475

IOVINE , FABIO - 50,925

ABOVYAN , ALEKS - 50,625

WINK , ANTHONIE - 49,650

BONDOR , LASZLO - 48,750

BALLESTER ARMERO, HECTOR JOSE - 47,700

HILL , STEVE - 47,100

KOVACS , JOZSEF - 46,900

NISKI , MARIUSZ KAMIL - 46,825

BATALLA MUÑOZ, RAMON - 46,600

KULLENBERG , SIMON - 46,500

BRUGUERA TORNER, SERGI - 46,400

PANEQUE MATEOS, MARCOS - 45,600

PUJANTE ALARCON, ANTONIO FRANCISCO - 45,300

NANEV , RUMEN - 44,750

MURIA ARRUFAT, JUAN FRANCISCO - 44,075

COROMINAS LOPEZ, SERGIO - 43,525

OLIVAN PARDILLOS, ANTONIO - 43,225

ZARAZAGA SANTOS, PABLO - 43,200

BERTRAN MAINOU, JAIME - 41,100

GONZALEZ DOMINGUEZ, MARGA - 40,825

RODRIGUEZ LAFARGA, RAMON - 40,350

DOLADER RETAMAL, CARLOS - 39,875

BONACHE CASAS, FERNANDO - 39,300

STIKL , GABOR - 39,075

LUBCZYNSKI , RAFAL - 38,975

SINNOS , ELEFTHERIOS - 38,350

DIEZ BARRUBES, JORGE - 38,300

PUKHOV , MARK - 37,550

GAROÑA ESPINOSA, PABLO JAVIER - 36,550

KRASTEV , TEODOR - 36,500

CONTRERAS MARIN, ELENA - 35,950

SCHACHINGER , VALENTIN - 35,650

OSNS , JURIS - 35,475

ANDRES SANGROS, ALFREDO - 35,050

SIBACHVILI , MICHAEL - 35,000

MARNEROS , IOANNIS - 34,750

GOMEZ LLORENS, IVAN - 33,925

COSTAS PERAL, GABRIELJOSE - 32,875

GONZALEZ OLAECHEA, ALEJANDRO - 32,250

FRESNEDA JARO, DANIEL - 32,150

BERGMANN , MIKKEL - 31,750

KATAI , DAVID - 31,075

HANAUER , BEASHA - 30,525

SETIEN HERRERA, RUBEN - 30,475

NUÑEZ CELA CORTES, PEDRO JOSE - 30,000

FERNANDEZ BERNAL, SERGIO - 29,375

MOLNAR , FERENC - 29,375

RODRIGO GUTIERREZ, ALEJANDRO - 28,775

MANZ , FLORIAN DANIEL - 28,425

RAMOS SANCHEZ, JONATAN - 28,000

MUCHA , MARCIN - 27,675

GARCIA FREIXA, EDUARD - 26,125

REAL GARRIDO, JUAN MANUEL - 25,250

KRABER , JENNIFER - 25,025

MARTIN BLANCO, FERNANDO - 24,750

XANTHOPOULOS , CHRISTOS - 24,400

BORG , SIMON RAVNHOLT - 24,375

ESTEFANIA LUMBRERAS, RAFAEL - 23,775

BLANCO JIMENEZ, MARIELA - 22,650

BLUEM , BASTIAN - 22,450

LOPEZ MENENDEZ, IÑAKI - 22,400

FERNANDEZ MARTINEZ, JORGE - 22,175

MADER , MAXIMILIAN - 22,100

BIEGALA , MICHAL - 21,850

BACHMANN , JUFRGJEN - 20,175

KRISTJANSEN , MARK HEDEGAARD - 19,750

BRU SAMPER, JAIME - 18,500

BOENDI , BRIGITTA - 18,050

TARACENA DE LAS HERAS, JAVIER - 17,625

CARMONA LUNA, CRISTIAN - 17,450

SANCHEZ CIFUENTES, MANUEL - 17,200

TAJADA SALCINES, RICARDO - 17,150

JAMROZ , KAMIL - 16,575

GARCIA GABARRI, JOSE MANUEL - 15,200

MAZUR , LUKASZ - 13,800

HURNI , MARCEL PASCAL - 13,750

DE JESUS OLIVEIRA , CARLOS PEDRO - 13,700

GRAELLS THONE, DIRK - 12,925

MAJA , OSKARI - 12,400

FERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ, GUILLERMO - 11,125

PICAÑOL PUJAL, ROMA - 11,000

BATALLA PUIGNOU, ALEXANDRE - 10,625

FLORES MATA, DANIEL - 8,300