As the money bubble nears, John Juanda stormed his way to the chip lead at the 2012 EPT Barcelona Main Event.
The ex-Full Tilt owner (above, talking about Full Tilt) ended Day 2 stacked at 732,400. He's followed by Illari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies with 523,500.
Day 1 chip leader Guy Bachar ended play as a top 5 stack with 448,00.
A total of 207 remain, with 160 getting paid.
Plenty of notables remain. Among them include Lucille Cailly, a woman (360,700), Ugnius Simelionis, of course (313,200), Daniel Negreanu (248,600), Xuan Liu, a woman (160,000), Sam Holden (121,900), and Jake Cody (89,700).
I'm glad this competition seems to have lived up to some of the hype that preceded the event. I like John Juanda, but with his links to Full Tilt ,and the scandal that has only recently been resolved, feelings are still mixed about him. However, this tournament is far from over and I expect lots of twists and turns in the next few days. It would be nice to see some relatively unknown players reach the final table as to make this event a truly monumental occasion.