MILLIONS Online Main Event Day 2: Urbanovitch, Staples In the Hunt

The latest MILLIONS Online Main Event Day saw the field reduced to just 28 players as superstars of the game such as partypoker Team Pros Jaime Staples and Dzmitry Urbanovich both made the latter stages of the tournament.

With so many players in the hunt for the biggest prizes, it won’t be a surprise to learn that some of the very best in the world survived both Day 1 and Day 2 as the field was reduced from a total entry pool of 1,084 to just 160 to reach the money. Overnight, that number was trimmed to just 28 players, each of which have locked up a cash of $27,724 but will have their eyes on the $892,275 top prize.

Kazantsev Leads the Way from Weis

Ukrainian player Valentyn Kazantsev leads the field with just four tables still with players in seats. The 2021 partypoker MILLIONS $5,300 Main Event has amassed a prizepool of over $5.4 million, with Kazantsev bagging up 68.8 million chips by the end of play. He was closely followed by German High Roller regular Oliver Weis (66.4 million) and Endrit Geci (62.3 million) in the counts, so will not have it all his own way on the penultimate day.

Some very recognizable names populate the Top 10 chipcounts. While new poker players will be looking to find out exactly where the best places to play poker in the U.S. are as they watch the action, some of the world’s best poker players are impressing. Former World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jerry Odeen totted up 60 million chips and the Mini Main Event winner from earlier in the partypoker MILLIONS Online Series, Justin Ouimette, will go into the day’s action with 59 million chips.

Elsewhere in the top 10, 2020 WSOP Main Event International Leg final table player Dominykas Mikolaitis bagged up 55 million to put himself in contention for a major title soon after such a painful experience of falling at the last hurdle.

Partypoker Represented by Two Very Different Pros

While there are a lot of big names in the list of 28 players who will reassemble hoping to make the final table, such as Peter Jetten, Daniel Dvoress, Manuel Ruivo and Christian Rudolph, many eyes will be on Jaime Staples, Twitch streamer extraordinaire will be inspiring players in Michigan to jump online and emulate a true poker hero and one of the biggest personalities in the game.

The former prop bet winner is clearly looking forward to the kick-off in the action, saying: “$892,000 for the win and there are 28 left in the partypoker [MILLIONS] Main Event! 28!!!! I’ve been working 11 years for this moment.”

If Staples is excited beyond belief – and you can watch him on his Twitch stream to find out how he does –  then the polar opposite player type can also be found wearing a partypoker patch, though perhaps not if he isn’t streaming. Dzmitry Urbanovich is a fearsome player with an incredible ability to always turn up with his A-Game which is one of the best in the world. Still young at just 25 years old, Urbanovich is a genuine star of the game and both he and Staples are well placed around the average.

Dzmitry Urbanovich wearing the famous partypoker patch (image courtesy of PokerGO)

Big Names Busted Late in the Day

Others made it as far as Day 2 but no further. Two more partypoker pros in Jason Koon and Kristen Bicknell couldn’t survive the cull from 160 to just 28 players, and others such as Mikita Badziakowski also bowed out. Badziakouski lost a classic ‘coinflip’ with ace-king and couldn’t catch against Day 1b chip leader Peter Jetten’s pocket queens. Those superstars were joined on the virtual rail by players such as Christian Jeppsson, Francois Billard, and Andreas Christoforou, as players battled down to the final four tables.

With Day 3 commencing at eye-watering blinds of 400,000/800,000, the massive chip-stacks throw illusionary shade over a glaring need to get moving for the lower stacks. The scope of control that players such as Kazantsev and Weis have over the others could grow, with the pair racking up 86 and 83 big blinds respectively as they begin Day 3.

Who will work their way closer to the $892,275 top prize by reaching the final table and who’ll be cashing out for $27,724 and their dreams turned to dust?

We’ll return right here tomorrow on Gamble Online to let know exactly who makes the cut.

partypoker MILLIONS Online Main Event Top 10 Chipcounts:

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