Who Will Win the 2017 PokerStars Festival London £2,200 High Roller?
In just under two hours from now at 2 p.m. local time, the 2017 PokerStars Festival London £2,200 High Roller will see 47 players out of a 178-entry strong field return to the tables of the iconic Hippodrome Casino in the center of the English capital. A return on investment is in sight, as the top 34 will share a portion of the juicy £345,320 prize pool and a minimum cash is worth £3,110. The will can look forward to a payday of £67,290 and the event is scheduled to play down to a winner today.
Best-positioned to engrave the name into the history of the series as first-ever PokerStars Festival High Roller champion on European soil is Ireland's Yuriy Boyko with 245,500. He is followed by 2015 Unibet Open Cannes winner Julien Sitbon (227,500) and PokerStars Team Pro Liv Boeree spun up a late entry right after the dinner break to a top three stack of 209,500.
Plenty of other big names made it through to Day 2 including Javier Zarco (207,500), Robert Heidorn (192,000), James Akenhead (171,500), David Urban (165,000), Nicolas Cardyn (115,000), Chris Moorman (101,500), Philipp Gruissem (99,000) and Matthew Ashton (95,000). Serial qualifier and former November Niner Pierre Neuville (51,000), Michel Abecassis (50,500) and Slaven Popov (37,500) have some catching up to do, as they are towards the bottom of the counts.
The action will recommence in level 14 with blinds at 1,500-3,000 and a running ante of 500, the level duration increases to 60 minutes for the remainder of the tournament. Since Day 1a of the £990 Main Event kicks off at the same time, the High Rollers will move from the main area to the top floor of the Hippodrome and can oversee the entire casino. The PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates until the last river card for both events, so stay tuned and check back regularly.