Spain's Juan Pardo Dominguez has surged to the top of the leaderboard on a fast-paced Day 2 at the $306,000 Super High Roller Bowl IX being held in Cyprus. Dominguez tops the final four players in the event, bringing a 3.5 million stack to the table in Sunday's finale at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in North Cyprus.
Dominguez leads Jeremy Ausmus, Seth Davies, and Leonard Maue in the race for SHRB IX's $3,206,000 winner's payday. The four finalists are also the only players who have earned a cash in the event, being the survivors of 24 entrants who dropped the $306,000 entry fee to play in the prestigious event. Surviving Saturday's bubble assured each of the four players a $750,000 cash.
Ten players bow out in Day 2 action
Fourteen of the event's 24 entrants moved on to Day 2 play from Friday's opening action, with Maue and Dominguez leading the way with stacks just over a million chips deep. Davies wasn't far behind, in fourth with about 850,000. Montenegro's Dejan Kaladjurdjevic began Day 2 play in third place and stayed in contention for much of the day, leading the way to the final table when Sam Greenwood busted in eighth.
Before Greenwood's exit, six other players bowed out on Day 2, as Alex Kulev, Santhosh Suvarna, Benjamin Heath, Bryn Kenney, Martin Kabrhel, and Lewis Spencer all busted earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Ausmus endured a down-and-up day, losing a big hand early to become one of the shortest stacks, then battling back to bust Kulev and Greenwood to make the final seven.
Dominguez surges at final table
Kaladjurdjevic and Maue topped the counts as the final table began, but from there on it was largely Dominguez's show. He chipped up early at the table, then picked off a Kaladjurdjevic bluff in a huge pot to move well into the lead. Patrik Antonius busted in seventh and Thomas Santerne exited in sixth.
Meanwhile, Kaladjurdjevic still ran dry. He whiffed on a nut-flush draw against Dominguez's set to drop more chips, then was picked off on another bluff, this time by Ausmus, to become the shortest stack on the money bubble. Kaladjurdjevic soon moved his last 14 big blinds in with A-2, only to have Maue look him up with pocket fives. Maue's pair held, and Sunday's final four were set. The players, seat assignments, and chip counts are as follows:
Seat 1: Juan Pardo Dominguez (Spain) - 3,500,000
Seat 2: @jeremyausmus (United States)- 690,000
Seat 3: @Sdavies22 (United States) - 2,025,000
Seat 4: Leonard Maue (Germany) - 995,000
The Day 3 finale of Super High Roller Bowl IX starts at noon Cyprus time. Streaming coverage, exclusively on PokerGO, begins at 11 am ET / 9 am PT.
Images courtesy of PokerGo Tour and Merit Poker
