Talal Shakerchi leads $250k Luxon Pay Invitational final table

Talal Shakerchi leads the last nine players remaining in the $250,000 Luxon Pay Invitational at the Triton Super High Roller Series London, with The Man Who Started It All, Chris Moneymaker, also still chasing the $6,860,000 top prize.

As the priciest buy-in event of the series continued today, a number of players who busted late on Day 1 exercised their right to re-enter overnight, bringing the total number of entries to 118, including 27 re-entries. This brought the total prize pool to a truly jaw-dropping $29,500,000, with 23 places due to pay out and $6,860,000 for the eventual champion.

Having played the first eight levels of Day 1 with VIPs and pros segregated into effectively two separate tournaments (see yesterday's event report for details on the unique structure of this event) and the re-entries heavily concentrated in the VIP area, the upper end of the Day 2 chip counts was heavily dominated by the non-professional players.

Sean Perry started the day in pole position after maintaining his chip lead since before the dinner break on Day 1. But a steady downswing followed by two big coolers against Talal Shakerchi saw Perry hit the rail two levels into Day 2. Other players who made Day 2 but busted before the money included Phil Ivey, Espen Jørstad and Doug Polk, to name but a few - the list of the eliminated truly read like a who's-who of the super high stakes world.

The bubble that wasn't

With $342,000 at stake for a min-cash, everyone expected the bubble to be a tense and lengthy affair. Instead, before the tables had even gone hand-for-hand, Erik Seidel and Wiktor Malinowski were eliminated almost simultaneously from different tables, and the bubble burst before it had even begun. Particularly lucky to make it through was Jason Koon, who was more than surprised than anyone else when he snuck into the money with 1.5 big blinds. "Whoever bubbled fucked up," he said in shock as he was informed he'd made it through. The eight-time Triton trophy winner became the first ITM finisher, busting in 23rd place the very next hand.

Normally the bubble is followed by a flurry of exits, but with every pay jump in this event representing such a massive amount of money, it was more of a steady trickle. Sosia Jiang - one of only two women to play the Luxon Invitational, and the only one to cash - busted out next, followed by Event #8 winner Pedro Gagnani. Others who cashed included Patrik Antonius, Paul Phua and Steve O'Dwyer.

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Chip counts for the final table:

Meanwhile, the $25k PLO, a high roller tournament in any other context than playing next to the $250k invitational, ended its first day with 10 in-the-money players remaining. Seth Gottlieb is in the lead with 4,645,000 (117BB), while Gavin Andreanoff, at the other end of the counts, will return with just 290,000 to try to secure a place on the final table and a shot at the $511,000 top prize.

Gottlieb has almost twice the chips of his nearest rivals Daniel Dvoress and Ole Schemion. Michael Rossi, fourth overnight, has had quite a journey to Day 2 – one that started with a $90 online satellite and, via a Moneymaker tour win, finally sent him here.

PLO chip counts:

The Luxon Pay Invitational final restarts at 1pm and will be live streamed from 2pm; the PLO almost-final begins at 1.30pm; and at 3pm the Triton Super High Roller Main Event kicks off as well. Phew. It's going to be a crazy day. Join us over on Instant for all the action.