Poker tournaments come in all shapes and sizes but if there's one thing you can guarantee about them all it's this. At the start of Day 2 there will be carnage. No matter how many levels you play on Day 1, be it 6, 8, 9, 10 or more the start of Day 2 will see a rash of exits.
In part this is due to players sometimes playing a bit tighter in the last level of the night in order to make Day 2. Once that feat is realised the pressure comes off and those in need of a double up, rightly or wrongly, usually go for it early. Take today in Croatia, 103 players returned and by the end of level 10 just 83 remained. That's an elimination every three minutes!
One of those unlucky enough to see his day cut short was PokerStars Sponsored player Matej Marinovic. The poker pro from Osijek, Croatia is also also very passionate about movies but read the wrong script today. He returned with an above average stack of 59,700 but was out pretty sharpish. I didn't catch the exit first hand but the player two to his left - Gheorghe Stefan Aurelian - now has 120,000 and started the day with just 64,300. I'd say there's a good chance the two incidents are linked. Marinovic will have to wait to Eureka Bulgaria in July to try and make his second Eureka final table At Eureka Croatia main event Season 1 he made it to the final table and finished the tournament in 7th place.
There are two players hoping to join him there for free and trying to do anything but bust in these opening levels. For the first time Full Tilt Poker has also been running qualifiers to the Eureka main event. They've put on a promotion where the qualifier who lasts the longest wins a full package to Eureka Bulgaria worth €2,200. It's now a two horse race between Triantafyllos Chadiroglou and Ivailo Kolarov. As it stands the former has the greater chance as he has 135,000 to Kolarov's 110,000. Although both are healthily stacked so this one could run for a while yet.
Tournament Update:: Just 76 players remain right now and the overwhelming chip leader is Boszo Achilles, the Hungarian has a massive stack of 305,000 which is four times the average. Other big stacks and notables still in include: Dag Palovic (86,000), Matti De Meulder (70,000), Zeljka Kvastek (105,000), Daniel Ebersold (115,000), Georges Yazbeck (140,000) and Petar Zografov (40,000).
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Croatia: Nick Wright. Photos by Ivan Dabac.