Day 2 is done at the 2014 Battle of Malta main event with just 35 players left with a shot at the €140,000 first-place prize.
Standing tall above the crowd? French pro Hugo Lemaire who bagged up 2.4 million to lead the way towards the final table tomorrow.
"I ran good today," Lemaire said. "I cracked AA + AK with KTo."
"I was lucky to have a very weak and passive table. I enjoyed the game a lot today."
Also standing out among the final 35 are well known pros Andrea Dato from Italy and Konstantin Puchkov from Russia, who battled all the way back to a big stack after being down to just two big blinds.
Plenty of unheralded stars are in the mix as well including the last woman standing, Hege Sogstand from Norway, along with Hans Faber, Declan Connolly, Valentin Messina and Michael Abitbol.
For a recap of all the action, check the Battle of Malta Live Coverage page.
170 Players Paid, Side Events Fire Up
An enthusiastic 261 players started the day at 2pm with high hopes of getting into the money. 170 of them had their wishes satisfied, even if they ended slightly shorter than they wanted.
Among the early cashers of note were Marco Bognanni, Maria Ho, Luca Moschitta and Fabrice Soulier who all headed for the exits before the final 100.
888poker qualifier Brendan Doogan, who earned his way to the Battle of Malta for just 1c, followed shortly in 101st.
Pre-bubble busts included Thor Hansen, Dominik Nitsche and Johnny Lodden.
While they were getting down to the nitty gritty in the Main Event the popular Siege of Malta Second Chance event fired up.
Another 593 players bought in to take a shot at a return on their money and 109 will come back tomorrow to battle for the 24,000 first-place prize.
Making her way to Day 2 with a good-sized stack was PokerStars presenter Gaelle Garcia Diaz.
A smaller than expected High Roller also played out on the stage with Ireland's Dermot Blain among the contenders.
Tune in tomorrow at 2pm for the full playdown to the champions in both events plus the PLO Knight's Crusade and the Turbo Deepstack.
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