Howard Swains with the round-up from day 2 in Baden...




And there we have it, day two is over.

We started with a field of 156 still afloat in the tournament and now we're down to 40. Some of the biggest names are still around; many others have gone. There's very little mercy shown during the course of one of these days, and this one has been particularly brutal.

It all started, I suppose, when Sander Lyloff, the overnight chip leader, lost two massive pots and was out: leader to loser in a matter of three levels. Then the deluge started: trotting up the stairs from press to poker rooms inevitably meant passing someone on the way down announcing another big-name departure.

They fell like flies. Barny Boatman lost with a set of nines. Then the Team PokerStars Pros started taking the hits: Noah Boeken couldn't double his overnight short-stack; Dario Minieri's fours lost to queens; Luca Pagano departed; Barry Greenstein signed his book and left; Andre Akkari was on his way back to Brazil; Katja Thater, who'd clung on for hours, eventually also took the fall just before dinner.

By the end, only RaiNKhan of the Team PokerStars pros was still in the field, but he has a micro-stack, after Julian Thew rivered a straight in the final orbit of the day. We also lost both PokerStars players who had previously won EPTs: Mats Iremark and John Shipley were both eliminated in the early evening.

So where did all the chips go? Well, PokerStars players Sebastian Ruthenberg, from Germany, and Roman Yitzhaki, from the United States, still have plenty. As do PokerStars players Michael Durrer, Thierry van den Berg, David Sonelin, Matt Tyler and Gunnar Rabe.

Also in the field are Surindar Sunar, Age Spets, Julian Thew, Alexander Kravchenko and Alan Smurfit, among others.
The full chip counts for the 40 remaining players in Baden:

Anton Allemann (Switzerland) 140,000
Acar Mazlum (Switzerland) 136,000
Daniel Mangas (Spain) 134,500
Thomas Fuller (USA) 128,800
Vladimir Poleshchuk (Russia) 122,600
Michael Durrer (Germany) PokerStars player 116,000
David Sonelin (Sweden) PokerStars player 115,500
Julian Thew (UK) 114,700
Victor Goossens (Holland) 108,900
Denes Tamas Kalo (Hungary) 102,200
Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) PokerStars player 97,400
Hans Vimmo Eskilsson (Sweden) 96,800
Pascal Perrault (France) 95,700
Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) PokerStars player 81,300
Christophe Defforey (Germany) 81,200
Jiri Vacek (Czech Republic) 78,100
Hector Fuentes (Spain) 77,400
Heimo Krainer (Austria) 73,500
Thierry van den Berg (Holland) PokerStars player 69,800
Roman Yitzhaki (USA) PokerStars player 69,800
Age Spets (Norway) 68,500
Peter Gould (UK) 65,800
Gyoergy Moger (Hungary) 56,500
Dennis Naci Hansen (Denmark) 54,400
Alan Peter Smurfit (Ireland) 49,700
Kalil Rahal (France) 48,900
Andreas Hoivold (Norway) 48,900
Manfred Hammer (Germany) 47,200
Matthew Tyler (UK) PokerStars player 45,600
Christophe Benzimra (France) 37,500
Surinder Sunar (UK) 36,300
Alexander Kravchenko (Russia) 34,800
Harald Poeschl (Austria) 33,800
Johann Fest (Germany) 28,000
Edward Lawson (USA) 25,300
Soraya Homam (Germany) 25,000
Andreas Fluri (Switzerland) 23,300
Hevad Khan (USA) Team PokerStars Pro 21,300
Carlo Di Renzo (Italy) 16,200
Thor Hansen (Norway) 14,400

Picture (c) Neil Stoddart