Much just like the night's penultimate level, the last hour of Day 2 of the France Poker Series Main Event on the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final festival was fast-paced. Many more cashed, others held steady, and some built their stacks upwards and upwards just like the mountains reaching up into the Monte Carlo sky at night.

At the close of play, probably the most mountainous pile of chips belonged to Dean-Henri Taibi, who after grabbing the chip lead following the bursting of the bubble continued to climb steadily to finish with 1,325,000.

Dean-Henri Taibi

Jose Besalduch also did well for himself today, ending with 1,218,000.

Jose Besalduch

Romain Bier won a large three-way all in over the past level to earn a few knockouts and an enormous pot, helping him end with 1,198,000.

Romain Bier

And Sergio Braga likewise managed to enroll in the seven-figure club, ending with 1,183,000.

Sergio Braga

The day began with 314 players, with Frederik Treusch returning because the chip leader to begin the day. Soon others started to challenge him, however, because the action hurried early on, with Simon Deadman winning a large one to leap up near the highest of the counts.

Andre Akkari was certainly one of a handful of Team PokerStars Pros returning on Day 2, and in reality he could be certainly one of two to last into the cash despite spending much of the afternoon well clear of his stack participating in a shoot of a brand new Shark Cage episode. Akkari would ultimately finish 69th.

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari

Soon the bubble drew near, and as Akkari was being blinded down the sphere was carved to 144. Then following a chronic hand-for-hand period the bubble finally burst, although we didn't quite describe it in those terms on the time.

Once Cedric Demore unfortunately fell a place shy of the cash, the knockouts came rapidly with the general 143 working all the way right down to just 57 by night's end. The cashers included Simon Deadman (59th), Valeriu Coca (73rd), Alexander Kuzmin (74th), Timo Pfutzenreuter (94th), Ben Warrington (101st), Dimitar Danchev (105th), Amos Ben (117th), Kevin MacPhee (128th), Team PokerStars Pro Julien Brecard (131st), Heinz Kamutzki (132nd), Abdullatif Attia (140th), and Jack Salter (142nd). Click here for an up-to-date list of payouts.

Meanwhile EPT4 Prague winner Arnaud Mattern (270,000) and La Maison Du Bluff star Abou Sy (213,000) were among those surviving the night. Click here for a glance on the chip counts for all of these who survived Day 2.

They'll reconvene tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. for Day 3, with the plan being to minimize to the eight-handed final table. Let's plan to come back together then to boot to look who emerges from those remaining to scale to the tournament's mountaintop and claim the €177,000 first prize on Sunday.

Meanwhile, continue to enjoy coverage of alternative events including the €100,000 Super High Roller via those links at the right. Bon soir!

To get the entire latest news, chip counts and payouts, you should definitely download the EPT App on both Android or IOS.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: France Poker Series]