by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Mar 29, 2012 | Updated on Mar 29, 2012Day 2 of the European Poker Tour Campione Main Event saw 325 players return to the tables for six levels of play. At the end of the session, only 99 players were still alive in the hunt for an EPT title, including several former winners looking to become the first player ever to win two EPT events.But leading the group is Balazs Botond, who had nearly 150,000 more chips than his closest competitor. The Hungarian pro finished the day with 646,000 chips, putting him in great position to make a deep run.Botond has had great success over the last three years, mostly in major events. Though he has never won a major title, he has finished as high as 13th in the EPT, and also has five World Series of Poker cashes and a top-10 finish on the World Poker Tour.Despite his big lead, Botond probably won’t attract most of the attention on Day 3. That’s because there are numerous former EPT champions in the field, each of whom will be hoping to be the first person to be the first ever to win a second event on the tour.In fact, one of these former champions is sitting comfortably in second place. Ronny Kaiser, a former EPT Tallin champion, holds just over 500,000 in chips. The high-stakes cash game player is certainly one of the most dangerous players in the field, and is a likely suspect for those looking for a potential winner at this early stage.Several other former winners and other notables are still alive, too. David Vamplew, LiveBoeree and Robert Romanello all have large stacks, while Martin Finger and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier are still alive with reasonable stacks themselves. Vamplew and Romanello are actually among the top 10 stacks in the field, as is Olivier Busquet.Players will return to the Casino di Campione on Thursday to play down to the final 24. The bubble will also break on Day 3, as only 88 players are set to cash at EPT Campione. The eventual winner will take home a prize of €640,000.
