Day 2 Ends with Arash Tafakori Leading the Final 15; Defending Champion Demo Kiriopoulos and Two-Time WPT Champion Eric Afriat Still in the Hunt

Photo:  Chipleader Arash Tafakori

Day 2 of the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic comes to an end with 15 players remaining, and the big stack belongs to Arash Tafakori, who bagged up 4,195,000 (105 big blinds).

Since they just had a redraw for the final two tables, they will return to their same seats tomorrow for the final day. Here are their official chip counts:

TABLE 1
Seat 1.  Trung Hien Nguyen  –  1,435,000  (36 bb)
Seat 2.  Parker Talbot  –  590,000  (15 bb)
Seat 3.  
Seat 4.  Matvey Tevlin  –  1,020,000  (26 bb)
Seat 5.  Demo Kiriopoulos  –  3,860,000  (97 bb)
Seat 6.  Rob Petronio  –  500,000  (13 bb)
Seat 7.  Zuhair Al-Pachachi  –  765,000  (19 bb)
Seat 8.  Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault  –  2,270,000  (57 bb)

TABLE 2
Seat 1.  Tamer Alkamli  –  1,025,000  (26 bb)
Seat 2.  Paul Brar  –  1,675,000  (42 bb)
Seat 3.  Arash Tafakori  –  4,195,000  (105 bb)
Seat 4.  Jan Steinberg  –  645,000  (16 bb)
Seat 5.  Adam Hui  –  2,540,000  (64 bb)
Seat 6.  Sam Zhu  –  1,795,000  (45 bb)
Seat 7.  Shawn Wilson  –  670,000  (17 bb)
Seat 8.  Eric Afriat  –  805,000  (20 bb)

And here are the remaining payouts* they’re playing for:

1st:  CAD $508,021**  (~US $379,120**)
2nd:  CAD $356,180  (~US $265,805)
3rd:  CAD $229,013  (~US $170,905)
4th:  CAD $163,965  (~US $122,361)
5th:  CAD $125,850  (~US $93,917)
6th:  CAD $103,217  (~US $77,027)
7th:  CAD $84,939  (~US $63,387)
8th:  CAD $67,736  (~US $50,549)
9th:  CAD $50,802  (~US $37,911)
10th-12th:  CAD $42,362  (~US $31,613)
13th-15th:  CAD $33,841  (~US $25,254)

Photo:  Demo Kiriopoulos outlasted a field of 602 to win this event last year, earning CAD $517,424 (~US $382,894).

No player in the 18-season history of the World Poker Tour has ever successfully defended their title the following year, but Demo Kiriopoulos has a chance to become the first. He is second in chips with 3.86 million (97 big blinds), and he has been sitting on a comfortable chip stack all day.

Speaking of WPT history, only five players have ever won three or more WPT titles, and tomorrow, Eric Afriat could join that elite club. Afriat won the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown back in 2014 to earn $1,081,184, and followed that up by winning the 2018 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open to earn $651,928.

Day 3 begins tomorrow (Sunday) at 12:00 noon EST, and they will play all the way down to a winner. Return to WPT.com for continuing live coverage from the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic.

Photo:  Two-Time WPT Champion Eric Afriat

* For worldwide consistency and comparison, the Payouts page here on WPT.com shows the payouts in US dollars, converted at Fallsview Casino Resort’s exchange rate of CAD $1.34 = US $1.00.

** Winner will also receive a US $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions presented by Baccarat Crystal.

Photography by Jamie Thomson / PokerPhotoArchive.com