EPT MADRID: NICK OF TIME - TIMEX TAKES THE LEAD AFTER DAY 2

PHOTO: POKERNEWS / SOURCE: POKERSTARS BLOG

Day 2 is in the books at the PokerStars.com EPT Madrid Main Event and a former EPT Champion has the chip lead after Wednesday's play.

2008 EPT Dortmund winner Mike "Timex" McDonald leads the way and is certainly one dangerous player when he has chips. McDonald (2012 PTPR Rank: NR) made a fantastic comeback to poker in 2011. After deciding to retire at the "old" age of 20!!!!!, McDonald made a return to live tournament scene and he made quite an impression.

McDonald collected a total of 12 live tournament cashes in 2011, including three six-figure cashes in the last four months of the season.

The young Canadian will certainly be the one to watch on Thursday as we inch closer to the money bubble.

NOTABLE CHIP COUNTS
Mike McDonald 409,800
Frederik Jensen 404,500
Dmitry Vitkind 368,000
Erich Kollmann 275,500
Toby Lewis 243,200
McLean Karr 230,700
Yann Dion 219,800
Nicolas Levi 202,900
Juan Navarrete 194,200
Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes 186,100
Kevin MacPhee 181,700
Johnny Lodden 180,900
Mikhail Shalamov 172,600
Tristan Clemencon 152,300
Angel Guillen 95,000
Barny Boatman 81,700
Olivier Busquet 80,500
Rupert Elder 79,800
David Benyamine 55,500
Alex Kravchenko 52,000
Joao Barbosa 45,000
Melanie Weisner 43,200
Yorane Kerignard 35,900
Ebony Kenney 32,700
Joep van den Bijgaart 27,400

NOTABLE DAY 2 ELIMINATIONS
Nicolas Chouity, David Vamplew, Steven van Zadelhoff, Per Linde, Chris Moorman, Mikhail Lakhitov, Nacho Barbero, Martin Jacobson, Dominik Nitsche, Davidi Kitai, Kevin Iacofano, Dragan Kostic, Jake Cody, Martins Adeniya, Toni Judet, Kevin Vandermissen, Juan Maceiras, Todd Terry, Mayu Roca Uribe, Nick Yunis, Faraz Jaka, Anton Wigg, Oleksii Kovalchuk, Alexander Dovzhenko, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Arnaud Mattern, James Akenhead, Juan Manuel Pastor and Michael Tureniec.

---

EPT MADRID PAYOUTS (EURO) 1st € 545,000 2nd € 365,000 3rd € 205,000 4th € 140,000 5th € 115,000 6th € 92,000 7th € 69,450 8th € 48,000 9-10th € 35,000 11-12th € 25,000 13-14th € 20,000 15-16th € 15,000 17-24th € 13,000 25-32th € 11,000 33-40th € 11,000 41-48th € 9,000 49-56th € 9,000 57-64th € 7,500 65-72th € 7,500 RELATED POSTS >> PETERSEN WINS COPENHAGEN >> KURSEVICH WINS DEAUVILLE

PTPR PREMIER EVENT European Poker Tour Madrid PokerStars.com EPT Madrid NLH Main Event March 12-17, 2012 Casino Gran Madrid | Spain Buy-in: $6,900 | Prizepool: $3,013,035 Entries: 477 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st position 129 2nd position 79 3rd position 49 4th position 39 5th position 34 6-7th position 29 8-11th position 14 12-15th position 12 16-18th position 9 NEXT LIVE EVENT EPT Campione (Italy) March 26-31, 2012