There are two frustrating things that may befall you in a poker tournament: firstly your aces can get cracked, and secondly there'll be times whilst you bust at the bubble. Sometimes, both these items happen together; two misfortunes that make for one devastating conclusion.

Such was the case for Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko yesterday. He'd been comfortable enough in day two of the debut Russian Poker Tour event in St Petersburg, and was seeking to make a deep run into the money, which started in 18th place (201 entries).

Alex Kravchenko: aces woe

With 19 still in with a shout, and with 50,000 chips behind him, the house favourite moved all in confidently with A-A when chess player Alex Grishuk pushed with what turned out to be a slightly feeble A-2.

The double up would make Kravchenko, a former WSOP Main Event final tablist, a force to be reckoned with. But wait! A two at the flop, and another falling devastatingly at the river was enough to send Kravchenko to the rail in 19th place - only one off the money.

Grishuk's slice of luck didn't last, though. Only a twinkling of an eye later he got all his chips in with 10-10 and was busted by Vadim Markushevsky's A-K when the king fell at the river.

The glass trophy - and, for no obvious reason, a telephone!

That gave Markushevsky the momentum to last the day and reach today's final table of nine players, where Dumitru Gaina from Moldova will lead the pack chasing the 10,600,000 rubles first price (about $300,000):

1. Dumitru Gaina, Kishinev, Moldova - 501,0002. Sergey Popuk, Arkhangelsk, Russia - 302,0003. Sergey Solntsev, St. Petersburg, Russia - 256,0004. Vadim Markushevsky, Minsk, Belarus - 256,0005. Anatoly Ozhenilok, St. Petersburg, Russia - 203,0006. Bulat Bikmetov, Novokuznetsk, Russia - 181,0007. Evgeny Zaytsev, Lubertsy, Russia - 178,0008. Alex Pantuhin, Kaliningrad, Russia - 76,0009. Oleg Suntsov , St. Petersburg, Russia - 64,000

It had taken 90 minutes to burst the general table bubble, so spare a thought for Mark Vronsky, who pushed with pocket nines but bumped into a mighty - and ultimately - conquering J-Q.

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso started day two but was unable to make things happen together with her short stack of little greater than 10,000. She pushed with an ace, was called by Q-7, and a seven at the board was enough to eliminate her. She was gracious in defeat, though, and offered a fair" luck" in Russian to everyone on the table. PokerStars sponsored player Ivan Demidov also fell early within the day in 39th place.

Today's final kicks off at 3pm local time. If you happen to can decipher Russian - and let's accept it, it is simple enough... NOT! - you'll be able to follow the action with Pavel Sychev, our Russian blogger here. If you happen to can't understand a word of it, do not be concerned - we'll report at the progress on these esteemed pages later!

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Russian Poker Tour]