Day Two play for the two tournaments yesterday at the 2012 World Series of Poker brought something for everyone. In one event, history will be made when its champion is determined this evening, while the other tournament features a leaderboard that should whet the appetite for the railbirds inside the Rio.
Event #41 – $3000 No Limit Hold’em
324 players came back on Saturday from the original 1394 runners to resume the festivities of Event #41. More than half of these potential poker champions, however, would experience the “agony of defeat” with only 145 finishers taking home some cash. At the start of play, Hafiz Khan was on the point, with Kennii Nguyen, John Racener and Brock Parker stalking him from the pack.
Khan’s day would not mirror his Friday action as he would be out of the event within the first two hours of action. In a space of two hands with Ronald Lee, Khan would lose all of his chips. On the first hand, Khan decided to race with his pocket Jacks against Lee’s Big Slick; an Ace on the flop ended any speculation, knocking Khan from the lead. On the second hand, Khan looked to get those chips back from Lee with an 8-7; Lee, holding pocket Queens, faded everything over the run of the board to pop his stack over the 200K mark and eliminate Khan from the event.
Other pros had similarly difficult times with their opponents. Andy Frankenberger was chopped down to just a handful of chips and put those chips on the line with a Q-J. His button opponent made an isolation raise and revealed his pocket eights. Frankenberger would hit an open ended straight draw on the flop (9-3-10) and catch that straight on the turn eight, but another eight on the river gave his opponent quads to eliminate him from the tournament.
Joining Frankenberger and Khan on the rail even before the money was reached were Carter Phillips, Annette Obrestad, Parker (who ran pocket Kings into pocket Aces) and the 2011 runner-up in the Championship Event, Martin Staszko. Following the elimination of Leroy Spires in the unfortunate 146th place spot, the field was in the money prior to dinner and, as such, the players began to depart even faster than before the bubble.
Racener would be one of the first eliminated, followed by Nguyen, Dominik Nitsche, Roberto Romanello and Ryan Julius as Day Two stretched into the wee hours of Sunday. Although they made a valiant effort, the players remaining in Event #41 were unable to get to even three tables after ten levels of play (30 players remain), let alone the final table, leaving for some work to do for everyone before history can be made.
1. Joseph Chaplin, 1.085 million
2. Jackie Glazier, 1.077 million
3. JP Kelly, 742K
4. Dylan Hortin, 740K
5. Elio Fox, 697K
6. Greg Ostrander, 586K
7. Scott Montgomery, 554K
8. Peter Nguyen, 507K
9. Morten Mortensen, 484K
10. Kevin Schaffel, 466K
While the $742,072 first place prize is huge for these players, the winner of this particular bracelet will also reach a milestone in WSOP history. Whoever wins the event will be the recipient of the 1000th bracelet awarded over the 43-year span of this historic event, which will be recognized by the WSOP when its champion is determined tonight.
Event #42 – $2500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
Befitting the nature of the dual split-pot games, 175 players came back on Saturday from the 393 that opened the deal on Friday. It was going to be a long day for everyone involved in this tournament as they had to crack the money first (the top 40) then work as close to the final table as possible for today’s play.
Grinding through the Day Two action, the field wasn’t even close to the bubble when the players took a dinner break after six hours of play. In those six hours, though, former WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro and ESPN poker analyst Norm Chad were able to make some significant moves up the leaderboard, while Bryan Micon, Daniel Negreanu and 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Andy Bloch were some of the casualties. It was nearly midnight before the money bubble popped with the elimination of Christopher Gentile, guaranteeing the survivors a minimum $4845 payday.
Over the next two hours, the field was chopped down to 22 players who will come back on Sunday to continue the fight. Chad and Lisandro continued to ride their chip escalator upwards, joined by a late charging Perry Friedman. These three men will be atop the leaderboard when the scooping will continue today:
1. Jeff Lisandro, 355,000
2. Perry Friedman, 263,000
3. Norm Chad, 224,500
4. George Danzer, 219,500
5. Yuval Bronshtein, 212,500
6. Tom Schneider, 182,000
7. Bryan Devonshire, 180,500
8. Mike Krescanko, 172,000
9. Oleksii Kovalchuk, 143,000
10. Daniel Harmetz, 129,000
There are plenty of threats to the leaders on this table. Schneider, himself a former WSOP POY (you may have forgotten that), is a dangerous all-around player, while Devonshire has shown the ability to play any game, any time. Kovalchuk is a former European Poker Tour champion who isn’t afraid to mix it up. And…let’s be honest…wouldn’t the sign of an impending Armageddon be for Norm Chad to win a WSOP bracelet?
These things and more will be figured out today when a victor is determined in this tournament, with that fortunate soul taking down the WSOP bracelet and $228,014.
Sunday at the 2012 WSOP will feature the second day of play in another $1500 No Limit Hold’em event, but many eyes will be on the start of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. There has been quite a bit of discussion as to how this year’s version of the tournament will be accepted, with no television time and the elimination of NLHE at the final table. The deep-pocketed pros who aren’t doing anything else today should show up, especially the defending champion of the event, Brian Rast, who defeated Phil Hellmuth last year to take down the title.
