The final Day Two of the 2012 World Series of Poker Championship Event has wrapped up its play, sending the survivors from the day off to the first day that the field will join together this afternoon in the Amazon Room at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino.
At the start of the Day 2C action, Randy Haddox was atop the massive 2300 players that had made it through the biggest of the Day Ones. His 188,225 in chips was good enough to be in front of Erik Hellman (175,950) and Marco Bognanni (169,900), with a slew of some of the biggest names in the game arranged behind them. “The Godfather of Poker,” Doyle Brunson, was one of those looking to strike, as were Brad Booth, Chris Moorman, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, Gus Hansen and former World Champions Joe Cada, Johnny Chan, Jamie Gold and Tom McEvoy.
In one of the very first hands of the day, two more of poker’s notables were knocking heads in a pot. Stepping away from his usual officiating action, tournament director Matt Savage found himself all in against 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong and another opponent holding a tenuous lead with his pocket tens against Cheong’s K♠ J♠ and their opponent’s pocket nines. A stunning Q-9-10 flop came to the felt, giving Cheong the nut straight, Savage a set of tens and their opponent a set of nines. Fate would deliver a Queen on the turn, rocketing Savage to the lead and leaving his opponent drawing to the case nine and Cheong drawing dead. An Ace on the river tripled up Savage, knocked Cheong back to around 30K in chips.
While Savage continued to fight, another top pro took his leave. Phil Ivey’s outstanding 2012 WSOP run came to a close when Nick DiVella’s A-10 flopped two pair against Ivey’s pocket deuces. Once no two came on the turn or river, Ivey was out of the tournament. Although he didn’t pick up his ninth bracelet (at least yet…remember, the WSOP Europe is coming), Ivey’s five final tables did tie the record for a WSOP and currently put him in the lead for the WSOP Player of the Year race.
As the afternoon wore on, the players slowly began the long walk from the Amazon Room with nothing but the memories of playing in the WSOP Championship Event. Savage wasn’t able to take his triple up anywhere and he was joined on the rail during the afternoon by Jennifer Tilly, Peter Jetten, Scott Clements, Kirk Morrison, Kristy Gazes, Noah Schwartz, Arnaud Mattern and Cada. By the time dinner had come around, Haddox was maintaining his lead and Hellman and Bognanni were still in the upper reaches of the leaderboard, but Ziv Bachar, Justin Ouimette and Jeremy Allen had joined them as contenders.
Following the break for some sustenance (or whatever the players felt like doing over the ninety minute period), the action would ramp up. Actor Jason Alexander was eliminated fairly quickly, joining Tom Marchese, Joseph Elpayaa, Steve Billirakis, Melanie Weisner and Gus Hansen to dream about next year’s WSOP Championship Event. As the clock clicked close to midnight, Doyle Brunson would join them after a not-too shabby performance by a gentleman who almost didn’t play the Championship Event.
By the time the final level played out early Thursday morning, many of the start of day contenders were still in the mix, but a new leader had emerged from the Day 2C proceedings:
1. Michael Hack, 457,000
2. Marco Bognanni, 452,100
3. Jonathan Fountain, 435,400
4. Randy Haddox, 407,300
5. John Leathart, 404,900
6. Erik Hellman, 397,900
7. David Kluchman, 383,000
8. Jim Burns, 381,600
9. Luke Brereton, 372,000
10. Thanh Dat Tran, 369,300
Some of the more notable players in the Top 50 include Burt Boutin (12th, 363,800), one of last year’s “November Nine,” Sam Holden (15th, 352,600), Jake Cody (18th, 322,000), Cheong (21st, 313,400), Ronnie Bardah (33rd, 274,400), Tristan Clemencon (34th, 271,800) and 2011 WSOP POY Ben Lamb (36th, 271,000).
Folding the list of the 911 players who survived Day 2C into the Day 2A/2B activities, here’s what the overall leaderboard looks like:
1. Gaelle Baumann, 505,800 (Day 2A/B chip leader)
2. Mark Demirdjian, 499,900 (Day 2A/B)
3. Shaun Deeb, 460,900 (Day 2A/B)
4. Michael Hack, 457,000
5. Marco Bognanni, 452,100
6. Jonathan Fountain, 435,400
7. Randy Haddox, 407,300
8. John Leathart, 404,900
9. Erik Hellman, 397,900
10. Kevin Davis, 394,800 (Day 2A/B)
As mentioned earlier, today will mark the first day that the entirety of the 2012 WSOP Championship Event will be together for action. The 1753 players are still only halfway through this marathon, however; with the first payouts coming at 666th place, there’s still almost 1100 players to send away from the Rio before the serious business of handing out pieces of the $62.021 million prize pool can begin. That should come, at the earliest, during Friday’s action at the 2012 WSOP Championship Event.