The final Day Two of the 2013 World Series of Poker Championship Event played out on Wednesday as the massive number of survivors from Day 1C stepped to the felt in the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino looking to take the next step towards poker immortality.
The overall Day One chip leader, Mark “P0kerH0” Kroon, was at the helm of the ship with his 246,300 in chips as the players who got through Day 1C settled in for a long day (and night) of play. The only other player who topped the 200K mark, Imari Love (214,300), was there also alongside a host of top professionals in Michael Mizrachi (176,100), Phil Ivey (119,650) and Vanessa Selbst (115,225). Following the “Shuffle up and deal” call from Ultimate Fighting Championship ring announcer (and occasional poker player) Bruce Buffer in his ubiquitous style, Day 2B was off and running.
The day got off to a rough start for one half of the Sands duo. David “Doc” Sands came into the day on an extremely short stack and, within moments of the start of play, he saw that stack disappear into the hands of Jeremy Druckman when his K-3 failed to catch against Druckman’s pocket Queens. The other (some would say better) half of the Sands family, Erika (formerly Moutinho), was able to chip up a bit and would make it through the Wednesday action to come back for Day Three on Thursday.
Other pros, looking to double up or go home, would find the second half of that equation as the first level of the day played out. Brian Hastings, Barbara Enright, Maria Ho, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Ben Lamb and Gus Hansen would lead the parade out of the Rio within the first two hours of the day, while the rich seemed to just get richer.
Kroon, after an early misstep, was able to reverse that trend in rivering trip sixes against an opponent to push his stack up to 260K. Love stayed on his tail with 228K and moved up to 240K soon afterwards. As the chip leaders danced, Daniel Negreanu waltzed out the door when his Big Slick couldn’t catch up against his opponent’s pocket tens.
One of the biggest movers of the day was 2001 Championship Event winner Carlos Mortensen. At one point sitting on 81K in chips, by the end of the second break of the day Mortensen had been able to more than double that in reaching 195K in chips. By the end of the evening, Mortensen was sitting on a 295,400 stack that will put him in great position for the start of Day Three on Thursday.
Throughout the day, however, it was Kroon and Mizrachi’s show. Both were over the 300K mark as the tournament passed its third level of play for the day and the duo would stay in close contact with each other for the remainder of the day. When the final hand was dealt for the day and the remaining players bagged up their booty, Kroon remained the chip leader for Day 2B and will head to Day 3 at the head of the overall pack.
1. Mark Kroon, 507,300
2. Vladimir Geshkenbein, 467,500
3. Victor Figueroa, 460,600
4. Dirk van Luijk, 455,000
5. William Reymond, 405,000
6. Michael Mizrachi, 394,600
7. Ryan Olson, 364,700
8. Peter Kamaras, 354,400
9. Yann Dion, 348,200
10. Jean-Robert Bellande, 320,900
Overall Leaderboard
1. Mark Kroon, 507,300
2. Vladimir Geshkenbein, 467,500
3. Victor Figueroa, 460,600
4. Dirk van Luijk, 455,000
5. Nick Schwarmann, 413,600
6. William Reymond, 405,000
7. Michael Mizrachi, 394,600
8. Jason DeWitt, 382,900
9. Aage Ravn, 370,900
10. Ryan Olson, 364,700
Other notable names that will be around for the Day Three festivities this afternoon include former European Poker Tour Grand Final champion Glen Chorny, Guillaume Rivet, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Stephen Chidwick, Grant Hinkle, Allen Cunningham, Matt Marafioti, Marcel Luske and Ivey.
It appears that there are around 2300 players who will come back for action today at noon in the Amazon Room at the Rio, but there is a long way to go until the money is reached. 648 players will take down an official WSOP cash and, while it is possible the field may reach that number after today’s play, it looks as though it will be Friday before the money bubble is popped.
