With the three starting flights out of the way and all the registration and prize pool numbers discussed, it is time to make the trek into the meat of the 2014 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event. We’re still not yet at a single, unified field, but we’re getting closer. On Tuesday, the 505 survivors from Day 1A and the 1,428 from Day 1B competed in the simultaneous Days 2A and 2B, respectively. At total of 822 emerged from the two Day 2’s combined with Florida’s Timothy Stansifer coming out of the fray as the chip leader, holding 481,500 chips.
Stansifer has a fairly sizable chip lead over his closest pursuers, but three more players do have over 400,000: Thomas Cannuli (407,800), Tony Ruberto (402,700), and Joe Kuether (401,200). Martin Jacobson, the man who was the chip leader doing into Day 2A, is still doing quite well, sitting in eleventh place with 342,700 chips.
So far, the tournament has been pretty kind to former Main Event winners. While 2012 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Merson, 1983 champ Tom McEvoy, and 1995 champ Dan Harrington all bowed out Tuesday, last year’s victor Ryan Riess (84,900 chips), 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker (220,000), 1996 winner Huck Seed (96,500), and back-to-back 1987 and 1988 champion Johnny Chan (46,600) all made it through to Day 3.
Some notable names that will not advance to Thursday are Annette Obrestad, George Danzer, Mike Matusow, Josh Arieh, Liv Boeree, and Dennis Phillips. Obrestad may have suffered the harshest beat of the day. In Level 9, David Farber raised pre-flop Obrestad called, and Garrett Greer called from the big blind. On the flop of T♥-8♠-6♥, action checked around to Obrestad who bet 3,700. Greer called, but then Farber raised to 11,500. Obrestad then re-raised all-in for 48,600, forcing Greer to fold. Farber thought about it for a short time and finally made the call, turning over J♦-J♠ for an overpair to the board. Obrestad had him nailed, though, as she had 9♦-7♦, giving her the flopped nut straight. The 6♠ on the turn kept Farber alive, giving him a shot at a full house, and that’s exactly what happened as the J♣ spiked on the river. Farber had caught a runner-runner boat, eliminating Obrestad from the tournament. That also helped Farber end the day in 19th place with 286,900 chips.
Today, the survivors from Monday’s Day 1C will reconvene for Day 2C. It will be a bigger second day than Days 2A and 2B combined, with 2,571 players returning to the Rio. On Thursday, all of those who made it through Day 2 will finally be compacted into one field for Day 3.
2014 World Series of Poker Main Event – Combined Day 2A and 2B Chip Leaders
1. Timothy Stansifer – 481,500
2. Thomas Cannuli – 407,800
3. Tony Ruberto – 402,700
4. Joe Kuether – 401,200
5. Cai Zhen – 367,900
6. John Sacha – 364,400
7. Munir Shahin – 361,900
8. Kyle Keranen – 358,000
9. Timothy Reilly – 354,500
10. Thomas Roupe – 349,600
