Just 51 players remain in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Maryland at Live! Casino Main Event after Day 2 with Brian Altman, the chip leader going into the day, still in the number one spot.
It’s shaping up to be a great contest down the stretch as Altman is trailed closely by Jeffrey Colpitts. Altman has 1.081 million chips and Colpitts has 1.049 million, the only two players with more than a million chips. Matthew Sabia isn’t far back, though, with 900,000, and Robert McLaughlin has 816,000. The rest of the top ten all have more than 600,000 chips.
Tournament registration was open for a couple levels on Day 2 and once the final numbers were tallied, the total field came to 495 entries. That’s “entries” and not “entrants,” as the Main Event allowed for unlimited re-entries. The prize pool is $1.584 million and 62 players will make the money. Thus, everyone who is playing today probably rested well last night, knowing they had cashed. The min-cash is $64,020, while the winner will take home (less taxes, probably) $319,415.
With the final table in sight, Altman told WPT.com after Day 2, “I really want to win a second title. I’ve come close a couple times and it’s just tough. You’ve got to play good and run good, and hope things fall your way.”
Altman’s lone WPT victory was in Season XIII when he took down the WPT Lucky Hearts Open Main Event and a $723,008 first prize. As for his close calls, Altman has made WPT final tables three times in total.
Altman likes to mix it up with his competition, so sitting where he is in the standings is especially helpful for him.
“It feels good to have chips going toward the end of Day 2 and close to the money,” Altman said near the end of the night. “I play a style where I play a lot of big pots and put a lot of pressure on people, so sometimes you end up with a lot of chips and sometimes you end up with zero.”
High risk, high reward.
It could be a long day today. Levels are now an hour and a half long and the plan is to get all the way down to the six-handed final table. That’s not a ton of eliminations, but things tend to slow down significantly as the money jumps get larger and the final table looms. Brian Altman has been the chip leader at the close of each day so far – let’s see if he can go wire-to-wire. Two days left.
2019 World Poker Tour Maryland at Live! Casino Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
- Brian Altman – 1,081,000
- Jeffrey Colpitts – 1,049,000
- Matthew Sabia – 900,000
- Robert McLaughlin – 816,000
- Jeff Esterling – 780,000
- Joe McKeehen – 774,000
- Daniel Wellborn – 761,000
- Rajasekar Govindan – 758,000
- Nitis Udornpim – 671,000
- Shankar Pillai – 603,100