At the World Poker Tour stop at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, the $10,000 World Poker Finals have wrapped up their second day of play with Dan Colpoys leading defending WPT Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger with 66 players remaining in the tournament.
The tournament set off on Thursday, drawing in a field of 189 players for the action. The higher buy in of this event (it is the first event on the Season Ten schedule of the WPT to feature a $10K buy in) as well as the recent conclusion of tournaments in Europe could be the main reasons that the field wasn’t larger. While the field size might not be remarkable, the talent on the felt surely was.
Day One play was serene as only 48 players from the original field were eliminated during Thursday’s play. By the end of action on Day One, Tom Schreiber had pushed his way to the top of the leaderboard, with Frankenberger in fourth and the only woman player (of three) left in the tournament, the excellent veteran Kathy Liebert, in fifth place. Other notable names that survived Day One included Matt Matros, Ryan Welch, Erik Seidel, and Dwyte Pilgrim, who were all in the Top 25 after Thursday’s action.
Friday’s action picked up the pace quite a bit as over half of the field was dismissed from the Foxwoods tournament room. The players also learned what they would be playing for after late registration ended after the first level of the day. Once the numbers were tallied, 27 players will take home something for their efforts at the WPT World Poker Finals, with the minimum payday $19,916. The top prize for the tournament will be $449,910, with a seat at the 2012 WPT Championship also awarded to the champion.
Coming into the day with an extremely short stack, current WPT Player of the Year leader Will “The Thrill” Failla was eliminated from the event within the first ten minutes of play. His would not be the only departure of the day, however.
David Williams worked hard to find a spot to put his short stack to work and, when he finally found that moment, he was rudely treated. David would recap his demise over Twitter, stating, “Grinded my short stack all day. Get KK. Raised, three callers. Q89. Go all in and an old guy ask ‘How much.’ Tanks. Calls. Has JT.”
WPT champion Steve Brecher was also eliminated from the tournament, also in a very cruel fashion. After a 10-7-3 monochrome diamond flop, Brecher moved his remaining stack to the center only to find two callers, Chris Tryba and Lou Lazzinnaro. Brecher’s pocket sevens made a set, but Tryba’s pocket tens made a bigger set. Holding the trump, however, was Lazzinnaro, who tabled a measly Q-6 of diamonds for the flopped flush that held up. After the smoke cleared, Lazzinnaro was up over the 110K mark, Tryba was left with 80K and Brecher was out the door.
Other players who would meet their end on Day Two included Todd Terry, WPT “Raw Deal” host Tony “Bond_18” Dunst, and Welch.
Close to the end of the day, Colpoys would double up to take the chip lead in what was a remarkable hand. After a K-Q-4 flop, Colpoys made a bet but was raised by Jack Kashishian. Colpoys responded by pushing in his remaining chips and Kashishian made the call confidently, tabling K-Q for two pair against Colpoys pocket Aces. The turn was a blank, but the river delivered for Colpoys an Ace to edge out Kashishian’s flopped two pair, leaving Kashishian stunned by the occurrence. After the hand was complete, Colpoys had jumped to the top of the leaderboard with 168,000 and Kashishian was left with only 13K.
With the cards already in the air for Day Three action, here’s how the Top Ten looks at the start of play:
1. Dan Colpoys, 246K
2. Andy Frankenberger, 239.6K
3. Peter Politano, 237.9K
4. Chris Klodnicki, 216.1K
5. Steven Brackesy, 213.7K
6. Christian Harder, 194.3K
7. Tom Schreiber, 173.2K
8. Andy Rossi, 169.1K
9. Michael Dentale, 167K
10. Jack Schanbacher, 152.2K
Top pros still alive in the event include two former WPT World Poker Finals champions, Hoyt Corkins (99K) and Jonathan Little (92.5K), David “Doc” Sands (83.7K), Allen Kessler (71.2K), Jason Mercier (70.6K) and Liebert (92K).
The WPT World Poker Finals is going to take its time in determining a champion. Plans on Saturday are for the field to play another five levels of action with a chance at making it down to the money early this evening. The final table will be played out on Tuesday, so there isn’t a great chance that there will be any long evenings before the final table is determined Monday.
