After two days of play in the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship, a familiar face sits atop the leaderboard, Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who owns a stack of 597,100 chips. Hot on his heels is Day 1 chip leader Shawn Buchanan.
A total of 98 players remain out of the quaint field of 195 that registered. Last year, the WPT Championship sported a field of 338, meaning that attendance dropped by 42% in 2010 for the marquee end-of-season event. Nevertheless, the tournament’s champion will collect $1.5 million and receive extensive face time on Fox Sports Net. The WPT Championship’s runner-up will pocket just over $1 million and the top 18 players will finish in the money.
Buchanan holds a stack of 596,600, or just 500 fewer chips than Jaka. He told WPT officials following his strong run on Monday, “I hit a lot of hands the first day. I came back today and on the very first hand, I had two kings. I got it all-in, lost to two tens, but it turned around.” Buchanan made the final table of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun High Roller Bounty Shootout for $80,000 and finished fourth in the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic last December for $333,000.
Phil Hellmuth doubled up at the expense of Kathy Liebert after pushing all-in with pocket aces on a flop of 9-7-3. Liebert turned over pocket sevens for middle set, but Hellmuth spiked an ace on the river to stay alive. Hellmuth and Liebert were nearly even in chips when the hand began. “The Poker Brat” ended the day with 199,100 chips, good for 43rd, while Liebert owns the second smallest stack at just 21,100. Phil Ivey offered Liebert a $20,000 prop bet not to wear purple for a year, but Liebert declined.
Hasan Habib sent Ivey packing on Monday with A-K against Ivey’s A-7. Habib has made the final table of the WPT Championship twice, taking second in 2004 and third one year later. He owns a stack of 199,500 entering Day 3 on Tuesday, the 41st largest tally in the room. Eliminated around the same time was high-stakes pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who moved all-in with 7-6 on a board reading K-Q-7-7 with three hearts. Jaka called with A-9 of hearts for the nut flush and the board failed to pair on the river. Like Hellmuth, Dwan bought in on Day 2, as registration was open through Level 8.
Team PokerStars Pro front man Daniel Negreanu pushed with A-5 of diamonds pre-flop and was met with a call from Corwin “mig.com” Mackey, who held A-9. Negreanu flopped an inside straight draw, but the board bricked out to send the Canadian to the rails. Mackey had crippled Negreanu several hands earlier after both players flopped top pair, but Mackey had Negreanu out-kicked. The hand slashed Negreanu’s stack to just eight big blinds. Mackey, meanwhile, bagged up 182,900 chips on Monday night, the 49th largest total.
Elite poker players populate he top 10 on the WPT Championship leaderboard after two days of action:
1. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka – 597,100
2. Shawn Buchanan – 596,600
3. Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo – 503,600
4. Joshua Gould – 502,900
5. Brandon Cantu – 489,000
6. Todd Terry – 475,600
7. Soheil Shamseddin – 472,000
8. Cody Slaubaugh – 416,300
9. John O’Shea – 398,300
10. David Williams – 363,300
Other notable names remaining, along with their chip counts, include;
12. Brock “t soprano” Parker – 329,000
19. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko – 279,400
20. Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – 278,600
23. Carlos Mortensen – 261,100
24. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy – 258,800
25. Dwyte Pilgrim – 257,500
28. Billy Baxter – 249,000
35. Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger – 216,400
39. Beth Shak – 208,500
41. Hasan Habib – 199,500
42. Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 199,300
43. Phil Hellmuth – 199,100
51. David Benyamine – 182,000
53. Matt “All In At 420” Stout – 170,900
54. Tommy Vedes – 169,900
55. Josh Arieh – 165,400
56. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott – 165,000
64. Scotty Nguyen – 139,700
73. Prahlad Friedman – 112,400
75. Freddy Deeb – 93,400
78. Lee Markholt – 88,300
80. John Juanda – 87,900
87. Steve Zolotow – 77,400
88. Joe Cassidy – 76,200
89. Hoyt Corkins – 70,600
95. Erik Seidel – 39,000
96. Howard Lederer – 32,700
97. Kathy Liebert – 21,100
When the action picks up today at Noon PT, players will be in Level 11, where blinds are 1,200-2,400 with an ante of 300. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WPT Championship.