Two days of play are in the books at the Southern Poker Championship, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). From a starting grid of 214 players, a total of 66 remain. Kevin Elias paces the survivors with a stack of 229,900, while brand name poker pros like Lee Markholt and Full Tilt Poker’s Gavin Smith are hot on his heels.
Among those zooming upward late in the day on Monday at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi was Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little. The Victory Poker pro came out on the winning end of a race with A-J against Jean “Prince” Gaspard‘s pocket nines when the board came 7-5-4-3-J. A jack on the river saved Little’s tournament life and he moved to 61,000 in chips. The former WPT Player of the Year ended the day at 63,600.
Brent “Astrolux85” Roberts could not survive Day 2 on Monday. The RPM Poker pro met his demise in especially brutal fashion, as his A-K offsuit fell to Timothy “highland” Finne’s A-K offsuit. Roberts Tweeted, “Just lost A-K to A-K aipf for 40bb each… I’m sad.” Finne shared his side of the story through the Twitter: “Busted B Roberts A-Ko to A-Ko. He was favorite with two live suits as well.”
PartyPoker pro Kara Scott was eliminated yesterday, Tweeting the following words of despair upon her exit: “I am out. The dream is over. Sigh.” Following her out the door was Allen Bari, who explained, “Busted. Lost a 58k flip to Ryan Hughes bb vs sb to his A-Tss, but he deserves to win the flip; he played absolutely great all day!”
Also finding the rail on Day 2 was 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Scotty Nguyen. The “Prince of Poker” animatedly Tweeted his bust out hand: “Busted baby! Went all-in with top two pair and the other guy hit on the river baby! Gonna head back home tomorrow morning baby!” Nguyen turned in three top 10 finishes and one final table during the last season of the WPT, but has yet to finish in the money this season.
Markholt soared to the top of the chip counts after picking off a bluff on an eight-high board with pocket tens. His opponent held A-Q with one card to come and failed to improve, propelling him into the chip lead at 289,000. Markholt came back down to 210,800 to end Day 2, good for the fourth largest tally overall. The winner will earn $601,000 from the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament.
Last year, the Southern Poker Championship drew 208 players, meaning that attendance in 2011 remained roughly the same. However, 2010’s champ, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins, walked away with $739,000. Corkins is setting himself up for a repeat performance this year, as he owns the 11th largest stack after two days of play at 166,900.
Enough suspense! Here are the top 10 chip stacks entering Day 3 on Tuesday in the WPT Southern Poker Championship:
1. Kevin Elias – 229,900
2. Jordan Smith – 217,000
3. Ryan Hughes – 211,400
4. Lee Markholt – 210,800
5. Vitor Coelho – 209,900
6. Dermot Blain – 195,200
7. Walter White – 191,200
8. Gavin Smith – 190,100
9. Alexander Kuzmin – 179,000
10. Chad Brown – 168,100
Other brand name pros remaining include:
Hoyt Corkins – 166,900
Kyle “kwob20” Bowker – 158,000
Shannon Shorr – 146,000
Shawn Cunix – 145,600
Michael Benvenuti – 142,300
Allen “AawwNutz” Carter – 129,500
Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier – 103,600
Yuval Bronshtein – 72,900
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – 63,600
Leif Force – 56,800
Patrick Eskandar – 22,400
Jason Mercier – 22,200
When play ground to a halt, the blinds were at 500-1,000 with an ante of 100. The action picks back up today at Noon CT and a champion will be crowned on Thursday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT headlines.
