WSOPE Event #2, £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. Day 2: Howard Lederer Tops Final 11

September 24 2008, John "Falstaff" Hartness

Fifty-six players returned to Leicester Square for Day 2 of Event #2, £2,500 H.O.R.S.E., at the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe. Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth started Day 2 atop the leader board, and one of the Phils remained in the tournament when play halted late in the evening. The marathon Day 2 lasted over 14 hours and saw numerous top names head to the rail as the field thinned to 11.

The stacked field on Day 2 created even more interesting table draws, including this table of doom. At Table 5, Joe Beevers and David Williams were moved onto a table that already contained tough opponents Woody Deck, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Robert Williamson III and 2008 WSOP Main Event final-table player Kelly Kim.

Among the early eliminations was Barry Greenstein, who busted to John Phan early in a hold'em round when Phan's A-9 outflopped Greenstein's A-10 as a nine landed on the board. Greenstein was soon joined on the rail by Bruno Fitoussi, Markus Golser, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow.

Max Pescatori showed his toughness early in the day when he bounced John Phan and Kelly Kim in short order. In Omaha hi/lo, Phan got the last of his chips in on a flop of , and Pescatori and Raul Paez both called. Pescatori fired on both the turn and the river, and Paez called on every street with for the low half of the pot. Pescatori dragged the high half with for kings and fives as Phan was busted. Shortly after Phan was finished, Kelly Kim headed to the rail in razz when his 10-8-6-5-4 was no good to Pescatori's 8-6-4-3-2.

Pescatori couldn't sustain his early surge, however and ended up the bubble boy at the hands of Sherkhan Farnood. In stud hi/lo, Phil Ivey raised on third street with the in the door. Farnood called with the up, and Pescatori called with the showing.

Ivey picked up the on fourth street and checked to Farnood, who drew the and bet. Pescatori called with , and Ivey called as well. Ivey showed a Broadway draw on fifth street as his board read , and he checked to Farnood again. Farnood bet out again, showing , and Pescatori raised with a board of . Ivey folded, and Pescatori and Farnood headed to sixth street. Farnood picked up the and bet out again. Pescatori called all in when he picked up the , and the hands were revealed:

Farnood: for a 7-low and a straight to the eight
Pescatori: for a smooth 7-low and no chance at high

Farnood needed to catch perfect to crack Pescatori's low and send him packing, and the he picked up on seventh street was good enough to eliminate the Italian Pirate just outside the money.

David Williams became the first player to cash when he busted in 16th place (£4,812). Marc Goodwin, who nursed a short stack for much of Day 2 before finishing in 15th place, quickly followed. Daniel Negreanu headed to the rail in 14th (£5,500) when he and Phil Ivey went to war on a flop of in an Omaha hi/lo hand. Negreanu tabled for bottom set and a nut low draw, and Ivey showed for a flopped straight and an emergency low draw. The on the turn was no help to either player, and the on the river meant that Negreanu's low cards were all counterfeited and Ivey's straight was enough to drag the high-only pot and send Negreanu home early. Isaac Haxton was another late elimination as he busted in 13th place just before the end of Day 2.

Phil Hellmuth came into Day 2 as one of the chip leaders, but his famous temper showed itself more than once as his stack dwindled. After doubling up Mark Gregorich twice in consecutive hands in a razz orbit, Hellmuth's once-massive chip stack began to shrink. Finally, finding himself with a short stack and receiving a warning for abusive behavior to the dealer, Hellmuth got all his chips in preflop against Sherkhan Farnood. Farnood's was a coin flip against Hellmuth's . The flop set things up for a Day 3 appearance by Hellmuth, coming down . The was irrelevant, but the on the river made a set for Farnood and sent an irate Hellmuth home in 12th place (£6,188). The 11-time WSOP bracelet winner's shot at his first non-hold'em gold fell just short of the final table.

As Hellmuth departed, the final 11 chip stacks looked like this:

Howard Lederer 208,500
Sherkhan Farnood 141,500
Yuval Bronshtein 133,500
Phil Ivey 114,000
Jeff Duvall 112,100
Spencer Lawrence 88,500
Jeff Lisandro 84,000
Mark Gregorich 82,500
Ivo Donev 79,500
Kristian Eriksson 43,000
Raul Paez 17,500

Join PokerNews tomorrow at 2:30 local time as the remaining players work their way down to a final table and a WSOP bracelet.


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