Day 2 In the Books with Dan Blakeman Leading
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Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Tunica Main Event has come to a close after 13 hours of action. The field returned with 330 players still in action and was whittled down to 16 players by the end of play. Dan Blakeman stands atop the leaderboard with 1,589,000.
Blakeman is followed closely by Houston White (1,548,000) and Steve McCluskey (1,520,000). Notables still in the field include Kurt Jewell (1,197,000), Jacob Bazeley (991,000) and Doug “Rico” Carli (178,000).
It was a day of attrition with Sam Barnhart, John Evans, Aaron Massey, Abraham Araya, Kyle Cartwright, David Clark, La Sengphet, John Dolan, Roland Israel, Matthew Chang, “Captain” Tom Franklin, Ron Rose, Chris Bigler and Russell Ivy all finding the rail during the day.
The money bubble burst shortly after the field returned from dinner in a quick fashion. A total of 77 players returned and after 20 minutes they were two off the magic number of 72. Two players busted within moments of each other and Kenneth Putnam was the unfortunate bubble boy. Because of the quick action there was no round-for-round play.
When play began all eyes were on Dantonio Brown – he returned with 277,000 – which was twice of his next closest competitor. Brown played fast and loose and his stack slowly withered away. He ultimately finished in 36th place when his 
ran into Chad Bradbury’s 
.
During the late stages of play Jewell seemed to be the man to beat. He was steamrolling his table and notching up knockouts every orbit. His stack peaked to 1.8 million before he lost a giant hand to Blakeman. Jewell bet into Blakeman holding big slick on a queen-high board and Blakeman shoved holding 
. That hand gave Blakeman the momentum to end the day as the overall chipleader.
Barnhart’s 2011 whirlwind ride began at this event last year when he won the title. He parlayed his seat in the National Championship to a first place finish worth $300,000 and then finished in 17th place during the WSOP Main Event.
Day 3 will have cards in the air promptly at 12 p.m. CST and be sure to follow all the action until we crown a winner on Pokernews.com.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Blakeman | 1.589 million |
| 2 | Houston White | 1.548 million |
| 3 | Steve McClusky | 1.52 million |
| 4 | Ray Weaver | 1.243 million |
| 5 | Kurt Jewell | 1.197 million |
| 6 | Dustin Gardner | 998,000 |
| 7 | Jacob Bazeley | 991,000 |
| 8 | John Cecil | 862,000 |
| 9 | Chris Thompson | 801,000 |
| 10 | Michael Cooper | 475,000 |