After an early-position player opened to 5,300, Danny Suied three-bet to 14,300 on the button. The small blind tanked for a bit before giving it up, as did the big blind. The raiser four-bet jammed for 50,300 and was met with a quick call from Suied with 
.
Unfortunately for Suied, he was unable to hold up against 
when the board ran out 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
60,000
-60,000
|
-60,000 |
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
We'd like to catch John Riordan in a pot, but our timing so far has been unfortunately off. Luckily for us, the young Floridian has been more than willing to tell us how his day has gone.
The defending champ bagged up 57,000 chips yesterday afternoon, but his early Day 2 trend was very much downward. In fat, he was set all the way back to 15,100 at one point before the heater kicked in. Riordan got himself all in with pocket nines against both pocket queens and ace-queen in a 140,000-chip pot. As he tells it, it was "all skill" when he managed to get there and triple up.
From that point on, it's been one knockout after another for Riordan, and he's picked off about a half-dozen players, adding their chips to his ever-growing stack. That stack sits at about 440,000 chips now, and if there was any doubt before, there's none now. He is the chip leader. By a big margin.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
440,000
135,000
|
135,000 |
|
||
Level: 15
Blinds: 1,200/2,400
Ante: 300
Brian "Stinger 88" Hastings was one of the couple dozen players to wait until the start of Day 2 to buy-in to this Main Event. With a starting stack of 20bb, most of those latecomers have been forced to the exits early. Hastings, though, is going strong. Every time we check on him, his chip count goes up, and this most recent update sees that he's sextupled his starting stack to about 120,000 now.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
120,000
63,000
|
63,000 |
|
||
Danny Suied had built up his stack earlier to the 170,000 range before it went back down to below 100,000.
We picked him up in a pot where action was on Suied following an opponent's three-bet shove for 21,800. Suied, having committed 5,100 already, opted to call and tabled 
. He slightly trailed his opponent's 
, but caught up when the board ran out 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
120,000
25,000
|
25,000 |
We've lost another notable, the WSOPC Champion from January's trip to Caesars Palace Las Vegas.
Kevin Calenzo was getting short on chips when he called a raise to 4,200 from his big blind. The dealer spread out 
, and Calenzo put the rest of his ~20,000 chips into the pot. His opponent quickly called, and the cards were on their backs.
Showdown
Calenzo: 
Opponent: 
They had an open-ended straight flush between them, but Calenzo needed to fill in his straight draw or find some runners to stay alive. The turn 
was a blank, though, and so was the 
river, and that's the end of the line for Calenzo.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |
Since we last checked in with Huy Nguyen, the 2011 WSOPC Choctaw Main Event Champion added about 100,000 to his stack. Unfortunately, we caught him in a rare losing hand according to his tablemates.
Nguyen raised from middle position and was called by both blinds, landing an 
flop. It was checked to Nguyen and he bet 5,100, chasing away one of his opponents. The 
hit the turn and the player in the big blind check-called 12,200 from Nguyen to see the 
river. Another check from the big blind led to a Nguyen bet of 18,800.
His opponent called and Nguyen flashed 
for a missed flush draw. His opponent took it down with 
, but Nguyen is still going strong with about 200,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
203,000
-37,000
|
-37,000 |
The last time we checked on John Riordan, he had gone down to 50,000, then back up to 95,000.
It appears he's been doing good work in the meantime. He was stacking up a pot as we went over to check on him, and the addition to his chip stack vaults him all the way up to 305,000. That's good for the chip lead as far as we can tell, and Riordan certainly knows his way around a big stack in this building.
If you're still not sure who this Riordan guy is that we're talking about, have a read through the coverage of last year's Main Event.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
305,000
210,000
|
210,000 |
|
|
||
A player in middle position opened with a raise to 4,500, and the action came around to Chad Batista in the small blind. He held all 14,900 of his chips in his hands with a bit of a frown on his face, then spilled them out into the pot to make an all-in three-bet. The raiser quickly called with 
, and Batista's 
had him as a strong favorite to stick around.
The board ran 
, and Batista has rebounded back to about 33,000 after a rough start to his Day 2.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
33,000
18,000
|
18,000 |
Level: 14
Blinds: 1,000/2,000
Ante: 300
