2009 World Series of Poker

Event 39 - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Day: 2
Event Info

2009 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
jq
Prize
$657,969
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Entries
2,715
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
10,000

Event 39 - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em

Day 2 Completed

Day 2 in the Books

Michele Iacovone
Michele Iacovone
With 26 players remaining, Event #39 has been suspended for the night.

Play began just over 12 hours ago with more than 300 runners still fighting to make a run deep into the night. The furious pace of the eliminations slowed only for a few hands around the bubble before the madness ensued once again. The long line at the payout desk was interrupted for a quick dinner break, but the desk staff was sweating bullets all day as they tried to process nearly 250 payouts.

A few different players have had their hands on the chip lead today. Brandon Cantu was the first of those, holding that spot for the balance of the evening. One big confrontation with Mary Jones would bring him crashing down though. Cantu got it in with two pair, only to get drawn out on by Jones' bigger two on the turn.

That pot put Jones in the mix, and she too would reach the top spot on the leader board a couple rounds later. Her reign at the top would be short-lived though; two straight pots with Ray Foley left her down and out. On two consecutive hands, Jones' pocket queens were run down by Foley's ace-king suited. In brutal fashion, she went from chip leader to the payout table in a 5-minute span.

That left Ray Foley as the man on top. Over the course of the day, Foley consistently moved in the right direction. Courtesy of his big clash with Mary Jones, Foley finally found what he was looking for, scooping up a couple huge pots to leapfrog him all the way to the top. At the end of the night, he's stuffed his chip bag with 1,302,000 chips.

That's not quite good enough for the lead anymore though. On the final hand as the night came to a close, he was just pipped for the to spot. The role of overnight chip leader will go to Michele Iacovone, bagging up what he wrote as "1,605,200" even though that's not possible with no T100 chips in play. We'll have to wait until the bag opens tomorrow to get his actual count, but suffice it to say he's the leader right now.

That does it for Day 2. The 27 remaining players will come back at 2:00pm tomorrow, and they'll play all night until just one man has every chip on the table. We'll see you tomorrow.

Tags: Michele Iacovone

Level: 21

Blinds: 8,000/16,000

Ante: 2,000

Break Time

Players got word, it seems, of the plan. Play tightened considerably. We're now on a ten-minute break. When we come back, we'll play off one last player and then bag the chips.

Almost There

The big board shows 28 players remain in Event #39. We now hear that the plan is to play for one more knockout before re-drawing down to three tables and bagging up the chips for the night. We surmise this because the big floor boss just showed up in the room with 27 empty chip bags.

Iacovone Claims Another

Javier Corzo opened with a raise to 48,000 from early position. In the small blind, big stack Michele Iacovone moved all in, putting the decision on Corzo. There wasn't much else to do; Corzo committed all 180,000 of his chips to the pot.

Showdown
Corzo: {A-Clubs} {10-Spades}
Iacovone: {K-Diamonds} {K-Clubs}

The board ran out dry: {7-Spades} {3-Hearts} {9-Diamonds} {2-Clubs} {4-Spades}. Iacovone's kings hold, sending Corzo to the exit here very late in Day 2.

Tags: Javier CorzoMichele Iacovone

Two for the Price of One

Benjaming Kang - not hanging on any longer
Benjaming Kang - not hanging on any longer
We've just had a double elimination from the far side of the tournament. Benjamin Kang tabled the best hand, {7-Hearts} {7-Clubs} in a three-way all in with Rich Lutes and super short stack Luke Priour. But in the end it was Lutes' {A-Spades} {K-Hearts} that took down the pot on a board of {9-Clubs} {A-Clubs} {6-Diamonds} {k-Spades} {3-Hearts}. Lutes climbed to 275,000 while Kang and Priour are off to be paid.

Double for Davis

At some point in most no-limit hold'em tournaments, it comes down to a race. Ray Davis won his race. He moved all in for 277,000 after a player in middle position opened for 32,000. That player called with pocket tens; Davis tabled {A-Hearts} {J-Diamonds} and won the hand by flopping an ace. He's up to 574,000.

Tags: Ray Davis

Programming Notes

Rule 96 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Rules states that no Day 2 shall be required to play past 3am if the next day's final table is not scheduled to be broadcast on television or the internet. Practically speaking, no tournament has been forced to play past 3am.

With still more than 30 players remaining and the hour already approaching 2am, we're a long way away from our final table of 9. With about 35 minutes remaining on the tournament clock, the staff have a problem -- the next scheduled 20-minute break will fall at 2:20am. It's not very practical to send players on break for 20 minutes and then have them come back for just 20 minutes more of play.

The decision, therefore, is that if we reach 27 players (the last three tables) before the end of the level, we will suspend play for the day. Otherwise we'll play until 3am.

31 players remain.