The plan was to end the day with a final table, but nobody told the players.
After a quick start where we lost half of the day's 337-person starting field by the dinner break, play slowed considerably throughout the rest of the night. When play was stopped at 3am, 33 players headed home for some rest before returning at 1pm.
Leading the pack on our return will be the big stack belonging to these players:
Steven Karp - 990,000
Jacob Kalb - 950,000
Craig McConville - 900,000
Also in the hunt are seasoned tournament players like Michael Martin, and Jeremy Joseph. Some big names who won't be returning for a third day include Shaun Deeb, Sandra Naujoks (the last woman in the field), Sorel Mizzi, and Lee Childs.
Jason Newburger has been eliminated after looking for value with his short stack in the middle of a multi-way pot with but he couldn't get past the of Brian McInnis when the board ran out .
Brian McInnis kicked off this monster pot by raising to 25,000 in early position. Mark Salinaro called before Jim McClain raised all in to 110,000 from the button and Mike Glasser re-raised all-in for an additional 29,000 from the small blind.
McInnis then shoved his entire 300,000 chip stack into the middle, pushing Salinaro out. Going to the flop, the hands were:
McInnis:
Glasser:
McClain:
After the board ran out , McInnis took the side pot and broke almost even while McClain tripled up to 385,000 by taking the main pot. Glasser, on the other hand, just went broke.
Shortly after being crippled in a massive three-way pot, Dao Bac threw his last chips into the middle before the flop with and got called by Brian McInnis and his .
A flop of provided Bac with a glimmer of hope, but he couldn't find his gutterball, and was eliminated after the and failed to improve his hand. McInnis now has 360,000.
In a three-way hand, Justin Pechie, Dao Bac and Paul Dominski each got their entire stacks into the middle before the flop.
Bac showed while Dominski showed and Pechie showed . When the board came , Dominski had turned the nut flush to win the 610,000 chip pot with the worst starting hand. Pechie was eliminated while Bac still had 8,000 chips left.
Michael Pesek was caught pushing the action from late position with as Chad Stoffel committed his last 130,000 preflop with . However the board ran out generously giving Pesek trip sevens as Stoffel was left to shake his head on his way to the cashier.
After getting crippled earlier, Steve Michaels threw his last 5,000 chips into the pot from the button and Mark Salinaro raised to 35,000 from the small blind in order to isolate against the short stack all in.
When the two went heads up to the flop, Michaels showed which was very live against Salinaro's . Live cards didn't help though, as the board ran out , pushing Salinaro's stack to 590,000.
Steve Michaels thought he was in good shape when his all-in move holding was called by Kam Low on the button with , however the board had too many diamonds for Michaels as Low made the nut flush to double up. Low recovers to 135,000 with Michaels now on life support.