Joe Cada Leads The Way as 19 Remain
Less than 48 hours ago, 2,811 different people took their seats in various rooms at the Rio with the dream of being the next World Series of Poker champion. Now, after two days and 21 grueling levels of play, only 19 remain. Leading the field is none other than 2009 Main Event champion Joe Cada who is holding on to a stack of 1,869,000.
Today's play saw 331 runners return to the felt and 297 of those made the money. Among those to grab on to a cash and bust before play ended today are Eric Baldwin, Lauren Kling, Nick Binger, Mohsin Charania, Angel Guillen, Ted Forrest, Erika Moutinho, James Akenhead, Soi Nguyen, and PokerNews' own Chad Holloway.
For those unfamiliar with chip leader Joe Cada, back in 2009 he bested a field of 6,494 players and defeated Darvin Moon heads up to win $8,547,042 in prize money at the 2009 WSOP Main Event. This event is Cada's second cash at the 2012 WSOP with his first of the year coming in Event #14: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout.
No Main Event champion since Carlos Mortensen in 2001 has been able to win a second WSOP bracelet to go along with their Main Event title. If Cada can best the remaining players tomorrow he will become the first Main Event winner of the past decade to put a second bracelet on his wrist.
Hot on Cada's heels is Michael Aron with 1,745,000. Rounding out the top three is Valentyn Shabelnyk who is sitting on 1,391,000 in chips.
Other notable names among the final 19 that are returning tomorrow are Day 1 chip leader Cherish Andrews (1,383,000), Carter Phillips (586,000), Jonathan Poche (491,000), JC Tran (339,000), Dwyte Pilgrim (293,000).
Play will resume at 1:00 PM tomorrow in the Amazon Room where the final 19 players will battle on the felt for the next WSOP gold bracelet and $664,130 in first place money. Join us as we provide all of the latest updates from the tournament floor!