Naoya Kihara Dominates Big Names on Day 2
The World Series of Poker Event 34: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha - Six-Handed came back today with 72 players all with two aims: to get in the money, and then go on and make a final table. We got to, and burst the bubble, but fell a little short of making the final table.
After 10 levels of play the field was whittled all the way down to 11 players. The player who tops the lot is runaway chip leader from Japan, Naoya Kihara with 1,548,000 chips. He had an incredible day where he busted player after player with huge hands that held, or draws that got there. When there were 24 players left he had more chips than the average player will take forward to tomorrow’s six-handed final table. Did anyone tell him this is a three-day tournament? He ended with around a quarter of the chips in play!
The field was stacked today, and will continue to be so tomorrow. Remember the name Hans Winzeler from last summer? He came second to Jason Mercier in this very tournament, earning $383,075. He’s in a great position to do a repeat, he’ll be hoping for one better though.
Here’s how the final 11 and their chip counts look heading to tomorrow:
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naoya Kihara | 1,548,000 |
| 2 | Tommy Le | 965,000 |
| 3 | Davidi Kitai | 789,000 |
| 4 | Hans Winzeler | 613,000 |
| 5 | Chris De Maci | 515,000 |
| 6 | Dimitar Danchev | 469,000 |
| 7 | Jason DeWitt | 465,000 |
| 8 | Scott Bohlman | 397,000 |
| 9 | Daniel Hindin | 211,000 |
| 10 | Kevin MacPhee | 174,000 |
| 11 | Joseph Cheong | 125,000 |
Erick Lindgren was the unlucky bubble boy today after a strange hand versus Daniel Hindin. Check out Lee Davy’s version of events from earlier by clicking here. Other players who came back for day 2 but failed to cash included: Mike Sexton, Fabrice Soulier, Bruno Fitoussi, Antony Lellouche, and JC Tran.
Those happier to cash, although wishing they were still in included: David Benyamine, Brock Parker, Padraig Parkinson, Dermot Blain, Shaun Deeb, Tom Marchese, and Adam Junglen. For a full list of payouts click here.
Play resumes at 1:00 PM local time tomorrow. When seven players remain they will all be redrawn onto one table until one more player busts. From there the official WSOP final table begins. All the action will be covered right here on PokerNews, and streamed on WSOP.com