Yesterday 587 players hit the felt with one simple goal in mind: be the last player standing at the table. Sixty players were able to accomplish that goal, allowing them to move on to Day 2 and guaranteeing them at least $9,086. Today they will once again attempt to win their table and by the end of the day these then champions will comprise our final table.
Yesterday's play saw many notable players come out for this event with hopes of winning their table and moving on to the second day. Among those who hit the rail yesterday include Daniel Negreanu, Greg Mueller, Annette Obresetad, Chris Moneymaker, Humberto Brenes, Joe Cada, Andy Frankenberger, Allen Bari and many more.
That being said, where many faltered others were able to succeed. Today's field is stacked with notable names returning to once again conquer their table. Antonio Esfandiari, Jean-Robert Bellande, Justin Bonomo, Steve Billarakis, James Akenhead, Kevin Saul, Mickey Petersen, Jason Koon, and David "Bakes" Baker are just a few of the names to return to the felt today.
Online poker wizards Jonathan Tamayo and Justin Bonomo are at the same table and just got involved in pot together.
Bonomo opend for 2,600 in early position and Tamayo made it 7,500 to play from the button. Bonomo called and the flop came . Bonomo checked, Tamayo bet 10,500 and Bonomo check-raised to 22,500.
Tamayo held his cards for a moment and then kicked them back to the dealer.
Ryan D'Angelo got his stack all in before the flop with and was called by the of Alessandro Longobardi.
D'Angelo was safe on the flop as well as the turn. However, the peeled off on the river and send a wave of frustration through D'Angelo.
"God f***ing damnit!" D'Angelo bellowed as he flung his jacket into the air. "Just like the PCA, jacks into ace-king and a king on the river".
D'Angelo's elimination moves Alessandro Longobardi heads up with a chip lead against Mickey Petersen. Now all remaining tables are heads up except one.
Antonio Esfandiari has become the latest player to progress to the final table by defeated Jason Koon heads up.
We missed the action of the final hand and when we asked Esfandiari to tell us about it he replied "Absolutely not," with a big grin on his face. "I got lucky. I had jack-duece he had ace-queen." And that was all of the information we could pry from him.
Regardless of what the action was, Esfandiari was able to conquer the table and will be headlining the final table tomorrow.
Jonathan Lane has defeated Matthew Schwarmann heads up to earn a spot at tomorrow's final table. During the final hand the two players got it all in preflop and Schwarmann's was not able to catch up to Lane's .
PokerStars Team Online player Mickey Petersen is the shortest stack compared to the other matches. Petersen has about 115,000 and Alessandro Longobardi has 400,000.
It will take all of Petersen's PokerStars experience to fight back and win the match.
With the board reading , Robert Georato got the rest of his stack all in against Roberto Romanello. Georato had for a turned pair of kings, but was behind Romanello's for the ace-high flush.
Romanello will be taking a stack of 530,000 with him to tomorrow's final table.
Upon winning he asked us to give a message to his family who will be reading this when they wake up in the morning. Romanello wants to tell his family that they may have to pack their bags soon in the event he makes it to the bracelet ceremony that follows this event.
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. Bonomo checked, Tamayo bet 10,500 and Bonomo check-raised to 22,500.
and was called by the 
of Alessandro Longobardi.
flop as well as the 
turn. However, the 
peeled off on the river and send a wave of frustration through D'Angelo.
was not able to catch up to Lane's 
.
and Tehan took the pot. The two were very close in chips, in fact, Glushankov was left with just 500 after the stacks were counted.
, Robert Georato got the rest of his stack all in against Roberto Romanello. Georato had 
