WSOP What to Watch For: Jacobson, Luxemburger Lead to Start Day 2a/b of Main Event

WSOP What to Watch For: Jacobson, Luxemburger Lead to Start Day 2a/b of Main Event 0001

With Day 1 of the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event now complete, the remaining players today take the next step toward discovering who among them will be walking away with the $10,000,000 first prize.

While Phil Ivey and the other survivors of yesterday’s Day 1c wait to resume their Main Event tourney journeys on Wednesday, today finds those who made it through Days 1a and 1b coming back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to play five more 120-minute levels and try to reach Thursday’s Day 3 when the entire field will at last be combined.

Here’s what we have witnessed so far now that the three Day 1 flights have all taken off and landed:

DayEntrantsMade Day 2
1a771505
1b2,1441,428
1c3,7682,571
Total6,6834,504

For today’s “Day 2a/b,” the 505 survivors of Day 1a will be playing alongside the 1,428 who made it through Day 1b, meaning 1,933 players total will be taking seats today. However, the two groups will remain separated with Day 2a playing out in the Amazon room while Day 2b players will be seated in the Brasilia and Pavilion.

Day 2a: Jacobson Tops Chip Ladder

Martin Jacobson of Stockholm, Sweden returns to the biggest stack of anyone from the Day 1a group, having accumulated 200,100 chips on Saturday. Aaron “WiltOnTilt” Wilt will start with the second-biggest stack in the Amazon with 157,650, with Naoya Kihara, Kenny Tran, and Mukul Pahuja also having finished Day 1a inside the top 10.

2014 WSOP Main Event Start of Day 2a Top 10 Chip Counts

WSOP What to Watch For: Jacobson, Luxemburger Lead to Start Day 2a/b of Main Event 101
Martin Jacobson
PositionPlayerChips
1Martin Jacobson200,100
2Aaron Wilt157,650
3Seamus Cahill150,775
4Benjamin Gold144,875
5Naoya Kihara124,225
6Ken Einiger120,400
7Yung Hwang118,875
8Kenny Tran115,400
9Mukul Pahuja114,800
10Aleksandar Simic110,675

The average chip stack for Day 2a players to start play will be 45,802, meaning Nick DiVella (102,525), Kevin MacPhee (100,250), Eric Cloutier (92,250), Tom Middleton (84,475), and two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan (83,375) will be among those with stacks well above par when the first hands are dealt today.

2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess (70,225) likewise will return to a healthy stack when he takes his seat in the Amazon today, as will 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker (69,850).

Meanwhile Antonio Esfandiari, last year’s Main Event runner-up Jay Farber, Layne Flack, Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton, 1983 Main Event champion Tom McEvoy, 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson, and poker author Jim McManus will also be part of the Day 2a crowd to start play this afternoon.

Day 2b: Luxemburger Leading the Way

On Sunday, Trey Luxemburger of Louisville, Kentucky finished the night on top of the Day 1b counts with 193,450, with Sarkis Hakobian his nearest challenger with 189,000. Ryan “KJulius10” Julius is also among the players who’ll be returning to top 10 stacks among the players gathered in the Brasilia and Pavilion rooms today.

2014 WSOP Main Event Start of Day 2b Top 10 Chip Counts

WSOP What to Watch For: Jacobson, Luxemburger Lead to Start Day 2a/b of Main Event 102
Trey Luxemburger
PositionPlayerChips
1Trey Luxemburger193,450
2Sarkis Hakobian190,125
3Ryan Buckholtz189,000
4Daniel Wirgau173,350
5Ryan Julius165,125
6Maxim Panyak158,425
7Jeff Norman156,625
8Julian Stuer155,200
9Steve Ryan147,500
10Richard Moon146,200

An average stack to start Day 2b will be 45,042, with a lot more players in this group beginning the day with 100,000-plus stacks (74 compared to the 17 starting Day 2a).

Included in the Day 2b six-figure club are Erik Seidel (134,025), Mark Radoja (126,000), Matt Affleck (122,150), Taylor Paur (116,600), Marvin Rettenmaier (115,000), Jorn Walthaus (108,475), David Williams (104,100), and Brian Hastings (100,350).

Others who made out well on Sunday to begin Day 2b in good starting shape are Phil Galfond (91,000), Antoine Saout (85,025), Jeff Madsen (80,275), Jon Turner (79,950), Kristy Arnett (75,550), and David Bach (73,075). Also part of the Day 2b field will be 1995 Main Event champion Dan Harrington whose stack of 35,200 will equate to an “M” of about 29 when play resumes today. And the player who won the Main Event the year after “Action Dan,” 1996 champ Huck Seed, will be there, too, with a stack of 22,750.

Last year a slightly smaller overall Main Event field saw Mark Kroon emerge from the Day 2 flights with a stack of 507,300 to lead the 1,753 players making it to Day 3.

Day 2a/b kicks off at 12 noon PDT today, so point your browser to the Main Event live updates then to begin reading the next chapter of the World Series of Poker Main Event story.

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