2021 WSOP Day 42: Main Event Whittled to 2,362 Players

November 11, 2021

Day 42 of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) saw the tournament areas of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino packed to the rafters with the mammoth-sized WSOP Main Event Day 2cef, the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, and the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo tournaments all taking place.

The Main Event's final Day 2, made up of the survivors from Day 1c, 1e, and 1f combined to make a field of 1,810. Only 922 of those players progressed to Day 3.

Conrad De Armas Claims Main Event Day 2cef Chip Lead

For the past week, the flagship tournament of the 2021 World Series of Poker has witnessed 6,650 players take to the felt in a quest to call themselves poker's champion, and now the Day 3 roster for the WSOP Main Event is finally set.

There were more than 1,800 hopefuls who took to their seats today looking to find a pick slip by day's end, but after another full day of action, only half were able to achieve that goal.

Sitting near the top at the end of the night was Conrad De Armas, who bagged a whopping 744,000, which was good enough to pass Rameez Shahid, who bagged 731,700 in yesterday's Day 2.

Others to bag big were Adam Walton (673,100), nine-time circuit ring winner Daniel Lowery (625,200), Matt Glantz (580,000), and Artan Dedusha (577,100).

Moneymaker Steals the Show of Former Champs In Day 2 Field

With the Amazon and Pavilion rooms flooded with players looking to make a Day 3 birth, the day may have been highlighted by the seven former Main Event champions who sat in the vast field in the quest for another Main Event title.

The 1998 champ Scotty Nguyen came in with the shortest stack of the seven formers and couldn't get anything going as his Main Event ended shortly after returning from dinner break.

The 2019 champ Hossein Ensan had a rollercoaster of a day after almost building up to a 300K stack to have it all come crashing down after failing to complete his nut flush draw against Neel Choksi's top two-pair.

Joe Hachem started with a healthy 78 big blind stack and was able to run that up for most of the day until running his pocket tens into pocket kings late in the night but still bagged to take into Day 3.

The man who started the poker boom, Chris Moneymaker, took his seat with a little over thirty big blinds and slowly accumulated chips until being moved to a featured table. It was there he started gaining traction after he flopped a set of deuces and cracked aces to soar past 300K. He then was on the right side of a cooler after picking aces against Bryan Reyes' pocket kings to climb past the half-milly mark.

Just like Moneymaker, 2016 champion Qui Nguyen saw his name inching up the chip counts after each level. It started with him out-kicking one opponent to the rail early in the day and ended with his dropping another with cowboys late to finish with 479,100.

While the former winners saw a fluctuation of chips throughout the day, both Scott Blumstein (50,800) and Phil Hellmuth (25,400) coasted with roughly the same stack throughout the entirety until the end.

Not As Fortunate For Some

With many notables in the field, not all were fortunate to make a Day 3 birth, some of which included with nine-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel, 2018 runner-up finisher Tony Miles, along with two-time bracelet winners Brandon Adams and Nathan Gable.

Two-time bracelet winner David "ODB" Baker was also eliminated after he was set up holding a pair of ladies.

Another two-time bracelet winner, Shankar Pillai, was also eliminated brutally after his pocket queens were flushed out by four-time WSOP bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi's pocket jacks.

Day 3 Set

Today's survivors will combine with the 1,400 players that made it through yesterday's Day 2 for Day 3 tomorrow, Thursday, November 11, at 11 am local time.

When the action for Day 3 resumes with blinds starting at 1,200/2,400 with a big ante of 2,400, the prize pool information will be known already, and the money bubble is expected to burst early on Day 4.

The 6,650 players Main Event players created a $62,011,250 prize pool that will be paid out to the top 1,000 finishers, with a min-cash being worth $15,000.

Everyone that makes the final table will become a poker millionaire, while the eventual winner will walk away with an $8,000,000 first-place prize.

Here's a look at the final table payouts (click here to see a list of all payouts):

Play resumes at 11 a.m. on November 11th with fewer than 3,000 players remaining. You won't want to miss a single minute of the action, so stay tuned to PokerNews for continued live updates as the Main Event continues.

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Oscar Alache Leads the Little One for One Drop; Brian Rast in the Top Three

Day 1c of Event #68: $1,111 Little One for One Drop is done, and all three Day 1 flights are now completed. A total of 1,823 players registered for today’s event with 639 bagging up chips at the end of the night. This brings the total number registered in all three flights to 3,224, with 1,079 players returning for Day 2.

Oscar Alache finished Day 1c with the largest stack in the room; he ended the night with 518,800 chips. Other impressive stacks at the end of the night included Charles Lee (504,400), Thomas Eychenne (429,600), but perhaps the most notable player with a near chip lead is the five-time WSOP bracelet winner Brian Rast who bagged an impressive 459,500.

Other notable players progressing to Day 2 include four-time bracelet winner Asi Moshe, bracelet winners Scott Ball (302,600) and Kevin Song (206,500)

Day 2 commences on November 11 with the restart scheduled for 2:00 p.m. The remaining field will play ten hour-long levels, with 15-minute breaks after every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break after the sixth level. Play will resume with Level 11, and the blinds will be 1,000/2,000 and a 2,000 ante.

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Jermaine Reid Leads Host of Stars in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo

Following 14 levels of exciting action in Event #69: $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better, a litany of star power has advanced to Thursday’s Day 2.

Chip Jett (148,000), Shaun Deeb (143,000), Mike Watson (137,000), Matt Savage (126,000), Carol Fuchs (124,000), Ryan Leng (112,500), and Nathan Gamble (105,000) are just some of the names to bag big among the surviving 141 players from the original 372 entries.

While their stacks are impressive, a late charge placed Jermaine Reid of the Bronx, NY atop the leaderboard entering Day 2 with 208,500 chips. Reid is a mixed games player with three previous WSOP cashes to his name, most recently a 35th place finish in this year’s Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. for $3,942.

Reid and many others will enter Day 2 in a solid position to claim the ultimate reward of a WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $113,459, which will be awarded Friday, while Thursday will see the top 56 finishers make the money, earning at least a min-cash of $2,433.

Some in the field not fortunate enough to survive the day included Norman Chad, Benny Glaser, Jon Turner, and David Williams.

Plenty of Fun Had Throughout the Day

The mood in the room was boisterous and light throughout the day with one player commenting that he hadn’t ever seen so many beers consumed in a tournament before the actual end of night “beer level”.

Brandon Shack-Harris, who has been known to rock a polar bear costume in tournaments many times was joined by friends Eric Rodawig and Benny Glaser in bear costumes, but only Rodawig was fortunate enough to survive the day.

Schedule adjustments

As the tournament began at a delayed 4:00 pm starting time because of the WSOP Main Event, a level was shaved off the day, and Thursday’s restart has also been pushed back an hour to 3:00 pm local time, when the players will return to Level 15.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of this and every World Series of Poker event from the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

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