Veldhuis and Kade Join Chip Leader Smiljkovic on Day 2 of WCOOP 34-M
Day 2 of WCOOP 34-M: $2,100 NLHE [8-Max] is about to get underway with 79 players returning from the Day 1 starting field of 614 entries. That meant they blew past the $1 million guarantee with $1.228 million in total prizes.
The final 79 players reconvene today, but they won't finish the game. Day 2 is scheduled to end when the final table of nine players is set, so there's at least a few hours of poker on the horizon to get there.
Players come back to action in Level 22 with blinds at 15,000/30,000/3,750. Levels change every 25 minutes through the day, and all returning players are guaranteed at least a bit of cash back for their efforts as Day 1 ended when the money burst.
The $1,228,000 prize pool meant there's $214,339 up top for the win. The first 23 players out today will get a min-cash of $4,368, but players who survive till the end of Day 2 will all be guaranteed a final table cash of at least $19,306.
Leading the way into Day 2 and the money is Daniel "SmilleThHero" Smiljkovic. He bagged 2,768,887 chips at the end of Day 1, more than 200,000 more than 2nd place "3DTemujin". Among the other big stacks going into Day 2 are Jerry "Perrymejsen" Odeen, Jordan "bigbluffzinc" Drummond, and Paulius "D3cor" Vaitiekunas.
There are a few other prominent players who are still sitting on a stack of chips in the money in Day 2. PokerStars streamer extraordinaire Lex "L. Velhuis" Veldhuis bagged a 14th place stack worth 1,547,390, while recent winner of the Sunday Million Anniversary game Vanessa "Niffller" Kade bagged a small stack of 40,615 to end the day. Newly minted PokerStars ambassador Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle also bagged a small stack for Day 2, ending Day 1 with 109,534, good for 75th place.
Action for Day 2 gets underway at 13:05 ET, and will continue until only nine players have chips left. PokerNews will be on the virtual floor all day for this event, as well as WCOOP-34-H: $25,000 NLHE [8-Max, Super High Roller]. Get the full schedule for coverage at our PokerStars WCOOP 2021 hub to plan what games you are going to follow with us.