Chen Leads Final Thirteen After Raucous Day 2 of the PPO Main Event
Day 2 of the $3,300 Main Event has ended after 11 hours of play saw a field of 89 reduced to 13 by the conclusion of play.
Jimmy Chen was the player atop the chip counts at the end of the day as he finished with a large stack of 3,600,000. Chen Started to build chips early in the day and amassed himself a stack nearing one million towards the middle of the day. His biggest boon in chips came when he called the preflop all in shove from start of day chip leader Dylan Lask, with ace-king against ace-queen. The board would run out safe for his hand as he dramatically eliminated Lask, which surged his stack above 2 million. He would not look back from there as he won some more decent pots as play became short-handed to build a substantial chip lead.
2nd in chips was Farid Jattin who spent much of the day as the chip leader after he won several big pots early to shoot his stack to the top within the first couple of levels of Day 2. He would maintain his huge stack throughout the day, with a mild downward slide in the final level before finishing the day.
Jonathan Gilliam finished the day with 1,800,000 after he flew under the radar much of the day before winning a big all in flip to take chips from Jattin. Ian O’Hara and Phil Vera rounded out the top five in chips, each with 1,435,000.
The day began with 89 players and the eliminations came quick to start, perhaps faster than anticipated. The money bubble was reached just before dinner break and was breached shortly after dinner when Chen eliminated a player to assure the remaining 36 were in the money.
Several players fell short in their attempt to make the final day, including defending champion Carlos Villamarin who was eliminated before the money was reached. Christian Harder (30th) , Brock Parker (27th) and PPO Opening Event Champion Laura Moore (15th) were among the notable players eliminated in the money.
The 13 players remaining will return to play Day 3 at 2 p.m. local time and will play down to winner. PokerNews will be there to provide the in depth coverage of the final day of the Potomac Poker Open
. Phil Vera made a bet of 200,000 and Kevin Kwak called. The river came the 
. Vera bet 250,000.
and Kwak angrily flung his 
while Jattin held the 
.
but Esterling had outs to a flush. The turn was the 
and the river the 
and Esterling's run was over.
. 
to give him a commanding lead. 
.
to pair his queen.
and the river the 
and Chen had the lead with the 
. The turn gave him the nut flush as the 
and Gregg was eliminated after a turbulent day that never saw him get anything going after beginning the day high in chips.