Day 2 Begins with 98 Players in the Money!
After a full two starting flights have come to an end, there will be 98 players returning to the felt for Day 2 of the competition. Each one of them will be guaranteed a min-cash with just 12% of the field remaining in the $2,500 WinStar River Poker Series Main Event.
Joe Elpayaa will come into the day as the overall chipleader, amassing a whopping 768,000 chips after Day 1b. Elpayaa has had some impressive results at this tournament in the past and has accumulated over $1.5 million in tournament earnings over the course of his career. Life won't be easy for the American though, as many familiar faces still remain in the field and will be hunting down their place among the final 10.
Not far behind Elpayaa is another tournament grinder in Lou Garza, who stuffed 701,000 chips in his bag last night. Salvador Cervantes (633,000) will round out the top three heading into Day 2. Some other notables still in contention include Men "The Master" Nguyen (467,000), Wendy Freedman (341,000), Mike Wang (289,500), and Anthony Spinella (273,000).
The action will resume on level 17 with the blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a 1,000 ante. The blind levels will be increased to 60-minutes in length for the duration of the tournament. There will still be a 15-minute break after ever two levels and a 60-minute dinner break after the sixth level of the day.
A full list of payouts will be posted at the start of the day when the tournament staff makes it official. The schedule for today is to play down to the final table, at which point those players will bag up their chips. The final table will then resume on Tuesday and play down to a winner.
Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team as we bring you all of the live updates as the action unfolds.
and both players checked to the 
on the turn. Two more checks and the 
landed on the river. Cervantes and Elpayaa decided to check it down and all hands were tabled. Cervantes showed 
while Elpayaa had 
for two pair. Cho had nothing to put up a fight with 
and he was eliminated as Elpayaa dragged in both pots.
, the tournament supervisor was called over for a ruling. It seemed big blind Lou Garza had bet 50,000 and Paul Schwartz made it 100,000 on the button. Garza responded with an all-in shove and Schwartz had only put out 95,000. He flicked in another chip to complete his bet, and the dealer mistakenly announced a call, thinking that was a calling chip.
. The supervisor ruled action was finished and the river would be dealt. Garza vehemently disagreed with the ruling but a second supervisor was called, as Schwartz's 
was now face-up. The second TD agreed with the ruling. Garza pointed out his opponent should have to call the full amount of his stack to see the river, as he had announced all in and was now getting freerolled. The ruling stood, and luckily for Garza, the river was the 
so he won the pot anyway.
flopped to give Copp the nuts. The 
completed the board and Spinella had about 175,000 and was slightly covered so he headed for payouts.
on the turn gave Nguyen a flush draw and the 
on the river completed it for him.
into the muck.
and Banghart's ace-king held on to eliminate Elpayaa in 18th place.
for trips, but Green had hit a flush with 
.
. Fisher had an over with 
, Kramer Copp checked from early position. Mike Rogers announced all in for nearly 400,000 and Copp instantly called.
turn card but the 