Day 2 in the Books; Final Table Set!

Play began for Day 2 at noon today, and just less than seven hours later, our 30-player field has been trimmed down to the final nine. The pace was quick and steady at first, but things would gradually slow to a complete crawl as the bubble approached. Among those who made Day 2 but won't receive any consolation prize are Wilbur Futhey, Drazen Ilich, Eric Stiglets, Mark Eddleman, and Va Shon Watkins.

Coming into action, Jeff Banghart was our chip leader, and he held that post for much of the day. It was only in the last couple of levels that he was caught by John McDonald and Dennis Meierotto. One big misstep late in the day against Meierotto means that Banghart will start the final table in the middle of the pack. His 77,000 chips are only about two-thirds of what he started with today, but that's still plenty of ammunition to do some damage.

The story of the day was John McDonald. As he began to amass chips, he became more and more active in pots. As he became more and more active in pots, he continued to amass more and more chips. The result: McDonald will take a big chip lead into play tomorrow. He bagged up 525,000 chips, which gives him over a third of the chips in play. In fact, there are only two other players who will start the final table with more than 100,000. Here's the way things will shake out starting play tomorrow.

Final Table
Seat 1: John McDonald (525,000)
Seat 2: Dennis Meierotto (387,500)
Seat 3: Evan "MacDaddy34" Panesis (203,000)
Seat 4: Ari "BodogAri" Engel (92,000)
Seat 5: Joaquin Sosa (60,000)
Seat 6: Jeff Bryan (27,500)
Seat 7: Jeff Banghart (52,000)
Seat 8: Jesse Hale (77,000)
Seat 9: Jeff Daubs (34,500)

Our final table will commence at 2:00 Central Time tomorrow afternoon, rather than noon as previously scheduled. We hope you'll join us then as we crown our champion here at the WSOP Circuit Council Bluffs. Until then, goodnight once more from Iowa!