John McDonald is having himself a productive Day 2 so far. He started play with about 36,000, but he's already turned that into more than 90,000 here in the first two levels.
His most recent chip-up came at the expense of his neighbor, Benjamin Jacobs. Jacobs only had about 15,000 when he got his money in with . McDonald was racing for the knockout with .
The board: .
Jacobs had a flush sweat on the turn, but the blank on the river has seen his chips absorbed into McDonald's stack.
Uncle Tim McRenolds' winner's photo (courtesy of WSOP.com)
Tim McReynolds — you might know him as "Uncle Tim" — is an attorney from nearby Omaha. And based on the conversations we've been hearing around the tables this morning, he's quite a decent poker player and an all-around likable guy to boot.
In August 2009, a liver transplant saved Uncle Tim's life, and the positive turn in his health led to some poker success, as well.
Just six months after his surgery, McReynolds sat down at a $500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament here in Council Bluffs. It was his first time playing the five-game mix, but the opposition was no match for him. In a commanding performance, he bested the field of 36 runners to take the top prize. In the follow-up interview, he credited his transplant surgery for restoring his health and mental acuity.
We understand that McReynolds is in the hospital this morning, and it's become clear that he's on the minds of a lot of the local players. So from all of them, and all of us here at PokerNews, we send our best wishes to Uncle Tim for a speedy stay in the hospital and a quick return to the felt.
We found Matt Chang in the small blind checking to the big blind on a flop of . The big blind checked behind and the fell on the turn. Chang fired out 2,200 and the big blind called. The river brought the and both players checked.
Chang turned up pocket deuces and his opponent tabled to take the small pot.
Chris Bell opened the action with a raise to 2,600, A.P. Phahurat called behind and the big blind decided to play as well. The flop came , the big blind checked, Bell checked and Phahurat 3,500. The big blind called and Bell got out of the way.
The turn came , the big blind checked and Phahurat bet again - 5,300. The big blind called to see the come on the river and checked a third time. Phahurat but out a tall stack of big chips - enough to put the big blind all in.
The big blind put in his stack and tabled but Phahurat gave him bad news and his walking papers when turned over .
One of our Day 2 newcomers is Anthony Yeh. You might not know his name (yet), but he's a former member of our PokerNews family. Since graduating to the felt two years ago, he's earned more than $125,000 in live winnings — including a ninth-place showing in the WPT Five Diamond last December.
Yeh, like the other fresh starters, begins with 20,000 chips and 20 big blinds.
Registration was open until the start of play today, and it looks like we've picked up another 10 fresh faces for our Day 2. That's an unofficial number for the moment, but we do have a tentative field size of 290 players for this Main Event.
On one of the first hands of the day, David Zeitlin was eliminated by his next-door neighbor, Mark Eddleman. That's all the details we have about it, but it does move Eddleman up to around 90,000 and into the mix of the big stacks here early on.
. McDonald was racing for the knockout with 
.
.
and Darland picked up a few chips while earning the knockout.
fell on the turn. Chang fired out 2,200 and the big blind called. The river brought the 
and both players checked.
, the big blind checked, Bell checked and Phahurat 3,500. The big blind called and Bell got out of the way.
, the big blind checked and Phahurat bet again - 5,300. The big blind called to see the 
but Phahurat gave him bad news and his walking papers when turned over 
.
