We didn't see how the money got in, but we could see that Jamil Wakil was the preflop shover after several raises, and Ben Mintz quickly called off his last ~800,000 to put himself at risk.
Showdown
Mintz:
Wakil:
Mintz turned his head away from the table, deciding to listen to the board cards rather than watch them. The flop was as safe as it gets, and the turn was a blank as well. Mintz was still looking down at the floor as the river card hit like a clap of thunder. It was the , the ugliest card in the deck for Mintz.
Wakil apologized for that river beat, but Mintz wouldn't let him. "Naw, man," he said kindly. "Don't apologize. I woulda gone with ace-queen against me too. You've been playing with me all day. Don't apologize." With that, he wished his table luck and stepped away toward the payout desk, where he let his emotions loosen up a bit. Mintz was visibly frustrated as he let out a few deep breaths and a few choice words about what had just happened.
His day is done in unfortunate fashion, and Wakil has vaulted all the way up to the 2 million mark with that knockout.
Brian Hastings raised to 28,000 in the cutoff and Matthew Smith re-raised to 67,000 in the small blind. Action folded back to Hastings who re-raised all in. Smith called for his remaining 423,000 with as Hastings revealed .
The was safe for Hastings, but the landed on the turn to put Smith ahead. The completed the board and secured the double for Smith.
Jamil Wakil opened to 30,000 in early position and Jim Harnden appeared to have called from the small blind, but put too many chips in and was forced to min-raise. Wakil four-bet to 126,000, but that didn't shake Harnden who called to see the flop.
Harnden fired 100,000, but was met a Wakil shove. With 259,000 behind, Harnden tanked for a good three minutes before emerging with a call.
"You're ahead," said Wakil as he turnd over .
Harnden showed and was in fact ahead, improving to Broadway when the hit the turn. The river secured his double up.
That's a wrap on this long Day 2 at the WSOPC Palm Beach Kennel Club.
From a starting field of 778, just 379 returned to the felt today including 33 who came in with a fresh 20bb stack at the start of play. Among them were Brandon Adams and Jonathan Tamayo, but both of those pros were sent packing within the first couple levels while the rest of the field hunkered down for the long haul. Brian "Stinger 88" Hastings came out to play too, and his Day 2 went a little better than the others'. It was quite the up-and-down day, but in the end, he bagged up a short stack to punch his ticket for Day 3.
In a field full of relative unknowns, one young man stuck out from the crowd. John Riordan won this event last year at just 19 years old, and he put on a clinic for the first half of this Day 2, holding the chip lead for several hours as the field whittled its way down toward the money. His run-good eventually ran thin, though, and his tumble down the chip counts culminated with a 34th-place exit and a warm round of applause from those who outlasted him.
Riordan will not be returning tomorrow, but 21 players will in the hopes of snagging a piece of Circuit gold. Among them are a few standouts including Hastings, Jeremy McLaughlin, Drazen Ilich, and David Stefanski.
The overnight big stack belongs to Roman Valerstein, though, and he's going to set the pace for tomorrow's run to the title with 2.155 million chips. He'll be joined by another 20 players, and they'll run it all the way down to the winner before it's all said and done. Action resumes at 12:00 noon from here at the Kennel Club, and we'll be back here to finish out the story, too.
Until then...here is the Day 3 table and seat draw:
flop was as safe as it gets, and the turn 
was a blank as well. Mintz was still looking down at the floor as the river card hit like a clap of thunder. It was the 
, the ugliest card in the deck for Mintz.
.
was safe for Hastings, but the 
completed the board and secured the double for Smith.
flop.
and was in fact ahead, improving to Broadway when the 
river secured his double up.
