Vaitiekunas Bags Chip Lead Over Final Six in the WSOP Global Casino Championship
Day 2 of the WSOP Global Casino Championship was a day full of action that saw 53 players reduced all the way down to a final 6 after 14 hours of play.
Leading the way was Paulius Vaitiekunas who bagged 2,250,000. His stack was greatly boosted toward the end of the night when his queens gutted kings on the turn in a big preflop all in. Nipping at his heels at the end of the night was Ryan Eriquezzo with 1,900,000 in chips who gained much of his chips with the final elimination of the night.
Joshua Turner finished as the middling stack with 1,335,000. He had the chip lead to start the day and stayed steady throughout at the top of the chip counts. Maurice Hawkins (865,000), Eric Salazar (750,000) and Adam Cedric (585,000) were the remaining three players to end the night with chips.
2018/19 WSOP Global Casino Championship Main Event Seating Final Six
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paulius Vaitiekunas | Lithuania | 2,250,000 | 75 |
| 2 | Ryan Eriquezzo | United States | 1,900,000 | 63 |
| 3 | Adam Cedric | United States | 585,000 | 20 |
| 4 | Eric Salazar | United States | 750,000 | 25 |
| 5 | Joshua Turner | United States | 1,335,000 | 45 |
| 6 | Maurice Hawkins | United States | 865,000 | 29 |
Action of the Day
On a full day of poker action, many players were eliminated prior to the money including Sean Yu, Tobias Peters and Valentin Vornicu.
The last player to be eliminated before the money was Roland Israelashvili who dramatically had his aces cracked by a straight on river to make him the bubble boy.
The action would continue until 16 were left at the dinner break and all the way through until the field was reduced to one table of players after a few levels when Stephen Song, who was one of the larger stacks in the room all day, finished his rapid descent in the chip counts when he was eliminated in 10th place.
Play came to a grinding halt when the nine players remaining converged into one table, as there were a full two levels of some of the slowest play likely to be seen in NLH tournament poker with very few big pots or much significant action and no eliminations.
Eventually in the third level of nine-handed action, a big hand occurred when Hawkins had top full house against the second boat of Vaitiekunas to score a huge pot. Not long afterwards, Josh Reichard was eliminated in 9th place to become the first casualty in over three hours. Jarod Mighini was the next to go as the queens of Vaitiekunas gutted his kings when a third lady hit the turn. The night ended when Jordan Piva was eliminated in 7th place.
Due to the late finish on Day2, Day 3 will be pushed back to a 2 p.m. local time restart. 32 minutes remain in level 22 with at 15,000/30,000 and a 30,000 big blind ante. PokerNews will be on hand to witness the events and report on all the action as the final six play down to a champion.
left Eriquezzo in the lead and Piva was left drawing slim. The 
on the turn and the 
on the river changed nothing which sent Piva home in seventh place.
against the 
of Vaitiekunas. The flop was a mundane 
but the 
on the turn changed everything and suddenly had Minghini's tournament on life support, which the 
on the river could not save. The chips were counted to make sure Minghini was covered and he was abruptly taken out in 8th place.
of Ryan Eriquezzo. The flop came down 
the turn stayed safe as it came 
but the river spelled the end for Reichard when an 
didn't help matters. The 
on the river and the unofficial final table was formed.
as the board was swept away by the dealer and McEvoy walked away in 11th place.
which didn't look promising for Sokoloff. The turn was the 
and the river was the 
and Muzzio's run ended in 13th place.
for a set of sevens while Cedric held 
to give Cedric the nut flush and eliminate Marder from the tournament.
and Ryan was eliminated in 15th Place.
