Maurizio Lo Russo raised from the cutoff before Jason Blodgett moved all in from the button for less. The rest of the players folded and Lo Russo snap called.
Jason Blodgett: 10♦10♣
Maurizio Lo Russo: A♥A♠
The full board ran out 5♠K♣9♠8♥9♦ and Blodgett hit the rail.
After losing a flip that left him short, Xing He got all of his chips in the middle and was called by Devesh Thapar to put He at risk for his tournament life.
The cards hit their backs.
Xing He: Q♥4♥
Devesh Thapar: A♣Q♣
The full board ran out A♦8♠7♦K♦J♦ and He was sent to the rail at the hands of Thapar.
After losing a massive flip, Jonathan Brazeau moved all in for his last big blind and was called in three spots. It checked to the river where George James put out a bet on the Q♥10♣2♣J♦9♥ board. It got folds. He showed the king high straight and Brazeau flashed five-three off suit before he mucked.
The 22 remaining players have made it through the last five hands of the night with no eliminations and are filling out their bags. They will return tomorrow at 11 a.m. local time for Day 3.
The players at Playground did not disappoint on Day 2 of Event #8: $1,700 No Limit Holdem Main Event at the World Series of Poker Circuit Playground. A total of 237 players returned to the felt to battle another 10 levels, and after the dust settled, just 22 remained. Some excellent players came and went, but at the end of the day, local pro Dustin Melanson bagged a massive chip lead heading into Day 3 with a stack of 8,255,000. He was aggressive and seemed to have a crazy intuition for finding spots to put his foot on the gas. He will be a force on Day 3. He is followed close behind by Hugo Morrissette with 5,885,000 in second place and Stephane Blouin-Verroeulst with 4,920,000 in third.
Some crushers were in the mix for the second day of the Main Event. WSOP bracelet winner and all-around nice guy, Chanracy Khun, was able to make it to the last four tables but was not able to secure the bag, 2022 WPT World Championship Winner Eliot Hudon was also in the mix but could not reclaim the glory, bracelet winner Mike Leah got within the top 100 but couldn’t hold on, and bracelet winner Xing He was able to make it to the three table redraw but would lose a big flip to get short and hit the rail soon after.
Chanracy Khun
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Dustin Melanson
Canada
8,255,000
83
2
Hugo Morrissette
Canada
5,885,000
59
3
Stephane Blouin-Verroeulst
Canada
4,920,000
49
4
Mohammad Feizi
Canada
4,410,000
44
5
Ran Yi
Canada
3,520,000
35
6
Robert Wong
Canada
3,345,000
33
7
George James
Canada
3,075,000
31
8
Wangchao Yuan
Canada
3,020,000
30
9
Joey Messina
Canada
3,005,000
30
10
Michael Porkolab
Canada
2,915,000
29
Nghi Van Tran
The Main Event had a guaranteed prize pool of $1,500,000, but the total prize pool exceeded expectations and reached $2,490,000. Currently, all the remaining players have locked up $9,200, but they will come back to a pay jump at 21 that would earn them an extra $1,100. Those payouts are not the ones on everyone's mind, though. They will all have their eye on the massive top prize of $375,000. The biggest career score for almost every player in the field should they make it to the top of the mountain.
Stephane Blouin-Verroeulst
Melanson is currently the player to catch, but it is still anyone's game. There are multiple players that are one double away from the chip lead. Play will resume at 11 a.m. local time on Monday morning with the players returning to 50,000/100,000/100,000 blinds.
22 will enter but only one will survive. Stay tuned to Pokernews for updates on this and many other events happening worldwide.
