Play Adjourned For the Night

Play began today with more than 240 players still fighting through this big field, trying to make a push for the final table. At the end of nearly 13 more hours of play, that starting number has been reduced to just twenty-one. Those twenty-one players will take their seats once again tomorrow, having outlasted enough players to punch their tickets for Day 3.

The action began at a good clip, and we found our way to the money bubble within just a few minutes. It took just a few hands to find our bubble boy -- actually two bubble boys who will split the prize money for 216th place. With the floodgates now burst, the action progressed at a furious pace, and more than half of the field would be sent home before the dinner break.

Among those who snuck into the money were Allen Cunningham, Chris Ferguson, Dennis Phillips, Thor Hansen, Paul Wasicka, and Matt Keikoan. Within the next two hours or so, Alex Kravchenko, Alex Jacob, Devin Porter, Pat Poels, and Phil Hellmuth would also take that walk of shame, but not before stopping by the payout desk to pick up a couple thousand bucks. The dinner bell sounded with just over 100 players left.

Over the course of the long night, a few players began to really distance themselves from the field. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was ripping through the room for much of the evening, building a towering castle of chips when most were scrounging around on their last few big blinds. After a table change that put him on Roland de Wolfe's right though, ElkY was forced to slow down a bit, ending the night in the middle of the pack with 420,000 chips. Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby was also running strong for much of the evening, but a late tumble would send him out the door in 27th place. At the end of the night, it was Jonas Klausen who would claim the title of chip leader, stuffing 935,000 technicolor chips into the clear plastic bag. It's not a runaway by any means though, with players like Roland de Wolfe, James Taylor, James "mig.com" Mackey, and the aforementioned ElkY all in the hunt.

Since we didn't make it all the way down to the final nine, the action will resume at 1:00pm tomorrow. After a night of rest, the remaining players will come back then to play it out the rest of the way. By this time tomorrow, we expect to have just one man left standing with a whole lot of prize money and a new piece of jewelry.

Until then, goodnight from the Amazon Room.

2009 World Series of Poker

2009 World Series of Poker

Play Adjourned For the Night