Day 2 Concludes
Day 2 of Event No. 38, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship began with 122 of the original field of 268 returning to stacks. Tom Marchese returned as the overwhelming chip leader, and he'd maintain that lead for the first part of the day. Others would rise to challenge Marchese, though, including Clement Thumy who toward the latter part of play pushed out to a sizable lead.
Meanwhile the parade of players heading to the rail included the likes of Andy Bloch, Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Devilfish Ulliott, Carlos Mortensen, and Huck Seed. As the money bubble approached, we also lost John Duthie, Eric Baldwin, Burt Boutin, and Nam Le among others.
Finally just before the night concluded, Jason Lester was ousted in 29th followed by Ilya Bulychev in 28th, and the bubble had burst. Mike "the Mouth" Matusow was the first and only to cash tonight, finishing 27th.
Among the 26 returning tomorrow will be Marco Traniello, Noah Boeken, Sandra Naujoks, and Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler (all returning to below average stacks). Vitaly Lunkin, Amnon Filippi, Amit Makhija, and Dani Stern will be returning, too.
At the top of the counts when play begins tomorrow will be Marchese (in fourth) and Sam Stein (in third) -- two players who happened to make it to heads up in the NAPT Venetian Main Event last February. In second is the Frenchman Thumy, and in the lead is Peter Jetten.
Come back tomorrow at 3 p.m. local time to see who of the remaining 26 takes away the $617,214 first prize and the coveted WSOP bracelet!