Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 2a Started
Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 2a Started
A total of 2,412 players survived Days 1a and 1c, and that has earned them a reserved seat in the room today. It's Friday, and it's Day 2a of the Main Event, the first of two moving days. Everyone has picked their way through the pitfalls and perils of the opening day, and now it's time to to some work and accumulate some chips and put oneself in a position for Day 3 and a deeper run thereafter.
Corwin Cole is the leader of our field today, and in fact, the leader of both Day 2s. He's one of only two players to crest the 200,000-chip mark, and he's the only one in the room today. Cole's stack of 228,200 puts him well out in front of his nearest challenger, but there are plenty of sharks circling the waters below him. Double Main Event champion Johnny Chan is in fourth place to start the day, and he's trying to work his 163,700 chips toward another deep run in the 2010 edition. The $50,000 Players' Champion, Michael Mizrachi also has chips -- 142,650 of them to be exact. Lauren Kling, Barny Boatman, Carter Phillips, and Hoyt Corkins are also right up there near the top of the pack as their Day 2 begins.
On the flip side, a few notables have some work to do in the early going. Noah Schwartz survived Day 1 with less than 3,000 chips, and Ted Forrest, Thomas Bichon, and Steve Brecher aren't doing much better. They'll be on death watch right off the bat, and we'd expect to see a lot of the short stacks flying out of here within a few minutes of the starting gun.
Speaking of play starting, we're just about twenty minutes away from our date with Day 2a. The players are stacking up outside in the corridors, and soon the double-door floodgates will open and nearly 2,500 players will come streaming into the two tournament rooms.
Don't wander off. We'll be back when the cards go flying.
Level: 5
Blinds: 200/400
Ante: 50
Tournament Director Jack Effel's opening remarks were quick today, punctuated by him wishing the players luck and telling them he hopes to see them at the end of Day 2. That won't be a reality for more than a third of these players before us.
Regardless, the cards are in the air, and Day 2a is under way. We'll play four total levels today, so that means we'll open with the first half of Level 5 and conclude halfway through Level 9.
Dennis Phillips was all in preflop for 9,225 with against the of a player in middle position.
The flop came , propelling Phillips into the lead. The on the turn changed nothing and neither did the on the river. Phillips got off to a quick start here on Day 2a with an early double up to 19,000.
"All in and a call, Table 303!"
"All in and a call, Table 278!"
"Three-way all in, Table 289!"
The dealer announcements are coming fast and furious here in the early going -- several times per minute just in the Blue section alone.
"All in and a call, Table 285!"
"Seat open, Table 285!"
No shortage of poker commentators over here in the Red section today.
Mike Sexton is here, currently nursing a short-stack of 11,500. And just two tables over is his World Poker Tour co-host, Vince Van Patten. Van Patten is sitting with an above-average stack of 74,000 at the moment. And across the way we see Gabe Kaplan, host of High Stakes Poker, who like Sexton is on the short side with just 13,000.
All three have been quiet thus far -- both literally and with their play -- although we imagine Sexton and Kaplan may try to make some noise soon.
Martin Berggren raised to 1,200 from under the gun and then action folded to Scott Vener in middle position. He moved all in for about 12,000 and David Arnold reraised all in from the next spot for about 40,000. Justin Conley was in the next seat and called all in for 11,000 before everyone else including Berggren folded.
Vener held the but was dominated by Conley's . Arnold had the most chips and dominated the both of them with the .
The board ran out and Arnold earned the double elimination en route to about 70,000 chips.
Brant Taylor opened from early position and got called by Richard Barton and Luca Pagano in the blinds. Barton checked the flop to Pagano, who bet 1,200. Taylor moved all-in from early position, Barton folded and Pagano made the call.
Taylor
Pagano
Taylor made top pair when the hit the turn and the on the river counterfeited Pagano's two pair. Taylor raked in the pot, taking his chip count up to 18,300 while Pagano slipped to 21,000.
Leonard Nicoletta found himself all in on a flop against Ford Eric.
Nicoletta:
Eric:
With Nicoletta in great shape to double, he would amazingly see the roll out on the turn, followed by the on the river to see the pot chopped up.
Great start to his day two of the Main Event!