Day 2 Concludes, Matusow Talks Himself into the Lead
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow stole the show on Day 2 of the Tournament of Champions, building a stack high enough to rival the volume of his chatter. He finished in the lead with 85,500, followed by Huck Seed and Johnny Chan. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier will return with the most work to do, as he's down to 21,400. Antoinio Esfandiari is also in critical condition.
After an hour, the 22 players who returned for Day 2 of the Tournament of Champions had whittled themselves down to 18. But they only got rid of one more player in the next three levels. Doyle Brunson was the first to make his exit, followed soon after by reigning Main Event Champion Joe Cada, Internet qualifier Andrew Barton, and "poker's greatest ambassador" Mike Sexton. Once they redrew to the two ESPN feature stages, action slowed down...waaaay down. Dan Harrington was the only unlucky soul to find himself down and out without a chance at the freeroll cash.
Since 17 players survived Day 2, tournament staff had to do some quick rescheduling. They were supposed to return on July 4th already down to nine players, but with 17 left, they decided to resume on Saturday, July 3rd at 7 p.m. to play to a final table. However, if one of the remaining players is still alive in the $25k Six Max event or in Ante Up for Africa, they'll scrap that plan and return at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Join us Saturday night right here at PokerNews for Day 3 coverage of the Tournament of Champions!