2012 World Series of Poker

Event 31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 2
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qj
Prize
$664,130
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$3,794,850
Entries
2,811
Level Info
Level
32
Blinds
80,000 / 16,000
Ante
20,000

Joe Cada Leads The Way as 19 Remain

Level 20 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante
Joe Cada Leading The Way
Joe Cada Leading The Way

Less than 48 hours ago, 2,811 different people took their seats in various rooms at the Rio with the dream of being the next World Series of Poker champion. Now, after two days and 21 grueling levels of play, only 19 remain. Leading the field is none other than 2009 Main Event champion Joe Cada who is holding on to a stack of 1,869,000.

Today's play saw 331 runners return to the felt and 297 of those made the money. Among those to grab on to a cash and bust before play ended today are Eric Baldwin, Lauren Kling, Nick Binger, Mohsin Charania, Angel Guillen, Ted Forrest, Erika Moutinho, James Akenhead, Soi Nguyen, and PokerNews' own Chad Holloway.

For those unfamiliar with chip leader Joe Cada, back in 2009 he bested a field of 6,494 players and defeated Darvin Moon heads up to win $8,547,042 in prize money at the 2009 WSOP Main Event. This event is Cada's second cash at the 2012 WSOP with his first of the year coming in Event #14: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout.

No Main Event champion since Carlos Mortensen in 2001 has been able to win a second WSOP bracelet to go along with their Main Event title. If Cada can best the remaining players tomorrow he will become the first Main Event winner of the past decade to put a second bracelet on his wrist.

Hot on Cada's heels is Michael Aron with 1,745,000. Rounding out the top three is Valentyn Shabelnyk who is sitting on 1,391,000 in chips.

Other notable names among the final 19 that are returning tomorrow are Day 1 chip leader Cherish Andrews (1,383,000), Carter Phillips (586,000), Jonathan Poche (491,000), JC Tran (339,000), Dwyte Pilgrim (293,000).

Play will resume at 1:00 PM tomorrow in the Amazon Room where the final 19 players will battle on the felt for the next WSOP gold bracelet and $664,130 in first place money. Join us as we provide all of the latest updates from the tournament floor!

Tags: Joe Cada

"We Have a New Chip Leader!"

Joe Cada
Joe Cada

...yelled Joe Cada's rail.

A monster pot in the last three hands of the evening has propelled Cada to the top of the counts.

From the small blind, Manig Loeser raised 30,000 and Joe Cada re-popped it to 77,000 from the big blind. Loeser four-bet to 177,000, but Cada had other ideas. He five-bet jammed with the bigger stack.

Loeser called all in immediately for about 750,000 with {K-Clubs}{K-Hearts} and held a big lead on Cada's {A-Clubs}{K-Spades}. However, the board rolled out {A-Spades}{8-Hearts}{3-Clubs}{5-Diamonds}{5-Spades} as Cada spiked the ace on the flop to not only eliminate Loeser, but take the chip lead in the process.

Player Chips Progress
Joe Cada us
Joe Cada
1,869,000 969,000
Manig Loeser de
Manig Loeser
WSOP 2X Winner
Busted

Tags: Joe CadaManig Loeser

Andrews Jumps to Second; Busts One

Cherish Andrews In the Millionaire Club
Cherish Andrews In the Millionaire Club

We found Cherish Andrews looking down at a board of {6-Hearts}{Q-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}{3-Clubs}{5-Diamonds}. With over 400,000 in the pot, Andrews announced that she was all in for her remaining 470,000. Her opponent pondered for over a minute before announcing a call.

Andrews showed {A-Clubs}{A-Diamonds}.

"They're good," announced her opponent as he threw away his hand. The mass of chips in the middle of the table were pushed to Andrews and as she had her opponent covered, she was able to effectively reduce the field by one.

Player Chips Progress
Cherish Andrews us
Cherish Andrews
1,335,000 595,000

Tags: Cherish Andrews

The Big Lehmanski

Maxi Lehmanski, Our New Chip Leader
Maxi Lehmanski, Our New Chip Leader

We caught the remnants of a giant preflop all in pot. With well over 600,000 in the middle, Maximilian Lehmanski was holding {J-Clubs}{J-Diamonds} against John Dull's {A-Diamonds}{K-Spades}.

The flop came down {8-Spades}{6-Clubs}{9-Diamonds} and Lehmanski was still in the lead. At this point railbirds came flocking to look down at all of the commotion. The turnw as the {2-Clubs} and Lehmanski was one card away from skyrocketing into the chip lead and sending Dull home.

The {8-Hearts} rivered and just like that Dull's hopes of a huge double up were crushed and Lehmanski became the man on top.

Player Chips Progress
Maximilian Lehmanski de
Maximilian Lehmanski
1,230,000 520,000
John Dull us
John Dull
Busted

Tags: Maximilian LehmanskiJohn Dull

Phillips Rakes Massive Pot

Carter Phillips
Carter Phillips

We caught up to the action to see 120,000 being pushed into the middle each from both Carter Phillips and JC Tran. Thomas Miller opted to get out of the way, only committing about 60,000 on the flop. The board read {7-Clubs}{8-Diamonds}{6-Spades} and Phillips and Tran both saw a turn of {5-Diamonds}.

Phillips wasted no time putting a bet of 145,000 in the middle and JC Tran went into the tank for over five minutes. The clock was called on him and about thirty seconds into his time bank Tran meekly moved his cards into the muck.

The huge pot was pushed the way of Carter Phillips who is sitting on about 660,000.

Player Chips Progress
Carter Phillips us
Carter Phillips
WSOP 2X Winner
660,000 228,000
JC Tran us
JC Tran
290,000 -400,000