Monnette Leads the Pack, Looking for Second Bracelet of 2012

Day 2 of Event 32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. is in the books, and after ten levels of play, John Monnette is our chip leader with 825,000 chips. We started the day with 136 of the 178 original entrants, and broke the money bubble in Level 17, eleven hours into the day. Eric Wasserson was the bubble boy – he had dwindled all the way down to 12,000 chips, and Phil Ivey busted him in a stud hand. Ivey started the hand with split eights, and caught a third eight on fourth street. Wasserson could only make a pair of jacks, and was eliminated.

Wasserson’s elimination on the bubble must’ve been painful, but over a hundred players busted before we reached the money, including Jason Mercier, Allen Bari, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Robert Mizrachi, Alexander Kuzmin, Michael Binger, Shaun Deeb, Mike Sexton, and Michael Chow.

Joining Monnette at the top of the counts are David Bach (645,000), David “Bakes” Baker (574,000), Phil Hellmuth (571,000), and Brandon Shack-Harris (500,000). Bach, who won the 2009 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship, crossed the half-million chip mark before dinner, and was flirting with the 600K mark for the rest of the night. He won a massive pot off of Daniel Negreanu during Level 11, where both players made a flush and a low. Bach had an ace-high flush and a seventy-five low however, both of which bested Negreanu, and he scooped the pot.

There are two 2012 WSOP bracelet winners looked to become multiple-bracelet winners. Monnette and Hellmuth – who both won non-hold’em events at the 2012 WSOP – are headed to Day 3 try and capture another bracelet. Monnette and Hellmuth are also third and ninth respectively in the WSOP Player of the Year race.

Day 3 will begin at 2 p.m. local time, and the plan is to play until we have a winner. Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for all of your up-to-the-minute updates from the 2012 World Series of Poker.

Good night from Vegas!

Tags: John Monnette