Meshcheriakov Leads Final 14; Stout & van der Fluit in Contention
On Sunday, the 2012 World Series of Poker kicked off Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with 2,795 players. That field was reduced down to just 231 players in 11 levels of play, all of who returned to action on Day 2. After another ten levels of play, just 14 players remained with Russia’s Vitaly Meshcheriakov and his stack of 946,000 best positioned to capture the $440,238 first-place prize.
The day started off with a bang as the eliminations came at a brisk pace. Within for levels, the field was down to under 95 players, which meant more than 100 had hit the rail. Among the list of casualties was Andy Frankenberger, who is currently in contention for WSOP Player of the Year honors. In what would be his last hand, Andy Frankenberger bet 3,500 from the big blind on a board reading 
only to have Ryan "Protential" Laplante raise to 7,900 from the cutoff. Frankenberger thought for a long time before moving all in for around 40,000, and was snap-called by Laplante.
Showdown
Frankenberger: 
Laplante: 
Frankenberger shot out of his seat when he discovered his opponent had flopped the nuts, meaning he needed a six just to chop. The 
turn was not it and neither was the 
river. With that, Laplante chipped up to over 100K while Frankenberger was eliminated from the tournament in 165th place.
Likewise, it was a rough day for Brad Libson, who began as the chip leader but experienced a tumultuous three levels that result in an early elimination. We’re not sure where all his chips went, though a large chunk was sent over to fellow pro Matt Stout. On the very next hand after that, Libson was involved in a three-way all-in preflop with 
against 
and 
.
The 
board improved Libson's hand but gave another player the winning set. Libson was sent off to the cashier in 111th place to collect $2,767.
Some other players who failed to survive the day were Martins Adeniya (215th-$2,012), Anton Makiievskyi (176th-$2,214), Erik Seidel (153rd-$2,465), Humberto Brenes (148th-$2,465), Daniel Idema (134th-$2,767), Amanda Baker (79th-$4,176), Thiago Nishijima (61st-$5,786), Tim Duckworth (47th-$6,918) and Faraz Jaka (34th-$10,213).
While 217 players hit the rail, a few notables managed to navigate the minefield and are still in contention for the bracelet. They include the seasoned Stout (462,000); recent WSOP bracelet winner Vincent van der Fluit (301,000); and young guns Laplante (272,000), Justin Zaki (283,000) and Dylan Hortin (939,000), just to name a few.
The remaining 14 players will return on Tuesday at 2 PM PST to play down to a winner. Join us then as we capture all the action and eliminations on our way to crowning the next WSOP champion.