Couden Leads the Final 27, Ankenman Looking For Second Eight-Game Bracelet
Day 2 of the $2,500 Eight-Game Mix tournament started with 209 players out of the 477 that signed up, and after ten levels of play only 27 remain. Tomorrow we're going to see a hard fought battle between these players, all of which are trailing Joseph Couden, who's currently leading the pack with 303,300.
The day started slow, though last year's winner John Monnette was amongst the first to bust out. The money was nowhere near and lots of poker still needed to be played.
Big name pro's that fell short of the money included Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Gavin Smith, Vitaly Lunkin and Daniel Negreanu. The eventual money bubble only lasted a couple of hands since Matt Glantz was crippled down to just 500 chips a few hands earlier. He was all in on his big blind, and couldn't beat 2011 $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo bracelet winner Francesco Barbaro who made a flush.
One of the players that was also close to busting out, Jerrod Ankenman, grinded himself through a tough stretch after which he went on a serious heater. Ankenman won this event back in 2009 and could be looking at another title as he will return back with 215,900 on the final day, and a very good shot at his second bracelet.
Ylon Schwartz, winner of Event #27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E., reached the money in this event for the second year in a row, but fell short of a second bracelet as he busted in 40th place for $5,599. In the money we also lost high profile players Chris Bjorin, Noah Schwartz, Bruno Fitoussi and John D'Agostino, but there was also good news, because an amazing 14 bracelet winners are still left in the field.
Barry Greenstein is going for number four while Rep Porter, Steve Zolotow, Jeff Madsen, Freddy Deeb, Greg Mueller and Jennifer Harman will all try to get their third. Matt Hawrilenko, Cory Zeidman, Konstantin Puchkov, Michael Chow, Steve Sung, Donnacha O'Dea, Chris Viox and Ankenman all have one bracelet and look to add another to their resumé.
Players will be coming back tomorrow at 2:00 PM local time, and the goal is to play down to a winner. It will be a long day, but PokerNews will be with you all throughout the final stages of this tournament.
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while Rasco made an eight-low with 
.
and Schwartz raked in this big pot. Idema claimed he had folded 
, but seeing a river card would've probably been impossible with these two hands clashing.
and Tollerene checked to Fitoussi who fired out 1,500. Idema raised, Tollerene folded and it was back on Fitoussi. He made it 4,500 after which he had only 1,100 left behind.
and the river the 
giving Fitoussi more than a double up.
