Welcome back to day 2 of Event 46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Yesterday saw 1,607 players come out for their chance at poker glory, only 233 players remain. Play is set to resume at 1:00 PM and the money bubble is expected to burst pretty early on today. With only 171 people making the money 62 people will be leaving here today with nothing.
Among the players returning are Shankar Pillai, Vanessa Selbst, Martin Staszko, Rene Angelil, Pius Heinz, Isaac Baron, Chris Moorman, and Marvin Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier played this event last year and finished that day one with the chip lead. This years chip leader coming into day 2 is Ryan D'Angelo.
Yesterday the field played 11 levels, today though we will only be playing 10 or stop play if we manage to get down to 9 players.
Stay tuned here at PokerNews for all the live updates.
The under the gun player started off this most recent hand by putting out an innocent 4,000 bet. Gordon Vayo was next to act and he moved all in for 12,300. The table folded around to Rene Angelil in the small blind who took a few moments to ponder his course of action. Eventually Angelil decided pushing out a giant 30,000 stack of yellows was the right thing to do. Hunter Frey in the big blind then went deep into the tank. After a minute or so drained off the clock he reemerged and announced "all in" for about 49,000 more. The under the gun player folded, and Angelil quickly made the call.
Cards were tabled and it looked as though we would have two eliminations, not just one.
Angelil:
Frey:
Vayo:
Vayo was in dead last and needed to desperately grab hold of an eight or he would be today's bubbleboy. Frey possessed considerable more chips than Vayo and would walk away with 171st place's money if they were both knocked out.
The flop came allowing Angelil to maintain his strong lead. The on the turn gave Angelil top set, but it also opened Frey's outs; any 10 now could put the hand in Frey's favor.
Indeed the did fall on the river giving Frey the broadway straight. Vayo was eliminated when his pair of eights couldn't even come close to competing with the other two's cards. Angelil took a big hit, but still sits with over 100,000.
[user169505]
Philipp Gruissem with trip nines to eliminate Gaspard
Philipp Gruissem is one of Germany's finest exports. Last year he broke his World Series of Poker (WSOP) cash duck when he finished in 28th place in the Main Event for $242,636. But it is the European High Roller events that Gruissem is well known for, earning an impressive $2 million in live tournament winnings, mainly in those type of events. Here he is moving over the 200k mark and eliminating Jean Gaspard in the process.
We caught the action on a flop of with Gaspard in the small blind, Gruissem in position and Gaspard check-calling a very quick 22,000 bet. The turn card was the and this time Gaspard led for 21,500 and Gruissem made the call. Fifth street was and Gaspard moved all-in, an action that was snap-called by Gruissem. The German turned over for trips and Gaspard showed before taking his leave of absence. Gruissem now has 220,000.
It was not that long ago that we were reporting Hayden Fortini with 188,000 chips. Then we see his name in the list of eliminations and assume that it must me a Jedi mind trick. We saunter over to his table and not only is Fortini missing, but so is D'Angelo.
Wait!
There's D'Angelo, hidden behind the biggest stack of the chips, this side of the Amazon Room! The players at the table filled in the pieces of the Hayden Fortini elimination jigsaw for us.
Kenny Hallaert opened under the gun, Fortini three-bet from the button, D'Angelo four-bet from the small blind, Hallaert folded, Fortini five-bet, D'Angelo jammed and Fortini called.
D'Angelo
Fortini
No ace or queen and Fortini was out. D'Angelo has 440,000 chips.
[user169505]
Mike McDonald is in a whole lot of trouble
With ninety-five players remaining we realise that there is a long way to go, but Jeremy Quehen has just given himself a great chance to extend his deep run. As always, with any success story there is somebody who would rather things took a different course, and this time that man is Mike 'Timex' McDonald.
We caught the action on the flop and the pot was already enormous. It was heads-up, with Timex in the blinds, and he checked to Quehen when he saw the flop. Quehen pushed 40,500 towards McDonald and the pair stared directly into each other's eyes until Timex announced all-in - so softly - the dealer had to ask him twice. Quehen called and it was bad news.
Quehen
McDonald
The and sent McDonald's eyes to the roof of the Amazon room and the majority of his chips over to Quehen. McDonald was left with 30,000 and we believe Quehen has around 350,000 (his stack was still dirty when we left).
A player from early position started this wild hand off by raising it up to 6,500. The table folded around to Ryan D'Angelo on the button who made it 14,000. Pascal LeFrancois was up next and he four-bet to 29,500. The early position player got out of the way and we were back to D'Angelo who took a few moments before announcing "all in", he was quickly called by LeFrancois. D'Angelo was the one with more chips, so it was LeFrancois who was at risk.
D'Angelo:
LeFrancois:
D'Angelo was in bad shape and looked like this hand would take the chip lead away from him, but anything can happen.
The flop came and D'Angelo was still well behind. The on the turn and the on the river were of no help, and D'Angelo shipped over large portion of his stack to the ever resourceful LeFrancois.
There are seventy-eight players left with forty-minutes to go before the dinner break and here is a news update for you.
The big success story of the level has been William Reynolds. Reynolds has over $1.5 million in live tournament earnings and has so far cashed in 3 events this Summer. Reynolds is currently sitting on a stack of 500,000.
Another shaker during the previous few levels is our World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion. Pius Heinz is sitting on 300,000 chips despite just doubling-up Joseph Gualtieri v .
We reported earlier how James Akenhead had doubled Alessandro Speranza, well Akenhead is now out. He got it in with v of Daichi Oda and Oda's hand stayed strong. Joining Akenhead on the rail is our two-time WSOP bracelet holder Steve Zolotow. We didn't see how the action unfurled but we do know that Zolotow held and Steve Schwann held to eliminate him.
Finally, Fernando Brito has doubled up to 108,000 after winning a flip v .
Firstly, the elimination and we have lost the dangerous German player Philipp Gruissem. We joined the action on the turn with the board showing and Gruissem had moved all-in for 37,000. His opponent, in the hand, was Bobby Moore and while he was in the tank Gruissem started talking to him. We are not sure if this pushed Moore to call, but he did, and Gruissem did not want a call.
"I have my favourite hand, but it's no good on that board," said Gruissem before tabling .
Moore turned over for second pair and after the came on the river he moved up to 200,000; Gruissem was out.
The triple up came courtesy of Vanessa Selbst and the benefactor was Gil Morgensztern. Selbst was holding , Morgensztern was holding and a third player in the hand had folded under an isolation raise by Selbst. The board ran out , Morgensztern moved up to 65,000 and Selbst now had 270,000.
Michael Gagliano has just become the latest player to hold the number one spot. He has just eliminated the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder Shankar Pillai. We missed the detail of the raising war but believe Gagliano raised, Pillai three-bet, Gagliano put him all-in and Pillai called.
Gagliano
Pillai
Board:
Gagliano fades most of the deck on the turn and moves up to 780,000 chips.
The ink is not yet dry on the Pius Heinz v Joe Gualtieri post and the German champion is out.
Larry Duplantis raised to 18,000, Pius Heinz moved all-in for 77,000 and the decision was back on Duplantis. There were a few verbals before Duplantis told Heinz he was here to gamble and turned over . Heinz showed for the slight lead, which would change on a board of . Heinz was out and the gambling Duplantis was up to 430,000.
In other news Adria Balaguer and Fernando Brito just played out a sick half a million pot. It all went in on a flop of with Balaguer holding and Brito holding . The turn and river placing the hand in the record books and Balaguer was stunned.
![[user198174]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
allowing Angelil to maintain his strong lead. The 
on the turn gave Angelil top set, but it also opened Frey's outs; any 10 now could put the hand in Frey's favor.
did fall on the river giving Frey the broadway straight. Vayo was eliminated when his pair of eights couldn't even come close to competing with the other two's cards. Angelil took a big hit, but still sits with over 100,000.
with Gaspard in the small blind, Gruissem in position and Gaspard check-calling a very quick 22,000 bet. The turn card was the 
and this time Gaspard led for 21,500 and Gruissem made the call. Fifth street was 
and Gaspard moved all-in, an action that was snap-called by Gruissem. The German turned over 
for trips and Gaspard showed 
flop. Quehen pushed 40,500 towards McDonald and the pair stared directly into each other's eyes until Timex announced all-in - so softly - the dealer had to ask him twice. Quehen called and it was bad news.
and 
sent McDonald's eyes to the roof of the Amazon room and the majority of his chips over to Quehen. McDonald was left with 30,000 and we believe Quehen has around 350,000 (his stack was still dirty when we left).
on the river were of no help, and D'Angelo shipped over large portion of his stack to the ever 
to eliminate him.
and Gruissem had moved all-in for 37,000. His opponent, in the hand, was Bobby Moore and while he was in the tank Gruissem started talking to him. We are not sure if this pushed Moore to call, but he did, and Gruissem did not want a call.
.
came on the river he moved up to 200,000; Gruissem was out.
, Morgensztern was holding 
and a third player in the hand had folded under an isolation raise by Selbst. The board ran out 
. Heinz showed 
. Heinz was out and the gambling Duplantis was up to 430,000.
