Day 2 here at the Rio had the appearance of any other no limit hold’em event, but that image was quickly shattered as players dropped at a rapid pace today. With 110 players making it through day 1 only 9 made it through the end of day 2. The day consisted of tables constantly being broken and players being scattered around the room. The no blinds and only antes structure of this tournament seemed to bring in a lot of eliminations. Players were set to play 10 levels or down until 9 people were left. The rapid pace of this ante only structure allowed for 9 players to be reached with a level and a half of play to go, setting up our final table.
Play did eventually slow down once the final 18 players took their seats. The final two tables allowed for a select few to exploit the structure and climb up the counts while players such as Garth Arnason, Lorenzo Sabato, and Bryan Pimlot fell to the wayside. With those players falling, a handful started to rise to the top.
Mike Sowers continued to acquire chips and knock out players. In one of the larger hands Sowers managed to call the all in of Daniel Buzgon with pocket kings, unfortunately for Sowers his opponent had two aces. A king on the flop though threw the advantage in Sower’s favor and he scored big. Erick Lindgren also seemed to gain a lot of momentum as play wore on, but a small misstep against Eugene De Plessis caused him to lose a chunk of his stack. With that hand De Plessis was able to flirt with the chip lead, trading back and forth with Sowers. At the end of the day though De Plessis came out on top and bagged the most chips, 996,000. Sowers finished right behind him with 824,000.
Lindgren never seemed to recover from that initial loss against De Plessis and continued to sink. Eventually Lindgren found himself up against De Plessis again, and we saw more of the same results with Lindgren being eliminated in 11th place.
Jon Turner emerged as the tournament’s early chip leader, but a slew of beats and bad spots saw him exit during the middle of the day. Melanie Weisner also was forced to have a short day after Jon Turner hit a straight. Other players you won’t see on day 3 are Mickey Peterson, Dan O’Brien, Jeff Madsen, Mike Leah, and Thomas Conway.
Here is a preview of what things will look like for tomorrow's final table.
Final Table Chip Counts
Seat
Player
Chips
1
Seth Davies
640,000
2
Sameer Aljanedi
167,000
3
Justin Schwartz
252,000
4
Eugene Du Plessis
996,000
5
Mike McDonald
205,000
6
Greg Hobson
608,000
7
Mike Sowers
824,000
8
John Hayes
229,000
9
Harrison Gimbel
325,000
Despite a handful of deep stacks, this ante only structure could allow for anything to happen. Stay tuned here to PokerNews for all your Event 49: $1,500 Ante-Only No-Limit Hold'em final table updates.
Immediately after Erick Lindgren's elimination and before the two small tables could combine to one ten-handed table, Grayson Ramage moved all in before the flop and was called by Greg Hobson.
Ramage:
Hobson:
Ramage was far behind Hobson and got even further when the flop brought Hobson a set. The final board was and Ramage was sent home in 10th place, leaving our final table of nine.
We caught up with the action to find Erick Lindgren and Eugene Du Plessis looking down at a board of . Lindgren announced all in and after a beat Du Plessis announced a call.
Du Plessis tabled for two pair.
"Shit," Lindgren lamented, slapping his on the table. "You've gotta be kidding me".
Lindgren began his walk out of the tournament area before the completed the board and sealed his fate. Du Plessis stood up to try and shake Lindgren's hand, but Lindgren made a beeline under the ropes and out of the area.
Mike Sowers opened the action to 13,000 and it folded around to Daniel Buzgon on the button. Buzgon made it 39,000 to go and Sowers replied by announcing all in. Buzgon snap called and turned over which was crushing Sowers' .
The dealer pounded the table and produced a flop of , taking what looked like a remarkable cooler for Sowers and turning into a profitable situation. The turn was the and the river the . Buzgon threw his cards into the muck and walked away from the tournament area as our 12th place finisher.
The flop read and Mike Sowers was first to act and oped to check. Erick Lindgren, Daniel Buzgon, and Justin Schwartz all checked as well. Eugene Du Plessis however bet out 17,000. Sowers made the call and Lindgren raised to 58,000. Buzgon and Schwartz ran away and Du Plessis took his time before placing the call. Sowers also deposited a call and we were off to the turn.
The made an appearance on fourth street which prompted a check from Sowers and a bet of 140,000 from Lindgren. Du Plessis then moved all in for around 380,000. Sowers folded and Lindgren went into the tank. After a minute or so passed Lindgren threw it away and Du Plessis took down the large pot.
The board read and Harrison Gimbel fired out a bet that would put Greg Hobson all in. Hobson took his time deciding his best course of action before eventually calling.
Gimbel flipped over for queen high, and Hobson countered with for a pair of aces and the winning hand.
After two limps, Guang Lu moved all in before the flop for 68,000. Action folded around to Eugene Du Plessis on the button who moved in a call. Harrison Gimbel, who was one of the limpers, moved all in over the top. Action was back at Du Plessis and he called.
Lu:
Du Plessis:
Gimbel:
Gimbel was in good shape with his two opponents sharing cards and his hand was able to hold through a board of . Du Plessis was forced to ship chips over to Gimbel while Lu took a walk to the rail.
Jon Turner has been sent to the rail after getting all in and at risk holding while his opponent held . The flop came and Turner was still behind. The on the turn and the on the river were no help and Turner was gone.
PearlJammed Jon TurnerBusto 23rd for $6,478 ... Big disappointment, lost another flip, KT < 99 for 90k pot to get back in the game... Next up 10 game mix tmw at 5June 28 2012
Turner came into the day with one of the top stacks, and continued his run reaching a dominating chip lead early on. Unfortunately after a few setbacks Turner found himself in the middle of the pack and sinking.