Welcome back to beautiful Las Vegas! The summer heat is starting to arrive outside, and inside the Rio, it is heating up just the same! We are back for Day 2 of Event 5: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em! After 10 levels of play yesterday, we had 77 players remaining. Due to a new rule at the WSOP this year, we played down to the money, as we were less then one table away. After a double elimination on the bubble, we determined the 71 players who will be coming back today!
Leading the way is none other then Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, who bagged a whopping 112,600 chips yesterday. Not far behind is another well known pro, Jonathan Aguiar, who is bringing 100,900 in chips into play today.
There's a slew of big names that will be joining them in the amazon room today. PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu comes into today 8th in chips, and he's joined by John Juanda, Nam Le, Steve Brecher, Tommy Vedes, and Jared Hamby, amongst several others.
We are almost ready to get underway here at the Rio. We will be playing down to the final table today, or through 10 levels, whichever comes first. Stay tuned to Pokernews for every flop, turn, and river, as we bring you all the action from today's day 2!
The announcement to shuffle up and deal has been made. Cards are in the air! There are 40 minutes left in this level, as the players played down to the money last night.
So far this tournament, we have seen some very stacked tables. Yesterday, one table started with Jonathan Little, Shannon Shorr, Allen Kessler, Faraz Jaka, and Phil Ivey.
Today, all 71 players redrew for new seat assignments, and table 435 stands out as easily the toughest. Here's what we're looking at.
Seat 2: John Juanda
Seat 3: Steve Brecher
Seat 4: Antonio Esfandiari
Seat 7: Joe Kuether(2012 WSOP-C Harrah's Rincon Main Event Winner)
The good news for these players is that they will be the second to break, but for now, they will have to deal with each other.
Antonio Esfandiari - rarely shy about speaking his mind.
Well-known for his banter and playful table talk, our current chip-leader Antonio Esfandiari is one of the more notable characters in poker today. In a recent hand, action folded over to fellow poker pro John Juanda on the button, who mulled his decision over a bit before folding. Immediately after from the small blind, Esfandiari playfully remarked, "Man! Juanda is squeezing today! You okay?"
Juanda could only shrug and smirk.
An uneventful hand, but we expect that the two will tango several times before the day's end.
Yesterday, Antonio Esfandiari was cruising the whole day, collecting chips with ease. He made a late surge, and ended the day as our chip leader. However, he is off to a rough start today, as he doubled Steve Brecher up early. We only got to the table as the dealer was counting out Brecher's chips for the double, but we did catch the following.
The board:
Esfandiari:
Brecher:
Brecher doubled up with his flush to 57,000, while Esfandiari drops down to 82,000, giving up the chip lead in the process.
Justin Gardenhire was one of the more interesting stacks to keep an eye on yesterday. He jumped out to a big chip lead early on, then slowly trickled down for most of the day, until he secured a big double up towards the end of the day when his kings held against his opponent's ace jack.
Well we didn't see him today until our last walk through, and we noticed that he has amassed a mountain of chips, including four of the orange T5,000 chips that are now in play, the most we have seen in the field. By our estimation, he has about 135,000, which is the chip lead right now with 60 players left. We will be sure to keep an eye on his progress as the day goes on.
We caught up with action on a board. Terrence Chan had a bet in front of him from the big blind position and he was raised by his lone opponent from middle position to 29,500. Chan tanked for a bit, but eventually made the call. His opponent revealed for a pair of fives and Chan flipped over for a flush, which was more than good enough to scoop the pot.
Chan, well-known for his limit hold'em prowess, is making a run at this thing. He is up to 75,000.
board. Terrence Chan had a bet in front of him from the big blind position and he was raised by his lone opponent from middle position to 29,500. Chan tanked for a bit, but eventually made the call. His opponent revealed 
for a flush, which was more than good enough to scoop the pot.
