Day 2 Concludes; Pechac Tops Final Nine
Like Day 1, which saw the original field of 936 trimmed to 117 players in just 10 one-hour levels, Day 2 of Event 51, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship also moved at a quick pace. After just eight levels plus another 18 minutes of Level 19, just nine players were left with chips, with Debbie Pechac of Phoenix, Arizona the leader heading into tomorrow's final day of play.
Among the first cashers on Day 2 were Amanda Wheeler (105th), Annie LePage (93rd), Felicia Johnico (88th), and PokerNews's own Sarah Grant (86th). As the afternoon wore on the field was cut down to less than 50 players, with Mandy Baker (76th), last year's ladies event champion Marsha Wolak (74th), Lisa Parsons (73rd), and J.J. Liu (45th) among those cashing early on.
Jana de la Cerra enjoyed the chip lead for part of the late afternoon, but found her ladies event run stopped short in 34th place after flopping a full house in a hand in which Yen Dang had made quads. She was followed shortly thereafter by Della Jones (33rd) who had also spent some time among the leaders earlier in the day.
The field was cut down to just 21 by the dinner break, with Erica Schoenberg (28th), Stacey Lynn Nutini (23rd), and Leo Margets (22nd) leaving us just before the end of Level 16. Coming back from the break, Jamie Kerstetter fell in 20th. And a couple of other players who had enjoyed the chip lead earlier in the tournament went out shortly thereafter, with Monica Hinojosa exiting in 18th and Gaelle Baumann in 15th.
Yan Deng was responsible for a number of knockouts today, and she picked up the last one, too, by eliminating Lisa Santy in 10th. She'll return to a healthy stack of tomorrow, good for third position behind Pechac and Candida Ross-Powers. Here's how the counts look for all nine players heading into Sunday's final day:
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Debbie Pechac | 630,000 |
| 2 | Candida Ross-Powers | 548,000 |
| 3 | Yen Dang | 483,000 |
| 4 | Lesley Amos | 352,000 |
| 5 | Anna Lundholm | 218,000 |
| 6 | Rae Rocco | 203,000 |
| 7 | Angela Moed | 145,000 |
| 8 | Janet Howard | 132,000 |
| 9 | Freda Lawrence | 99,000 |
Play resumes at 1 PM local time tomorrow. Thanks for following our coverage of the ladies event thus far, and be sure to come back to see who among the final nine emerges as the next World Series of Poker bracelet winner.