Day 2 of Event #12: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em is officially in the books! We began today with 62 players returning out of the original 535 entrants. After just over eight levels of play only the final nine remain with none other than Eric Crain leading the way. Crain, fresh off of a fourth place finish in Event #8: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix, is poised and ready to try once more to earn his first gold WSOP bracelet.
The day began with players returning and vying for a spot among those to cash. Even before the money hit notable players such as Jeremy Ausmus, Griffin Benger, and Melanie Weisner were seen heading to the rail. After the bubble burst, players began dropping at an even more rapid rate with the likes of Martin Staszko, defending champion Nick Jivkov, Matt Stout, Kevin O'Donnell, Adam Geyer, Cary Katz and Jason Mercier walking away with extra money and dreams of winning a WSOP bracelet dashed.
Also returning to the final table is five-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham. Cunningham had a relatively quiet day and finally found his stride when he was able to double with set-over-set against Jaspal Brar. Cunningham's stack continued to grow and he will return to the final table second in chips. Cunningham is gunning for his first bracelet since 2007 and his experience will certainly be an asset at this final table.
As the day wore on Crain's stack was on a roller coaster ride. While he managed to build a massive stack, he also managed to double up several short stacked players. Crain's big confrontation came when he and Jonathan Roy butted heads during the final two tables. Crain opened with a raise and Lev Rofman flat called. Roy three-bet a pot-sized raise and Crain potted it right back. Rofman folded and Roy called for his tournament life.
Crain:
Roy:
Crain stood on his chair as the dealer fanned a flop. The on the turn gave Crain several more outs that allowed him to make a straight and a flush. He made the latter on the river when the drilled the felt and Roy was suddenly eliminated from play in 15th place. This pot gave Crain a huge chip lead that propelled him into the lead heading to the final table.
On the last hand of the evening Crain won a crucial race to eliminate final table bubble boy and Day 1 chip leader Robert Corcione. The two had all of Corcione's chips in before the flop with Corcione holding to Crain's . Crain paired his queen on the flop and the rest was history.
Event #12 Final Table
Seat
Player
Chips
1
Allen Cunningham
452,000
2
Nicolas Halvorson
110,000
3
Jean-Nicolas Fortin
47,000
4
Eric Crain
620,000
5
Jaspal Brar
382,000
6
Timothy Reilly
282,000
7
Anthony Harb
178,000
8
Lev Rofman
200,000
9
Kenneth Shelton
160,000
Players will return on Friday to play out their final table at 1:00 PM PST. Be sure to stay tuned as PokerNews is on hand to provide you with all of the updates from this exciting final table!
For now, we'll leave you with Kristy Arnett who has the highlights from across the Rio today:
Timothy Reilly opened with a raise to 20,000 from under the gun and it folded around to Eric Crain who three-bet to 55,000. Robert Corcione moved all in from the big blind and Reilly folded. Crain called and the hands were tabled:
Corcione:
Crain:
Corcione was in the lead at the moment but quickly fell behind when the flop brought . The turn was the and Corcione needed a heart or a ten to stay alive in the tournament. It was the , however, and he was eliminated from play as the final table bubble boy.
Allen Cunningham raised to 16,000. When action folded to Pim De Goede, he went all in with and Cunningham called with
After the flop of came, Cunningham stated that the flop was his. But the turn was de Goede's giving him and open-ended straight draw. Unfortunately, the river did not improve de Goede's hand and he was eliminated in 11th place.
Lev Rofman opened with a raise to an unknown amount and James Uschuk three-bet all in for 56,000 from the very next seat over. It folded back around to Rofman who snapped him off.
Uschuk:
Rofman:
The board ran out and Uschuk was unable to improve, eliminating him in 12th place.
After being crippled to just under 10,000 in a previous hand, Christopher Paasch found himself all in and at risk before the flop holding against Anthony Harb's .
Paasch paired up on the flop but ultimately could not improve further on the turn () or river (). Paasch was eliminated in 13th place and will collect $8,175 in prize money.
Action folded around to Dennis Jeffrey in the cutoff and he raised to 16,000. Kenneth Shelton reraised, making it 46,000 to go. The blinds folded and Jeffrey took some time to think about his options, he eventually decided to move all and Shelton snap called.
Jeffrey:
Shelton:
Jeffrey's hopes were all but dashed on the flop. The turn sealed his fate and the meaningless came on the river, eliminating Jeffrey in 14th place.
Eric Crain opened the betting with a raise to an unknown amount. Lev Rofman flat called from the next seat over and it folded around to Jonathan Roy who three-bet the pot from late position. It came back to Crain who re-potted all in and Rofman folded his hand. Roy called and the two were flipping for Roy's tournament life.
Crain:
Roy:
Crain stood on his chair as the dealer fanned a flop. The on the turn gave Crain several more outs that allowed him to make a straight and a flush. He made the latter on the river when the drilled the felt and Roy was suddenly eliminated from play. Crain scooped a massive pot and is now by far the chip lead with about 535,000.
Sunny Chattha just lost a big pot where he got check-raised on the river and he called. His opponent showed the nuts which proved an expensive mis step.
The hand after he opened to 10,000 and next door neighbor Jaspal Brar made it 23,500 to go. When the action folded back to Sunny Chattha he announced all in for 97,000. That was a little bit to much for this pot-limit format, but the intention was clear to Brar who eventually went for it and put his chips in as well.
Chattha showed while Brar had to battle with. The flop was a devastating one for Chattha: . The turn didn't bring any excitement and Chattha was drawing dead: . The didn't matter and Chattha walked calmly to the pay out desk.
Lev Rofman quickly grabbed all of Gabriel Alarie's chips in just two hands. First Rofman benefitted when an ace hit the flop in an ace-king versus pocket queens allin. Not long after Rofman collected Alarie's spare chips with pocket nines versus in a small blind versus big blind situation.
flop. The 
on the turn gave Crain several more outs that allowed him to make a straight and a flush. He made the latter on the river when the 
drilled the felt and Roy was suddenly eliminated from play in 15th place. This pot gave Crain a huge chip lead that propelled him into the lead heading to the final table.
to Crain's 
. Crain paired his queen on the flop and the rest was history.
. The turn was the 
, however, and he was eliminated from play as the final table bubble boy.
![[user250068]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and Cunningham called with 
came, Cunningham stated that the flop was his. But the 
turn was de Goede's giving him and open-ended straight draw. Unfortunately, the 
river did not improve de Goede's hand and he was eliminated in 11th place.
and Uschuk was unable to improve, eliminating him in 12th place.
against Anthony Harb's 
.
flop. The 
turn sealed his fate and the meaningless 
. The 
of Anthony Harb.
