Eric Crain Leads Back-to-Back Final Tables
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: