The furious pace of eliminations we witnessed in today's early levels has slowed dramatically, but cries of "Payout" still pierce the relative calm in this corner of the Amazon room from time to time.
A few moments ago, Kenneth Lind busted a player when his flopped an ace against an opponent's . This elimination brings the remaining field down to 39 players.
We arrived at the table to find Alexander Kunichoff, who had been the tournament chipleader after day 1, all in and at risk against Kimberley Kilroy. Kilroy held . Kunichoff showed and he was looking for an ace. The board rolled out , pairing Kunichoff's four but not giving him enough to catch Kilroy.
Kunichoff has been eliminated, and Kilroy sits with 300,000.
We came to the action as Kroon was facing an all in bet for an additional 240,000 from Richard Langdon on a flop. The all in obviously shocked Kroon, as he jumped out of his chair requesting "an exact count" in disbelief.
He started to count out his chips, making sure the dealer know he was just counting them out. Then he started going through possibilities wondering if Langdon flopped a set on him. Kroon must have received some sort of tell on his opponent because he moved on from that thinking.
Then he went through possible hands that his opponent could have eventually muttering: "there is no way you are flatting me with aces". Eventually, he made the difficult call and before Kroon could even turned over his , Langdon said "you got me" showing .
Kroon left the table for the turn and river cards not realizing the sweat that came with the turn. The didn't change things and Kroon is now over a million in chips. Langdon was eliminated from the tournament in 50th place.
As Day 2 of the Seniors Championship draws to a conclusion, the remaining 42 players can now finally see the others standing between them and a WSOP bracelet. They say familiarity breeds contempt, and that just might be true, because the calls of "Payout, Table..." are now echoing through the Amazon Room seemingly every few minutes.
The latest two bustouts came courtesy of Makram Merhom and Ray Spencer, with each using a pocket pair to dispatch a fellow senior.
First, Spencer got it all in against an opponent's holding the , and the board ran out left the nines out in front.
On the next table over, Merhom called an opponent's all in move with the , and the other player's failed to find a set or a straight on the board.
Both Spencer and Merhom moved into a comfortable chip position, and they will be looking to knock even more players out as an appearance at the final table inches ever closer.
Bill McAdams, who has been short-stacked much of the day but always seems to make impressive comebacks, has finally busted out of the tournament. He was down to his last 7,000 and could not post the full big blind. After a couple raises from other players, he ended up heads-up with against . The board was , giving his opponent a broadway straight and eliminating McAdams.
Larry Wright and Alex Kunichoff got into an all-in confrontation preflop. Wright turned over , and Kunichoff had . The board was bad news for Kunichoff, though, rolling out . Wright won the pot with his club flush. He doubled up to 70,000, while Kunichoff dropped to 54,000.
Chuck Goldstein wanted to be interviewed and he was jokingly told he needed to quadruple up. Well, he more than accomplished that goal.
He sat down at his new table with 50,000 in chips. In his first big blind someone moved all in and he woke up with . He called the all in and there is the first double. In his second big blind, someone moved all in and he woke up with . He called the all in and there is the second double. In his third blind, someone moved all in and he again woke up with . He called the all in and there is the third double.
The three big blind hands happened in consecutive orbits to take Goldstein from his original 50,000 to 450,000 and all he had to do was call. Goldstein, just like several other players in this field, has a poker playing son, Alan. Goldstein said, "He is just one of those internet kids. It's nice that I am doing something for once."
Aussie Michel Bouskila is playing in the Amazon Room, with the banner celebrating his countryman Joe Hachem's 2005 Main Event title, and he just had a decent cup of sugar passed his way.
We caught the action with the flop reading , as Bouskila and another player were exposing their hole cards after getting it all in. The man from Down Under held for a flopped set, which put him way ahead of the held by his opponent.
The turn () and river () changed nothing, and Bouskila doubled his 207,000 through to put himself well above the current average nearing the end of this second day of play.
Alex Kunichoff raised to 22000, and then Kimberley Kilroy re-raised enough to put Kunichoff all in. Everyone else folded, and action was back on Kunichoff. He thought for a minute, and decided to fold. He left himself with 74,000, while Kilroy is up to 320,000.
As Kilroy was stacking her chips, Mark Kroon looked at her and said half-jokingly, "Nice bet, bully." Kilroy simply smiled and feigned innocence.