249 players qualified for Day 2 of the next installment of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em events this summer, and after ten action packed levels, only 21 players remain. The player who has put himself in the poll position for the bracelet going into tomorrow is Nicolas Fierro, who just so happened to be the chip leader at the start of the day. He will come back tomorrow with 965,000.
Of the 249 players who came back today, only 243 of them would walk away with extra cash in their pockets. Octo-Niner Jake Balsiger ended up being the unfortunate bubble boy. Some of the notables who busted past the bubble bursting included Aaron Massey (227th), Brendon Rubie (214th), Maxim Lykov (170th), Matt Salsberg (168th), Frank Op de Woerd (132nd), Jeremy Ausmus (84th), and Andrew Lichtenberger (52nd), amongst many others.
Despite there being such a huge field, we still have a few notables who will return tomorrow. The players on this list include Matt Berkey (886,000), Allen Cunningham (697,000), Griffin Benger (610,000), Garry Gates (489,000), Kara Scott (314,000), and Jared Hamby (204,000).
The 21 players who are still alive will return tomorrow at 1 PM to play down to a winner. As always, we will have all of your live coverage, including hand-for-hand reporting from the final table, so you won’t want to miss that. Until then, so long from Las Vegas!
It was the small blind versus the big blind in this elimination hand. Marc Davis went all in with and was called by Nicolas Fierro from the big blind with .
The flop was unkind to Davis as it pair Fierro's ace and Davis was unable to find help on the turn or river. As a result, Davis was eliminated from the tournament in 24th place.
There was already a sea of chips in the middle when we walked up to the table to see Allen Cunningham, and Gerardo Ruzo in the middle of a heads up pot. The board had completed , and Cunningham moved all in, having Ruzo covered. Ruzo made the call for his tournament life, but unfortunately for him, Cunningham showed for the stone cold nuts. Ruzo showed for top pair top kicker, which would prove to be no good.
After scooping that giant pot, Cunningham is now one of our leaders, sitting on 980,000
We missed the preflop action, but we saw that Joao Dorneles Neto and Asher Conniff got into a huge all in confrontation preflop that saw a pot of about 350,000 build up before the flop. Conniff was all in with , and he was in rough shape, as Dorneles Neto held . The flop came down , giving Conniff top pair and the lead. Dorneles Neto led out a huge sigh, and couldn't help but hide his disappointment. However, that changed to jubilation when the hit the turn, causing Dorneles Neto to yell out "yes" and pump his arms in the air. The hand wasn't over, as Conniff could still catch a miracle two outer on the river, but he didn't do that, as the came.
After stacking up his new chips, we pegged Dorneles Neto's stack to be a chip leading 710,000.
Andrew Lichtenberger had just been moved to Garry Gates's table, and within a few minutes, he was out. Lichtenberger started the action by raising to 13,000 from the cutoff. Gates made the call out of the big blind, and the flop came down . Gates check called a bet of 15,000 from Lichtenberger, and the hit the turn. Gates checked again, and Lichtenberger fired out 24,000, leaving himself about 80,000 behind. Gates tanked for a bit before check raising all in, putting Lichtenberger to a decision for all his chips. He called it off, and saw that he was drawing very slim.
Lichtenberger:
Gates:
It was the perfect flop for Gates, who flopped bottom set to Lichtenberger's top pair. Gates would only lose the hand if a four came on the river, but that didn't happen, as the came. After that hand, Gates is up to 427,500, and is in the top five chip counts with just 50 players left.
Garry Gates raised it up to 8,000 in middle position, and Peter Males moved all in for his last 65,000 right behind him. It folded back around to Gates, and he thought for just under a minute or so before making the call.
Gates:
Males:
Gates was in great shape with his overpair, and he maintained that lead through the runout of . After collecting that pot, Gates is up there with the big stacks sitting on 236,000.
We didn't catch the hand until the end when the pot was being pushed. What we can tell you is that Sean Prendiville was just eliminated by Brandon Yu in an all-in preflop fonfrontation. The former held on a board and was defeated by the latter's .
A player walked by us standing near another table, and we overheard him saying to a friend something along the lines of "I just ran kings into aces preflop for the chip lead." We went to investigate his table, and sure enough, we saw Brandon "The Romantic" Yu stacking up a wave of big chips. Once he stacked it all up, we pegged his satack at 480,000, which is more then 200,000 clear of the rest of the field!
Even crazier, we were told that on the big hand, one player at the table folded queens and another folded Ace-King!
Ali Eslami for roughly 13,000, leaving himself just 100 behind, only to have Frank Op de Woerd three-bet all in over the top for 33,000. Joe Elpayaa, who had both of them covered, then announced that he was all in himself. The rest of the field folded and Eslami called off his last 100.
Eslami:
Op de Woerd:
Elpayaa:
Eslami joked a bit about the bad spot he was in while Op de Woerd, who held two overs to Elpayaa's queens, rose from his chair. The flop kept Elpayaa in the lead, and the turn firmed up his position. However, while Eslami was drawing dead, Op de Woerd picked up the nut-flush draw. Unfortunately for the man from the Netherlands, the blanked on the river and his deep run came to an end.
Eslami became the 133rd-place finisher while Op de Woerd took 132nd.
Yesterday, 2,161 players walked into the Rio to buy in for Event #40 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. At around 2 AM local time, only 249 were left standing. Only 243 of these players will walk away in the money, and the player who is least concerned about the money bubble is Nicholas Fierro, who came out of nowhere in the last half hour of play last night to bag up a chip leading stack of 176,500.
The next closest competitors, Jonathan Driscoll (142,000), and Jeremy Menard (141,100), were sitting side-by-side for the better half of yesterday. Rounding out the six players who ended the day above 125,000 are Ryan Spittles (139,300), Jason Wheeler (134,000), and Matt Berkey (126,600).
Some of the notables who will be coming back today to secure another cash at the WSOP are Jake Balsiger (85,600), Jeremy Ausmus (70,000), Garry Gates (51,900), Andrew Lichtenberger (47,800), Allen Cunningham (47,800), and PokerNews’s own Frank Op de Woerd, who bagged up 43,600, after being up to as much as 89,000 earlier in the day.
These players and a couple hundred more will be in the Amazon room at 1 PM today in hopes of making it to a prestigious WSOP Day 3. We will play ten levels today, and the action is set to get underway in just under an hour. Don’t go anywhere, as we will be providing you coverage all day long! Thanks for tuning in, and don’t go anywhere, because the action is just about to start!
Before we get started, let Lynn Gilmartin get you all caught up on the rest of the action from yesterday!
![[user250068]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and was called by Nicolas Fierro from the big blind with 
.
was unkind to Davis as it pair Fierro's ace and Davis was unable to find help on the 
turn or 
river. As a result, Davis was eliminated from the tournament in 24th place.
, and Cunningham moved all in, having Ruzo covered. Ruzo made the call for his tournament life, but unfortunately for him, Cunningham showed 
for the stone cold nuts. Ruzo showed 
for top pair top kicker, which would prove to be no good.
, and he was in rough shape, as Dorneles Neto held 
, giving Conniff top pair and the lead. Dorneles Neto led out a huge sigh, and couldn't help but hide his disappointment. However, that changed to jubilation when the 
came.
. Gates check called a bet of 15,000 from Lichtenberger, and the 
hit the turn. Gates checked again, and Lichtenberger fired out 24,000, leaving himself about 80,000 behind. Gates tanked for a bit before check raising all in, putting Lichtenberger to a decision for all his chips. He called it off, and saw that he was drawing very slim.
came. After that hand, Gates is up to 427,500, and is in the top five chip counts with just 50 players left.
on a 
.
flop kept Elpayaa in the lead, and the 
turn firmed up his position. However, while Eslami was drawing dead, Op de Woerd picked up the nut-flush draw. Unfortunately for the man from the Netherlands, the 
