Abrams Leads Final 20 as Day 2 Concludes
Less than half a starting field of 372 returned for today's second day of play in Event #50: $2,500 10-Game Mix, and after 10 more one-hour levels it was last year's 12th-place Main Event finisher Scott Abrams who had collected the most chips of anyone to end the night as leader with 20 players remaining.
The field quickly whittled down during the first couple of hours of play, and by the dinner break they were already down to 44 players and just two off the money. The first hands back from break then saw Michael Fant and Steven McLoughlin swiftly lose their short stacks and the money bubble had burst.
Start-of-day-2 chip leader Howard Smith was one of the first to cash by finishing in 39th. Among those following Smith to the rail were Scott Fischman (38th), Dan O'Brien (36th), Freddy Deeb (31st), Marcel Luske (30th), Trai Dang (29th), Gavin Smith (28th), Kenna James (26th), Shawn Buchanan (25th), and Rep Porter (23rd).
The last elimination of the evening was five-time bracelet winner and 1998 Main Event champion Scotty Nguyen in 21st place. Nguyen tangled repeatedly with Abrams during the latter portion of the evening, and finally met his end in a hand of stud that saw Abrams make a better two pair.
Those chips helped Abrams build a wide margin by night's end with a stack 351,700, with Sebastian Saffari, Philip Sternheimer, and Brian Tate his nearest competitors. Robert Williamson III likewise returns to a 200,000-plus chip stack, with Mike Wattel, Greg Raymer, David Emmons, Bruno Fitoussi, and Konstantin Puchkov among those still with hopes of landing the 10-Game Mix bracelet.
Play resumes tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time as will our coverage. Return then to see who becomes the next WSOP gold bracelet winner.