After 10 levels of play, Day 2 has come to an end for Event #56: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. OJ Ojiri holds the chip lead with 1,510,000 followed by Rahul Raju Byrraju with 1,190,000. A few other notables still in the field are Nicolas Levi (762,000), Josh Arieh (517,000) and Jonathan Tamayo (100,000).
The day began with 243 players all vying for a spot in the top 198, because that was the magic number to secure a payday. It took about one hour into the day before the money was reached. Following that milestone, a flurry of bustouts ensued including such notables as Lee Childs (190th), Erik Seidel (170th), Dan Smith (161th), David Peters (114th), Pius Heinz (112th), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (64th), Matt Stout (52nd), Jesse Sylvia (35th) and Matt Marafioti (30th).
Tomorrow the final 23 players return to the Blue Section of the Amazon Room with their eyes on the first-place prize of $730,756 and the coveted World Series of Poker gold bracelet. Stay with PokerNews as we continue to bring live reports from the tournament floor and hand-for-hand coverage of the final table. See you tomorrow.
We found Jacob Schindler and chipleader Yasuhiro Ojiri in a heads-up pot on the turn. Schindler bet 48,000, and Ojiri made the call with the board reading . The river paired the board with the . Schindler checked, and Ojiri said he was all in.
A four-minute tank ensued, which included Jesse Sylvia and Matt Marafioti getting out of their chairs to exercise. Finally, Schindler called. Ojiri turned over for trip fours, and Schindler sent his remaining 130,000 to the bolster the stack of the leader.
"You, sir, are officially running hot," Sylvia said.
After a flop of , Nicolas Levi, in the small blind, check-raised Rahul Byrraju's bet of 6,000 to 15,500. Byrraju called. A came on the turn, and Levi fired 21,000 this time. Byrraju called immediately. The river was a , and Levi slowed down with a check. Byrraju announced a bet of 53,000 so fast, it almost seemed like he knew a check was coming. Levi thought briefly before saying, "raise."
One by one, Levi gathered five stacks of yellow chips, and placed some orange T5,000 chips on top. He slid 125,000 into the middle, and Byrraju wasted no time calling. Levi showed for kings full, and Byrraju sent his hand into the muck.
We came to the table with a pot of about 165,000 sitting in the middle and Karim Lehoussine, the small blind, with zero chips in front of him, all of Robert Cheung's remaining chips pushed forward with the all in button among them and another player, in middle position, faced with a tough decision.
The action was relayed to us like this: the middle position player bet, Robert Cheung called the bet from the hijack and Lehoussine shoved all in. The middle position player just called the all in and Cheung moved all in for his remaining 95,000. It seemed an agonizing fold for the other player, but fold he did, eventually telling everyone he "folded two black jacks".
Cheung:
Lehoussine:
The flop was horrific for Cheung as it fell giving Lehoussine trips. Cheung was shaking his head as the turn and river came down, realizing there was nothing there for him. As Lehoussine was raking his pot, he exclaimed, "the big squeeze worked".
David Peters moved all in under the gun for 25,500. A player in the hijack made the call, only to see the small blind go all in behind him for 48,800. The hijack thought for a bit before calling.
Peters:
Small blind:
Hijack:
The flop came , giving the small blind a set and his opponents identical gutshots. The turn brought a , completing their straights. A on the river turned things back around for the small blind, and his full house sent Peters to the rail.
We came to the action with the board of already showing. It appeared everyone checked to David Peters on the button who bet 13,200. Chris Karambinis, in the small blind, raised to 27,500 and a player in middle position called the raise and with another player in late position folding.
With action back on Peters, he went into the tank for about 3 minutes and ended up making the call. Then came the river and Karambinis led for 22,000. It was the middle position player's turn to tank and when he surfaced he moved all in for about 93,000. Peters reluctantly folded to the shove and the hands were tabled.
Karambinis:
Opponent:
All Peters could do was shake his head when he saw the middle position player's hand. He got up and walked away for a few seconds. Karambinis had the player covered and his opponent hit the rail. When Peters came back he told Karambinis he had . In the end though, it was Karambinis stacking a lot of chips.
We found Alex Queen facing an all-in bet from an opponent after all the cards were out, with the board reading . Queen dropped a tower of yellow chips in the middle after thinking for a bit.
"You've got me," his opponent said. Queen tabled after his opponent showed for a busted combo draw.
At a nearby table, Amit Makhija got it all in with and held up against an opponent with to double through.
We didn't catch the hand, but former chipleader Bob Panitch has sent all of his chips over to Day 1 chipleader Tony Ruberto, who is now by far the biggest stack. Players are now in the money.
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Nicolas Levi is in contention as Day 2 begins.
Tony Ruberto leads the final 243 players in Event #56: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em here at the 2013 World Series of Poker in the Rio. He bagged 178,200 in chips when Level 11 ended last night, and Florens Feenstra (171,700), Bob Panitch (150,700), Nicolas Levi (148,300) and AJ Bertenshaw (147,800) round out the top five.
The starting field of 1,736 is more than 100 more than last year, and the winner will be taking home $730,756 and a gold bracelet for first place. Before we can crown a winner, we first need to get into the money, and that should happen fairly early on today; 198 of the remaining 243 will get paid. Once that happens, we'll likely see a flurry of shorter stacks busting out, and the late-game direction of the tournament should begin to come into focus.
Notable runners remaining include Mark Teltscher (113,100), Jonathan Tamayo (91,900), Josh Arieh (79,800), Erik Seidel (58,000), Matt Marafioti (51,000), Dan Smith (46,400), Jesse Sylvia (41,000), and Amit Makhija (37,000).
While you are waiting for action to begin, here is Kristy Arnett with your July 2nd Update.
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flop, and Sylvia jammed on him. Kurtzman called immediately.
turn ended the former Main Event runner-up's journey through this event.
. The river paired the board with the 
for trip fours, and Schindler sent his remaining 130,000 to the bolster the stack of the leader.
, Nicolas Levi, in the small blind, check-raised Rahul Byrraju's bet of 6,000 to 15,500. Byrraju called. A 
, and Levi slowed down with a check. Byrraju announced a bet of 53,000 so fast, it almost seemed like he knew a check was coming. Levi thought briefly before saying, "raise."
for kings full, and Byrraju sent his hand into the muck.
giving Lehoussine trips. Cheung was shaking his head as the 
turn and 
river came down, realizing there was nothing there for him. As Lehoussine was raking his pot, he exclaimed, "the big squeeze worked".
, giving the small blind a set and his opponents identical gutshots. The turn brought a 
on the river turned things back around for the small blind, and his full house sent Peters to the rail.
