Day 2 of Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em has come to an end with Seth Berger topping the final 31 players.
At the beginning of the day 235 players all had eyes of firstly making the money-paying top 81, but as players battle back-and-forth trying to climb the chip leaderboard many notables would fall with the likes of Maria Ho, Taylor Paur, Allen Cunningham, Calvin Anderson, Eugene Katchalov, Dan O'Brien and Mike Watson all finding themselves on the rail.
With dinner break fast approaching, so was the bubble, and although multiple players doubled, play would be paused so that some grub could be consumed. However on return it would only take a few hands before Eros Nastasi committed holding but would be outdrawn by his opponent's to leave the remaining 81 players guaranteed $9,175.
Chips would begin to fly as a multitude of players hit the rail with Tobias Reinkemeier (77th), Dani Stern (72nd), Barry Shulman (63rd), Dominik Nitsche (60th), Eric Baldwin (43rd), Phil Laak (41st) and Jared Hamby (35th) all bounced to the rail before play was called for the night. Of those remaining players it is Seth Berger who topped the counts with an impressive 986,000 however snapping on his heels include Philipp Gruissem (743,000) and Antonio Buonanno (732,000) as the top ten chip counts stack up follows.
Name
Chip Count
Seth Berger
986,000
Philipp Gruissem
743,000
Antonio Buonanno
732,000
Christian Rudolph
668,000
Arthur Pro
656,000
Dan Martin
630,000
Matt Perrins
619,000
Ravi Raghavan
598,000
Joe Serock
574,000
Olivier Busquet
546,000
With play expected to play down to the final table of nine, highly skilled players such as Joe Serock, Olivier Busquet, Matt Berkey, Grant Levy and the short stacked Sam Trickett all still have a chance of grabbing their first WSOP bracelet here in Event #57.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor at 1 p.m. local Las Vegas time on Thursday afternoon providing continuous live updates of every flopped set, turned straight and rivered flush live from Event #57 and the 2013 World Series of Poker!
Grant Levy opened to 6,500 and Randal Flowers made the call before Mark Darner three-bet the button to 22,000. Levy deliberated for a few moments before making the call as Flowers mucked.
The flop of saw Levy check before Darner continued for 30,000. Levy went into the tank for close to three minutes before eventually laying his hand down to slip to roughly 185,000 while Darner creeps over the 400,000-chip mark.
We caught up with Joe Serock and Eric Baldwin involved in a hand on a board of . Baldwin had a bet of 34,000 in front of him when Joe Serock announced that he was all in. After it was counted out, Serock had 116,100 total. Baldwin went into the tank for a good two minutes before finally counting out the chips and announcing a call.
Baldwin:
Serock:
Baldwin was out in front, but Serock had a load of outs he could catch to scoop the pot. Serock stood up from his chair and gathered his things, but immediately sat back down when the hit the turn. The river was a meaningless and with that Serock got a huge double while Eric Baldwin dropped to around 60,000 chips.
We caught up with Dan Martin and Olivier Busquet in a pot worth over 50,000 heading to the river. The board read and Martin led out with a bet of 40,000.
With action on Busquet, he thought briefly before grabbing his entire stack of T5,000 chips and putting together a reraise of 110,000. Martin went into the tank. He went deep into the tank and he stayed there. About five minutes into his tank, another player at the table put his head down and said "Wake me up when we burst the bubble."
"Take as long as you want," he continued. "It only helps me out."
"Some of us are short," Barry Shulman said, who was also sitting at the table.
Finally, at just about ten minutes into Martin's tank, a player at the table called the clock. Martin thought for about 30 more seconds, looked at his hand once more, and tossed it into the muck.
"Show me one for a little giggle?" Martin asked Busquet after the hand. Busquet didn't not oblige, pushing his hand over to the dealer and chuckling before collecting the pot.
Following a raise to 3,300, both Eugene Katchalov and Sam Trickett made the call to see a flop fall.
The initial raiser continued for 3,700 only to have Katchalov raise to 9,200. With the action on Trickett in the big blind, he moved all in for close to 90,000 to force the initial raiser out as Katchalov deliberated for a few moments before committing his final 25,000 more.
Katchalov:
Trickett:
With Katchalov needing an ace or ten, the turn and river landed the and to see him fall to the rail as Trickett climbs to 135,000 in chips.
2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson joins the PokerNews Podcast to talk about the controversial tweet he released on Tuesday regarding private public cash games at Aria, and respond to criticism regarding the language of the tweet. Merson also discusses Macau, the potential return of online poker to New Jersey, and his friend Tony "End Boss" Gregg's win in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller.
As our PokerNews reporter was gathering the details of the Philipp Gruissem hand you just read, another massive hand had developed on the adjacent table.
The board read and Esfandiari was all in holding against the of Mark Darner.
Although not exactly sure of when the money went in, it was overhead saying that it went in on the flop, and with Darner striking a pair on the turn, Esfandiari was sent out the door once both player's stacks were broken down.
"What does it feel like to have all the money kid?" asked Phil Laak as Darner stacked his chips.
Darner just continued stacking his chips, and at our count it looks to be around 265,000.
Mateusz_Pater
Timothy Reilly (second in chips coming into Day 2)
Welcome back to Day 2 of Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em. We started with 784 players and are now left with 252, but only a third of those, 81 to be exact, will make the money. One player separated himself from the pack yesterday: Mark Darner (222,700), who went unnoticed for the majority of the day, and will start today, with 70,000 more chips then his nearest rival.
Darner will be joined by a plethora of other notables, including Timothy Reilly (154,200), Philipp Gruissem (143,800), Matt Perrins (142,500), Sam Trickett (116,000) and Antonio Esfandiari (97,000), as well as many others.
The cards will be in the air again at 1:00pm local time, which is just under half an hour away. Be sure to stay tuned here, as PokerNews.com will bring you all the action as always, as we hope to play through the money and a full ten more levels of play.
In the meantime, enjoy Kristy Arnett's nightly recap, as she catches you up on everything that happened at the Rio yesterday!
![[user80015]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
but would be outdrawn by his opponent's 
to leave the remaining 81 players guaranteed $9,175.
saw Levy check before Darner continued for 30,000. Levy went into the tank for close to three minutes before eventually laying his hand down to slip to roughly 185,000 while Darner creeps over the 400,000-chip mark.
. Baldwin had a bet of 34,000 in front of him when Joe Serock announced that he was all in. After it was counted out, Serock had 116,100 total. Baldwin went into the tank for a good two minutes before finally counting out the chips and announcing a call.
hit the turn. The river was a meaningless 
and Martin led out with a bet of 40,000.
and 
to see him fall to the rail as Trickett climbs to 135,000 in chips.
against the 
