Two Remain as Day 2 Ends; Roland Reparejo and Corey Emery Return Thursday To Complete Heads-Up Duel
The second and originally-planned-for ultimate day of the $500 Casino Employees Event restarted with 51 players, and in less than three hours the final three tables with 27 players remaining were reached. Aaron Henderson had emerged as chip leader at that point after previously taking down a monster pot with the 
against the 
of Ray Kluever and the 
of Ronaldo Rodriguez when he completed a flush on the turn after all the chips went in preflop.
Another two hours passed and the last two tables were set. Unfortunately that didn't include PokerNews' very own Mo Nuwwarah, who ran into the 
of Olivier Doremus. Patricia Baker had a roller coaster day and eventually finished in 16th place, coming up shy of her runner-up finish in this same event two years ago. Later with the elimination of Cameron Tullis in 10th, the official final table was set, and start-of-the-day chip leader Corey Emery was once again in front.
In the fifth hand of the final table, Kevin Chiem min-raised the button and eventually went broke with 
after John Taylor looked him up with the superior 
. About one hour later in Hand #29, David Luttgeb picked an unfortunate time to three-bet shove with the 
as Corey Emery snap-called him with the 
and the field was reduced to seven.
Just one hand later they would be no more than six. Marcin Sobczak got it all in preflop with the 
in a battle of the blinds against Olivier Doremus and he was unable to improve versus 
when his nut flush draw on the flop could not get there against top set.
Brian Wong managed to double up a few times throughout the day, but a three-way flop 
along with Roland Reparejo and Charles Nguyen in Hand #46 would cause his departure. Nguyen moved all in with 
and Wong called off to reveal 
. Nguyen's rail exploded after the turn and 
river as their favorite took the lead.
Little did we know what still lay ahead for the bracelet contenders. In Hand #77, a short stacked John Taylor tried to steal the blinds with 
and Charles Nguyen looked him up with the 
. But a deuce on the flop was not enough for Taylor, and he took fifth place.
The next endurance challenge was even more nerve-wracking. Olivier Doremus had been one of the shorter stacks throughout the whole day but somehow survived the critical situations. However a three-bet shove in Hand #182 sent him to the rail in fourth place when he was unable to improve with 
against the of Corey Emery.
Emery also took care of Charles Nguyen in Hand #187 after Nguyen moved all in on a 
board. Emery called within a heartbeat, slamming 
on the table for trip kings while Nguyen was left drawing dead with 
. Heads-up play carried on for eight hands until the end of level 22 with the night's last hand providing the final highlight.
Corey Emery raised preflop and then made a delayed continuation bet on the turn with the board showing 
. Roland Reparejo called, then the 
river completed the board and Emery bet 225,000, Reparejo moved all in for 517,000 on top of that with 
and got called by 
to jump into the lead.
Play was then stopped and the heads-up battle for the $82,835 first place prize as well as the golden bracelet will continue Thursday at 2 p.m Vegas time. Roland Reparejo will start heads-up play with the chip lead, with the blinds in level 23 kicking in at 20,000-40,000 with a 5,000 ante.
Heads-up chip counts:
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roland Reparejo | 1,795,000 |
| 2 | Corey Emery | 735,000 |
Final table results:
| Position | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TBA | $82,835 |
| 2 | TBA | $51,037 |
| 3 | Charles Nguyen | $33,073 |
| 4 | Olivier Doremus | $24,203 |
| 5 | John Taylor | $17,975 |
| 6 | Brian Wong | $13,528 |
| 7 | Marcin Sobczak | $10,308 |
| 8 | David Luttbeg | $7,947 |
| 9 | Kevin Chiem | $6,192 |
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river sent him to the rail in fifth place. The Nguyen rail filled the whole Amazon room with their chants and some of them are surely going to miss their voices tomorrow.
, but Sobczak had the flush draw. Both the 
turn and the 
