Andrew Brown is on an elimination spree. Right after eliminating one of his opponents, he did the same to 888poker ambassador Natalie Hof.
Hof pushed her last 13,000 all in and when the action folded to Brown in the small blind he grabbed a load of 5,000 chips and splashed them in the middle. Brown had about half of his stack in the middle and still had a player behind him to act.
"Don't do it man, don't do it."
The player in the big blind didn't do it and Brown and Hof opened up their hands.
Natalie Hof:
Andrew Brown:
The board ran out and Hof was eliminated by Brown.
Ludovic Geilich was cruising above the 300,000 mark but has just recently surpassed the next milestone. On a completed board reading , Geilich pushed in a bet of 125,000 into a pot of around 80,000. It was more than enough to put his opponent to the test for his remaining 100,000 chips and he eventually folded. Geilich scooped the pot and has now passed the 400,000 chip mark, leading the entire Brasilia Room.
After a raise and a three-bet to 9,000 by William Kassouf on the cutoff, initial raiser Erhart Edquist moved all in from the hijack and the camera crews rushed by to see if a showdown would take place. Eventually, Kassouf called it off for his last 42,100 and the cards were turned over.
William Kassouf:
Erhart Edquist:
"Any aces about?" Kassouf asked and received one right on the flop. The turn and river were blanks and the talkative Brit doubled.
"The haters won't like it, they hope I bust. But now I get more TV time," Kassouf added while stacking the chips.
Over on the feature table, Ravid Garbi raised to 2,600 and Jonathan Abdellatif moved all in for 31,100 in the cutoff. Joel Dickerson called on the button and Garbi sent his cards into the muck.
Jonathan Abdellatif:
Joel Dickerson:
The board came and Abdellatif's Main Event run came to an end in the penultimate level of Day 2c. Phil Hellmuth remains in the middle of the pack on the main feature table.
888poker Ambassador Chris Moorman was down to around 20,000 at one point but is now sporting a stack of well over 200,000.
He first won a hand where the board read and his opponent had bet 6,500. Moorman needed some time but ended up calling with for the pair of eights on the board with the ace kicker and that was more than enough as his opponent tabled .
A few minutes later, Moorman doubled up to around 90,000 when he was all in and called with on a queen-high board.
Then about another 10 minutes later, Moorman got another double-up and he was kind enough to tell the live reporting team what had happened.
Moorman had and he raised. The player in the four-seat three-bet and Moorman responded with a four-bet and his opponent called which created a pot of around 22,000 before the flop was dealt.
The flop came , Moorman continued with a bet of 13,700, and was called.
The turn brought them a and Moorman's continuation-bet for 19,000 was called again.
The river completed the board with another and Moorman jammed for 51,000 and got called again. Moorman showed his aces and doubled up.
There were 3,480 survivors in Day 1c of the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, but at the end of Day 2c, around half of them were still standing. In total, 1,655 players will advance from Day 2c. Leading the way at the end of play on Day 2c was Ignacio Sanchez who ended up bagging the overall tournament chip lead as well with 627,200 chips, more than Shawn Daniels, his Day 2ab counterpart, who bagged up 532,500.
Sanchez put together a hell of a day, climbing up the leaderboards early, and toward the end of the night taking down a big pot from Cliff Josephy to assume the tournament chip lead. In the hand, Sanchez made a flush on the turn and shoved all in against Cliff Josephy, who also had a big stack. Josephy eventually decided to fold, but the pot worth more than 100,000 chips pushed Sanchez above all of the other players in the field.
Sanchez is a farmer who says he only plays poker one time a year, which explains why he doesn’t have a lot of cashes in larger buy-in events, but this isn’t the first Main Event that he’s played. He cashed back in 2014 as well, finishing 582nd place for $20,228. Sanchez has fond memories of the Main Event though, one of them involving former Main Event Champion Phil Hellmuth bluffing him.
"He bluffed me but I've gotten better than then,” Sanchez said about Hellmuth.
Phil Hellmuth
Speaking of Hellmuth, he spent much of his time in the spotlight at the Amazon feature tables on Friday as well. Hellmuth was able to run up his stack over the course of the day at the main feature table and finished the night with over 162,700 chips.
“It's the calmest I've ever been for a Day 2, I think,” Hellmuth said about his Day 2c performance. “Not to say I didn't get a little Poker Brat, but not bad. It's just a calmness... I felt like I knew where I was in a lot of hands. One guy, in particular, ended up beating me 13 or 14 hands, which was OK. I actually dealt with it well. I understand more than ever that my biggest enemy in the Main Event is myself. I need to stay calm. I need to understand just how much skill there is and how many big blinds I have at all times."
Phil Ivey
But after multiple years of hiatus, it was a different Phil who caught the public eye today. Phil Ivey bagged up one of the biggest stacks in the tournament at the end of play on Friday. Over the course of the day, Ivey made some sick calls, well-timed bluffs and value bets, and was able to bag up a stack of 434,200 chips to bring to Day 3. It’s been four years since Ivey’s last Main Event cash. In 2014 he came 430th for $25,756. He’ll look to break that streak this year.
Among others who bagged up big stacks on Day 2c were Ivan Luca (339,900), Samuel Touil (405,500), Jan-Eric Schwippert (338,600), Ludovic Geilich (333,900), and Cliff Josephy (285,400). Josephy is no stranger to success in the Main Event. It was in 2016 when Josephy made the final table of the Main Event for the first time, finishing third for $3,453,035 and, while it will take a lot for him to improve upon that finish, he’s putting himself in a position to do so by bagging a big stack on Day 2c.
“It was a lot different,” Josephy said about his Day 2. “Day 2 has been going wonderfully for me today, so it’s all good. It’s more than I could’ve hoped for. I’m very happy with everything that’s been going on.”
Mike McDonald and Veron Lammers are co-founders of the poker betting site PokerShares and have both made their way to Las Vegas for the WSOP Main Event. Not only are they sweating themselves, but they will also be sweating certain players that make deep runs in the tournament...and cheering against them. "The Main Event is the biggest time of year for us, we get the most amount of action on our site," McDonald said. "We'll be sweating all of the big bets on big players, and it's good for us when they bust," he said with a laugh.
Unfortunately, the site is not available to those residents in the United States, nor can you access the site while you are staying in Las Vegas. But hopefully, that will change with the new sports betting laws that are coming out. "We are just a small fish in the business right now but tapping into the American market would be huge for us," Lammers mentioned about the idea. "We will have to just wait and see what happens but it's definitely a great opportunity for us."
The next big event for the company will be the Big One for One Drop that will take place following the Main Event which brings a lot of traction to the site. "Lots of people can't play that tournament so for them to be able to buy some action is a nice sweat." McDonald made his living off poker tournaments in the past but has since turned to his new business and he is loving it. "I've played one tournament in between last year's Main Event and this year, so I'm a bit rusty."
McDonald will be returning with a stack of 43,800 while Lammers bagged up 54,700. Both will be looking to reach the money tomorrow but the real money for them comes from those who fail to cash.
In addition to all of those who made it through the day, there were those who fell as well. Some of those who didn’t make it include Steven Wolansky, Bart Hanson, Joe Serock, Andrey Zaichenko, Adrian Mateos Joseph Cheong, Vivian Saliba, Dominik Nitsche, David Williams, and Natalie Hof, just to name a few. Mark Newhouse, who has put together solid Main Event runs over the past few years, was also eliminated today and he’ll have to wait until next year to make another Main Event final table.
The day got underway at 11 a.m., July 6, with another five two-hour-long levels on the schedule. At the end of the night, less than 1,655 players of the starting 3,480 were left. The survivors will combine with survivors from Day 2a and 2b for a total of 2,786 players returning on Saturday, July 7 at 11 a.m. again for another five levels of play. PokerNews will be back to cover from start to finish so make sure to stay tuned in.
and Hof was eliminated by Brown.
, Geilich pushed in a bet of 125,000 into a pot of around 80,000. It was more than enough to put his opponent to the test for his remaining 100,000 chips and he eventually folded. Geilich scooped the pot and has now passed the 400,000 chip mark, leading the entire Brasilia Room.
flop. The 
turn and 
river were blanks and the talkative Brit doubled.
and Abdellatif's Main Event run came to an end in the penultimate level of Day 2c. Phil Hellmuth remains in the middle of the pack on the main feature table.
and his opponent had bet 6,500. Moorman needed some time but ended up calling with 
for the pair of eights on the board with the ace kicker and that was more than enough as his opponent tabled 
on a queen-high board.
, Moorman continued with a bet of 13,700, and was called.
and Moorman's continuation-bet for 19,000 was called again.
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