Jim and Jeff McNurlan both made the money in the Seniors today, the latter taking home $1,499 for 881st place, the former still in the running for Day 3 and, ultimately, his first bracelet. Jeff McNurlan told us that his brother has cashed in this event three years running (2019 included) and finished in positions 666th and 444th the last two years.
While dozens of tables have broken as hundreds of players hit the rail, Peter Mullin has remained in the same seat on Table 206 since cards first saw air. He started the day with 60,000 chips, and that's about what he has now. He told us that he'd been all in nine times and survived, then promptly made it ten. He moved all in for 45,000 or so under the gun, "because the media are here," and everyone folded.
"I'm all in, and never looked!" he announced, before showing the table .
The next hand there was a raise to 13,000, a button call and Mullin threw in most of the chips he'd just taken down. "Man calls minraise out of the big blind," quipped the preflop opener. All three players checked a flop. It checked to the button on the turn whose 25,000 bet took the pot.
David Einhorn put in a 55,000 bet from early position on the turn, with the board reading . His opponent in the cutoff called, bringing the river .
With the four-flush now showing on the board, Einhorn went all in for his remaining 200,000. The cutoff tanked briefly before folding, and Einhorn has moved up to 390,000.
Mark Kroon's stack continues to expand, as he's near the chip lead with 875,000 as the dinner break approaches.
Kroon has been battling with Mansour Alipourfard at his table throughout the day, and WSOP bracelet winner Steven Albini has joined the mix.
Alipourfard opened for 15,000 from early position on a recent hand, and Albini, seated to his direct left, three-bet to 45,000. The action folded back over to Alipourfard, who thought it over for a bit before folding.
On the very next hand, Albini opened for 13,000 from early position and got a call from the small blind. The action checked through on a flop of , and the small blind fired on both the turn and the river .
Albini contemplated the decision before calling the 60,000 river bet, kissing the chips goodbye before throwing them in the middle. The small blind turned over for the full house, bringing Albini back to earth just a bit.
As Level 16 ticked down to the dinner break, a dual elimination boosted the stack of an already chipped-up Samkyu Chung. Two players took the plunge all-in preflop, with pocket eights and pocket nines; he called with with the worst possible outcome for him being a loss of 110,000 from his 550,000+ stack. Instead, it was the best possible outcome: the aces held over a board and two more players headed to the rail.
One of those busted in this hand was one of the overnight chip leaders from Day 1, Ravinder Bedi, who collected $1,730, having made it through two small payout jumps already.
One player happy to have made it through the bubble, and nursing a relatively short stack back to health in Level 16 is Bill Kitzerow. Returning with just over 20,000, he underwent a lengthy grind with around 30,000 before starting to recoup chips in the middle of the day.
Elsewhere, Gloria Kanngiesser, who has flown under our radar for much of the day, has turned 110,000 into over 400,000 at the halfway point of Day 2.