Alrighty Then! Ventura Leads the Way in $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty
Day 2 of Event #86 $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em has reached a conclusion for the evening at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
From the 150 players who started the day only nine remain to return on Saturday, July 15th to compete for the $402,054 first-place prize money and the beautiful World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Diego Ventura of Peru will come into Day 3 as the overwhelming chip leader with 13,350,000 chips. That is around a quarter of the chips in play. He will be looking to be the first Peruvian to claim a WSOP Bracelet in Las Vegas.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Jacobson | Sweden | 3,275,000 | 13 |
| 2 | Thomas Kysar | United States | 8,925,000 | 36 |
| 3 | Diego Ventura | Peru | 13,350,000 | 53 |
| 4 | Francis Anderson | United States | 1,625,000 | 7 |
| 5 | Jimmy Setna | Canada | 2,600,000 | 10 |
| 6 | Jose Nadal | Mexico | 2,825,000 | 11 |
| 7 | Jason James | Canada | 4,675,000 | 19 |
| 8 | Louie Torres | United States | 3,400,000 | 14 |
| 9 | Leonid Yanovski | Israel | 1,850,000 | 7 |
In second place is Thomas Kysar with 8,925,000 and, more importantly, he will be sitting in position from Ventura during the final table. From this position, Kysar may prove to be a thorn in Ventura's side.
The rest of the field will return with less than 20 big blinds each, including the 2014 Main Event champion Martin Jacobson (3,275,000) who will be vying for his second bracelet.
Highlights of the Day
From the fifteen Hall of Fame bounties that entered Day 1, only two made it through to Day 2. The 2022 inductee Eli Elezra was the first bounty to be claimed by the erratic Nitis Udornpim. Udornpim cracked Elezra's pocket queens by hitting a straight with ten-nine suited to claim the $2,022 bounty.
Seventeen-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth had a tremendous run in the tournament which came to a halt after making it all the way to 19th place. His day ended after Josh Palmer made a flush, beating Hellmuth’s pocket-eights. Palmer went on to finish 11th to collect $25,887 as well as the bounty prize of $2,007.
Following Palmer’s elimination, the remaining players combined to make the unofficial final table. Qing Liu was only just getting comfortable in his new seat when he busted out, running his pocket threes into Jacobson’s big slick which flopped an ace to take the pot.
Play will resume in the Horseshoe Events Center at noon local time on one of the feature tables. Blinds will start at 125,000/250,000 and a big blind ante of 250,000. Play will continue until a winner is decided.
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