Vaitiekunas Leads, Bleznick Near Top in $25,000 High Roller 6-Handed
Over 13 hours of poker were played on Day 2 of Event #22: $25,000 6-Handed High Roller before the chips were put into bags for the final 15 players. Despite the temperature being chilly inside the Horseshoe Event Center, the action was red-hot throughout the day which led to a total of 336 entries for this event along with a prize pool of $7,896,000.
When the dust settled, it was Jared Bleznick who found himself near the top of the chip counts with a healthy stack of 6,550,000. On the heels of a massive cooler late in the day, Bleznick coasted through the last level to put himself in a prime position to earn his second World Series of Poker bracelet. Despite claiming that no-limit hold'em is his "worst game," the sports-card enthusiast showed no signs of any wrinkles in his poker game today.
Leading the charge is Lithuanian poker pro Paulius Vaitiekunas who had a widely successful day on the felt in search of his second WSOP title. Vaitiekunas has recently engaged in battles with many of his opponents on the Triton circuit but will be looking for his first live bracelet win. Vaitiekunas will enter the third and final day with 7,050,000 chips, good enough for over 70 big blinds.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paulius Vaitiekunas | Lithuania | 7,050,000 | 71 |
| 2 | Jared Bleznick | United States | 6,550,000 | 66 |
| 3 | Barak Wisbrod | Israel | 5,190,000 | 52 |
| 4 | Fabian Gumz | Austria | 5,145,000 | 51 |
| 5 | Chris Moorman | United Kingdom | 4,575,000 | 46 |
| 6 | Landon Tice | United States | 3,705,000 | 37 |
| 7 | Mustapha Kanit | Italy | 3,560,000 | 36 |
| 8 | Dan Sepiol | United States | 2,750,000 | 28 |
| 9 | Michael Macchia | United States | 2,550,000 | 26 |
| 10 | Matthew Sabia | United States | 2,395,000 | 24 |
Day 2 Action
The day began with 72 players returning to their seats, but that number quickly grew with late registration still open for one level and players having the option of one reentry. Over the course of the first hour, 64 players joined the field, including 47 of them ponying up $25,000 at the last possible minute which created an extra delay in the seating process.
There was no shortage of entertainment in the early going with Martin Kabrhel on one end of the room and Phil Hellmuth on the other. Kabrhel's day didn't last very long when he was silenced by Dimitar Danchev, which allowed everyone in the room to remove their headphones. As for Hellmuth, he made it past the late registration phase, but a bad beat against Barak Wisbrod left the "Poker Brat" banging the table and talking to himself on his way out of the tournament area.
Once the late registration period ended, a flurry of eliminations led to a condensed field that saw the money bubble on the horizon. Just 51 places were paid and the money bubble burst in a cooler between Brian Rast and Sam Soverel. The latter was the short stack and facing an uphill battle with ace-king against the pocket aces of Rast. A clean board meant Soverel was eliminated on the stone bubble and the rest of the field locked up a min-cash of $50,299.
Many notables were quick to make their way to the payout desk including Andrew Lichtenberger, Seth Davies, Joao Vieira, Thomas Muehloecker, and start of day chip leader Michael Gathy. The field dwindled down to just 18 players by the time the last break of the night arrived, when they were told there was only one level remaining.
Upon returning from the break, Nick Schulman was the shortest stack in the field and was unable to find a spin-up of his sub-10 big blind stack. In the last hand of the night, Chris Moorman laid the hurting on two of the short stacks with the double elimination of Krasimir Yankov and Adrien Delmas.
The final 15 players will return to the felt at 12 p.m. PDT Saturday, when the blinds will resume on Level 19 at 50,000/100,000 and a 100,000 big blind ante. Levels will continue to be 60 minutes in length. They will play until a winner is crowned and holding the coveted WSOP bracelet along with the first-place prize of $1,734,717.
PokerGO is planning to stream the action, on delay, starting at 5 p.m. PDT. Live updates here will be paused to sync up with the stream in order to avoid any spoilers.
Follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team to find out who will come out on top in this illustrious field.