In just its second year on the World Series of Poker calendar, Event $ 44: $10,000 Big O Championship is proving to be a favorite among poker’s high rollers and top players, and yesterday was certainly no exception.
A total of 323 players entered so far, already putting the field within 10 spots of passing last year’s inaugural mark, with late registration still open for the first two levels of the day. Matthew Woodward (422,500) leads the 126 players who return for Day 2 at 1 p.m. local time, followed by Andrew Yeh (405,000), seven-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman (372,500), James Chen (351,500), and Evgeni Tourevski (349,500).
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matthew Woodward | United States | 422,500 | 169 |
| 2 | Andrew Yeh | United States | 405,000 | 162 |
| 3 | Nick Schulman | United States | 372,500 | 149 |
| 4 | James Chen (US) | United States | 351,500 | 141 |
| 5 | Evgeni Tourevski | United States | 349,500 | 140 |
| 6 | Matthew Wantman | United States | 327,000 | 131 |
| 7 | Alex Tchong | Australia | 310,000 | 124 |
| 8 | Tyler Phillips | United States | 308,000 | 123 |
| 9 | Veerachai Vongxaiburana | United States | 291,500 | 117 |
| 10 | Lucas Zwingmann-Gocht | Germany | 289,000 | 116 |
In a sign of this event’s popularity, the rest of the leaderboard is littered with some of the biggest names in the game. Other top stacks include Matthew Wantman (327,000), Sam Soverel (288,000), Phil Hui (265,000), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (214,000), Allen Kessler (182,500), Patrick Leonard (181,000), and Alex Livingston (171,000). Swedish online legend Viktor Blom just missed his first bracelet in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship last night and jumped right into this event on one of the last levels, managing to build his stack up to 209,500.
Further down the leaderboard are Chino Rheem (127,500), Erik Seidel (122,000), Ben Lamb (86,000), Huck Seed (80,000), Erick Lindgren (73,500), Benny Glaser (50,000), Scott Seiver (46,500), and Mike Matusow (38,500).
The action on Day 2 picks up at 1 p.m. on Level 11 with blinds of 1,000/2,500 with a 2,500 big blind ante. Levels are once again 60 minutes long. Play is scheduled for 10 levels today, with a 60-minute dinner break at the end of Level 16 around 7:30 p.m. Late registration ends at the start of Level 13, around 3:15 p.m., with players allowed one reentry during the registration period.
Stay tuned as PokerNews follows all the action and provides live updates throughout the day.
