Glendinning Leads Final 18; Dzivielevski Looks to Defend Title in $3,000 Nine Game Mix
Stud Games: 7,000 Ante, 10,000 Bring-In, 30,000 Completion, 30,000-60,000 Limits
Pot-Limit & No-Limit: 16,000/24,000 Ante, 8,000-16,000 Blinds
Day 2 of Event #58: $3,000 Nine Game Mix—affectionately referred to as the "Mini PPC" (Poker Player's Championship) by many players—saw 144 players return to the Horseshoe Convention Center to showcase their skills across multiple poker disciplines. After ten hours of play, Jonathan Glendinning emerged as the leader of the remaining 18 players after bagging up 1,446,000 in chips. Just behind him is Jon Kyte with 1,425,000 and rounding out the top three is Thomas Taylor, who ended with 1,278,000.
Glendinning is a regular at WSOP events with over $1 million in reported live-tournament earnings. Although he has yet to win a bracelet, he does hold one circuit ring and has cashed six times during this series. Glendinning will be looking to best his fourth-place finish in the $1,500 Badugi event a couple of weeks ago.
Glendinning will have stiff competition, however, as less than 300,000 separate the top five players. Additionally, the remaining field is packed with poker talent, including four-time bracelet winner and 2006 Player of the Year Jeff Madsen (1,200,000) and Defending champion Yuri Dzivielevski (705,000) — who will be gunning for his own fourth bracelet.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Glendinning | United States | 1,446,000 |
| 2 | Jon Kyte | Norway | 1,425,000 |
| 3 | Thomas Taylor | Canada | 1,278,000 |
| 4 | Jeff Madsen | United States | 1,200,000 |
| 5 | Fu Wong | United States | 1,200,000 |
| 6 | Yueqi Zhu | China | 1,160,000 |
| 7 | Hiroshi Tanaka | Japan | 1,021,000 |
| 8 | Philip Sternheimer | United Kingdom | 975,000 |
| 9 | Robert Wells | United Kingdom | 969,000 |
| 10 | David Bach | United States | 840,000 |
The remaining players have already earned $9,682, but the ultimate goal is the $228,115 first-place prize, which represents the winner's share of the $1,092,030 prize pool.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
| 1 | $228,115 | 8-9 | $19,134 |
| 2 | $149,152 | 10-11 | $14,839 |
| 3 | $99,771 | 12-14 | $11,822 |
| 4 | $68,304 | 15-18 | $9,682 |
| 5 | $47,884 | ||
| 6 | $34,394 | ||
| 7 | $25,328 |
Day 2 Highlights
The returning players represented an absolutely stacked field of poker studs fighting to secure their spot in the money. However, with over 80 eliminations to go before the money bubble burst, the majority found themselves on the rail before cashing. Among those who fell early are Josh Arieh, Luis Velador, Felipe Ramos, Dan Smith, Viktor Blom, Dario Alioto, Mike Matusow, Dave Stann, Nam Le, and Phil Hellmuth.
Meanwhile, Kyte got off to an excellent start after cracking Danny Noam's aces and found himself sitting atop the leaderboard with half a million in chips shortly after the first break. Kyte continued to chip up throughout the night and narrowly missed bagging the chip lead. Kyte has yet to win a bracelet, but holds multiple EPT titles and a runner-up finish in the WSOP last year in a $2,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo event.
Frank Athey was bestowed the unfortunate title of "bubble boy" after getting all in during Razz and ending with a ten against Jarryd Godena's nine. At that point, all the short-stacked players who locked up a min-cash began dropping out en masse, including Gus Hansen, Brad Owen, Chip Jett, Nick Schulman, James Obst, and David "ODB" Baker — whose chips went to Dzivielevski after making an eight-low in Razz against Dzivielevski's seven-low.
As play wound down for the night, Glendinning scored a key knockout against Chad Eveslage after flopping two pair and turning a full house in Omaha Hi-Lo to get a nice boost to his stack. However, the final elimination of the night belonged to Philip Sternheimer, who sent Koji Fujimoto to the rail after drawing to an eight in Razz.
Day 3 will begin at 1 p.m. on Monday, June 23, and the plan is to play down to a winner. Action will resume on Level 23, which features 40,000/80,000 betting limits for limit and stud games and 10,000/20,000 blinds for pot-limit and no-limit games. Levels will continue to last 60 minutes each, and breaks will be held after every two hours of play.
The finish line is now in sight, as just 17 eliminations are all that stand before the eventual champion. Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the chops, scoops, and beats until one player is left holding the gold!