Today was supposed to be a story about two bubbles; the money bubble and the final table bubble. We can forget about the second bubble as that is still a distant dream to be worried about in the future, it’s the first bubble that dominated today’s play. It took around four hours of play to go from 19 players down to 18 players and the extremely unfortunate soul finishing in 19th was John Kabbaj. He got it in very good against chip leader John Racener but the latter has been running very good this year and that form continued.
Racener navigated the last level to remain in the lead with 276,000 chips. The chasing pack include Karl Mahrenholz (211,000) and 6-max finalist Willie Tann (154,000) and holding up the rear is Sean Dempsey (36,500). For a full list of counts please see the chip count tab.
It was many moons ago (or so it seems like) that 49 players returned for Day Two aiming to make the money and then on to the final table. Daniel Tafur was the first to leave and not long after him were Full Tilt Pros Vitaly Lunkin and Raul Paez. Other team members of theirs to fare better but also fail to cash include Ross Boatman, Roberto Romanello, Paul Zimbler and Scott Fischman. Other big names to leave without a payday were Hoyt Corkins, Frank Kassela, Chad Brown, Toby Lewis, Phil Laak and Barry Greenstein.
15 players made it through the day and they will all return at 3pm (BST) tomorrow where they will play all the way down to a winner who will receive a coveted gold and diamond bracelet, the second to be handed out at this year’s WSOPE festival. The action is sure to be faster paced tomorrow so please join us back here then to see how it pans out. Our final words come from the wise mouth of Willie Tann: “It’s been a hard day’s night!”
The final final hand, while Miles was busy doubling behind me, Christopher Chau was busting in 16th, having held on to the shortest stack imaginable for an impressive length of time. I got the lowdown from a helpful John Racener: Lisandro had limped the button, Chau in the small blind and Schwartz checked his option. The flop saw a straight all in first up from Chau (but it was just 3k), a raise from Schwartz but a call anyway from button Lisandro. The turned saw Schwartz check-fold to Lisandro, who'd turned a little straight, while Chau tabled and just misses out on Day Three action.
Little action given or taken (apart from a Jeff Lisandro threebet of Michael Schwartz) as the day finally draws to a close - it looks like 16 players will be coming back tomorrow.
On the very final hand, however, Andrew Miles committed his 38,500 preflop against a raising Jeff Madsen, who gave another try to Knock Out the Short Stack with . Miles held which held as the final board of the night came down . Touch and go there for Miles for a while, but as he noted, a "timely" double up to keep him in the running for the third day's play.
Down to literally two chips to rub together, Justin Smith managed one little win vs. Willie Tann but was all in again the next hand with . Joe Serock in the small blind raised, getting rid of the big blind Felipe Ramos, and showed down which duly made the Royal on the board, just for a bit of spice. This even got a mini reaction from Serock, who usually looks so serene it's like he's watching clouds slowly drift across a summer sky rather than other poker players placing gaming tokens in piles and pushing them around.
The first money place goes to Yasuhiro Waki, who went out with the same sort of hand which busted the bubble (and seems to be dispatching all the medium stacks with gusto while the shorties remain): . This hand started with a Chris Bjorin raise to 6k, called by Karl Mahrenholz and Jeff Madsen, before Waki made it clear he was committing by raising to 33k. The only one prepared to put him in now was Mahrenholz, who tabled .
The board: which if you look closely makes J-9 a straight. Waki accepted this with good grace, 'good-game'd' everyone and left to collect his winnings.
Erik Friberg, Jeff Lisandro and Justin Smith all got their chips in pre-flop but none of them busted.
Friberg limped from mid-position, Lisandro potted it from the button and Smith moved all-in from the SB. Fridberg said "What the heck" and moved all-in too and he was almost beaten in to the pot by Lisandro. Showdown:
Friberg:
Lisandro:
Smith:
The board ran to see Lisandro's hand hold-up to put him up to 90,000. Friberg took the side pot for 75,000 and poor Smith was left with just 500 chips. He did manage a triple-up the very next hand but has a long road to recovery.
A weird back-to-back pair of hands, the first of which saw Erik Friberg find at the same time Jeff Lisandro picked up to double through. Straight away the newly-short Lisandro raised to 10,500 preflop and Friberg called, setting him in in return, almost, on the flop. Lisandro had the Kings again, but this time they held against the of Friberg and we're pretty much back where we started...
![[user140344]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop saw a straight all in first up from Chau (but it was just 3k), a raise from Schwartz but a call anyway from button Lisandro. The turned 
saw Schwartz check-fold to Lisandro, who'd turned a little straight, while Chau tabled 
and just misses out on Day Three action.
. Miles held 
which held as the final board of the night came down 
. Touch and go there for Miles for a while, but as he noted, a "timely" double up to keep him in the running for the third day's play.
board, just for a bit of spice. This even got a mini reaction from Serock, who usually looks so serene it's like he's watching clouds slowly drift across a summer sky rather than other poker players placing gaming tokens in piles and pushing them around.
. This hand started with a Chris Bjorin raise to 6k, called by Karl Mahrenholz and Jeff Madsen, before Waki made it clear he was committing by raising to 33k. The only one prepared to put him in now was Mahrenholz, who tabled 
.
to see Lisandro's hand hold-up to put him up to 90,000. Friberg took the side pot for 75,000 and poor Smith was left with just 500 chips. He did manage a triple-up the very next hand but has a long road to recovery.
to double through. Straight away the newly-short Lisandro raised to 10,500 preflop and Friberg called, setting him in in return, almost, on the 
flop. Lisandro had the Kings again, but this time they held against the