Ludovic Lacay had pushed all-in on a against Roland de Wolfe as the break began. The chirpy cheeky smile of the Triple Crown winner had gone and was replaced by a pensive face that looked deep in thought.
After about five minutes into the break De Wolfe finally made a semi-reluctant call for Lacay's last 16,300. The 20,000 or so already in the pot clearly a deciding factor, De Wolfe flipped but the super-aggressive Lacay had a real hand this time - which held on the turn and river as he doubled up to over 50,000. De Wolfe dropped to 26,000.
A couple of minutes into the break, November Niner John Racener was tanking facing a bet of 16,950 from an opponent on the board of . Racener tanked about six full minutes into the break and eventually called. His opponent tabled the for a full house and Racener mucked. The November Niner dropped to just 6,500 and went on break not too happy.
Nikloay Evdakov was nicknamed The Roach a couple of years ago at the WSOP after his record ten cashes and a seeming inability to bust. Antonio Esfandiari now knows all about the Russian's survival instincts after his aces were cracked by the said Evdakov's kings in the last hand before break. All the chips went in pre-flop but the Russian made a straight on a board. He's up to 64,000 now and Esfandiari is down to 68,000.
Day 2 is a full level old, and for some, the day is already over.
John Juanda, Tommy Vedes, Martin Kabrhel, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, Neil Channing, Dan O'Brien. We could keep going if we so chose, but that at least gives you a taste of some of the notables we've already loved and lost today.
Notables fill the top end of the leaderboard as well, however, and it looks like start-of-day chip leader James Mitchell is still out in front after one level. Nicolas Levi shot all the way up close to 200,000 in the early going, but then he decided to tangle with Phil Ivey. That doesn't usually work out well, and Levi will have to settle for a still-very-healthy 135,000 or so at the break. That chip difference is now in Phil Ivey's stack, and he's started his day off well. We have him at about 145,000 at the break, and that puts him in the top three overall with about 170 players left.
We'll get some more firm counts here when the players step out of the room. They'll be back in twenty minutes for another level of poker, and we'll do the same.
Steven van Zedelhoff is up to 150,000 after "Squeezing with kings" as he described it. The chips all went in on a queen high flop with his opponent, Carlos Mortensen, holding king-queen.
Dominic Kay opened to 1,400 in the cutoff and Steven van Zadelhoff called on the the button before Jonathan Aguiar made it 5,500 from the small blind. Back to Kay, who made it 13,300; van Zadelhoff folded, but Aguiar five-bet all in for another 23,200 on top.
Kay now huffed and puffed for a while before announcing, "This sucks." After just a minute or two he called the clock on himself, looking most agitated. "I'm so bad," he said mostly to himself by the looks of it, "This is so standard."
Faraz Jaka has seen more pots than Bill and Ben here on Day 2. Every time I pass his table he's involved in the action, and the last hand was of no exception.
Having called a bet of 10,000 on the turn of a board, Jaka found himself facing an all in of 18,575.
The man with his tournament life on the line was Bryn Kenney, a cucumber cool young gun from the States who finished 28th in this year's WSOP Main Event for $255,242.
After much deliberation, Jaka made the call, but was chagrined to see Kenny turn over .
Victory shot Kenney up to 75,000, whilst Jaka dropped to approximately the same figure.
![[user4144]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
against Ben Cherif's 
, and he stayed good all the way down the 
board for a double up.
against Roland de Wolfe as the break began. The chirpy cheeky smile of the Triple Crown winner had gone and was replaced by a pensive face that looked deep in thought.
but the super-aggressive Lacay had a real hand this time - 
which held on the 
turn and 
river as he doubled up to over 50,000. De Wolfe dropped to 26,000.
. Racener tanked about six full minutes into the break and eventually called. His opponent tabled the 
for a full house and Racener mucked. The November Niner dropped to just 6,500 and went on break not too happy.
board. He's up to 64,000 now and Esfandiari is down to 68,000.
board, Jaka found himself facing an all in of 18,575.
.