Two Day 2 events were going full-on as we went to press press, with plenty of action and heavy late night (Las Vegas time) attrition rates.
In event 13 – the $1,000 buy-in NLHE competition – an original field of 3 042 entrants had been eroded down to only 108 players by 11pm Las Vegas time, with most contestants apparently settling in for a long night and an early morning finish.
The event has generated a prize pool of $2,737,800 and a first prize of $472,479.
By level 15 the blinds were at 1 500/3 000, ante at 400 and average stack was $84 500, with the top eight chip stacks arrayed thus:
David Baker – 270,000
Daniel Carter – 240,000
Christopher Brammer – 202,000
Dylan Linde – 190,000
Nick Guagenti – 185,000
Mostafa Jamasbi – 179,000
Mats Gavatin – 165,000
Nathanael Seet – 160,000
Victor Ramdin, Andy Black, Shaun Deeb and Vitaly Lunkin were still in there slugging, but Liv Boeree and Paul Wasicka were among the notable names who have busted out.
Event 15 – the $10 000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Championship – saw the original field of 170 players down to just 31 combatants by 11pm Monday night Vegas time, with Italians and Russians topping the chip counts as Vladimir Schmelev on 280 000 fought off a spirited challenge from Italian young gun Dario Minieri (250 000). Other top chip counts were:
Alex Dovzhenko 245,000
Blair Rodman 230,000
Chris George 200,000
Richard Ashby 200,000
John Juanda 195,000
Mike Sexton 190,000
Jason Mercier 180,000
Alessio Isaia 170,000
The prize pool in this event is $1 598 000, with the winner set to scoop $447 446. Players who will not be claiming the main prize, having already been eliminated include defending champion Jeff Lisandro, Tom Dwan, David Benyamine and Nick Schulman.
Just for interest, here’s a list of WSOP Main Event winners over the past decade:
2009: Joseph Cada $8,546,435
2008: Peter Eastgate $ 9,152,416
2007: Jerry Yang $8,250,000
2006: Jamie Gold $12,000,000
2005: Joseph Hachem $7,500,000
2004: Greg Raymer $5,000,000
2003: Chris Moneymaker $2,500,000
2002: Robert Varkonyi $2,000,000
2001: Carlos Mortensen $1,500,000
2000: Chris Ferguson $1,500,000
The 2010 Main Event will start next (July) month and play down to a final table of nine before breaking until November, when final table action will decide the ultimate winner.