Excitement is building in Las Vegas as the last two competitions before the main event play out, and both amateur and professional poker players prepare themselves for the most prestigious contest in world poker, where the biggest money, most players, highest concentration of star-power and greatest arena for the demonstration of poker talent all await
Event 54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold?em started its second day after two Day 1 flights produced a combined entry field of 4,576 and a prize pool worth $4.11 million, guaranteeing a first prize of $648,880.
Going into the second day, 686 survivors of the first two flights gathered Monday afternoon with Paul Volpe holding the chip lead on 124,500, but many top players still in contention, including Shane Schleger, Matt Waxman, Terrence Chan, Fatima Moreira De Melo, Randy Lew, Brandon Cantu, Matt Stout, Paul Magriel and Devin Porter.
By late Monday night Vegas time the money bubble had burst at position 468 and there were 102 players left at level 17, led by Anibol Andres on 333,000, who was being chased by Maxim Lykov on 260,000.
There’s still loads of talent in the remaining field, and plenty more excitement in store.
Event 55: $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship was down to just 32 players at level 15 late Monday night in Vegas, all that remained of a mostly professional entry list of 128 multi-game experts.
The first day produced only 5 eliminations, but the second day was considerably more action-packed, despatching 49 more players and ending with just 74 still in business, and Ben Lamb leading.
Day three saw the likes of Lamb, Gus Hansen, Sebastian Ruthenberg, David Oppenheim, Matt Glantz, Josh Arieh, Steve Billirakis and others returning to the tables with the reminder that only 16 will make a profit on this high buy-in event.
The “eight-game mix” format will continue through to the final table, when the game will switch to no-limit hold’em only.
By late night Monday level 15 had been reached, with 32 players still at the tables and Brian Rast leading the chip counts on 1,320,000. George Lind was hot on his heels on 1,210,000, followed by other top ten chip holders Josh Arieh (1,090,000), Owais Ahmed (986,000), Scott Seiver (980,000), Vladimir Shchemelev (900,000), Shaun Deeb (900,000), Gus Hansen (890,000), Phil Hellmuth (810,000) and the previous day’s chip leader Ben Lamb (750,000).
Further back in the field are formidable players like Matt Glantz, Michael Binger, Robert Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein, Phil Galfond, Steve Billirakis, David Baker, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Jon Turner and David Bach.