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WSOP Main Event - Day 2A
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-07-10 05:29
The first one of the two day 2 flights of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, Day 2A featured a field of 1,476 players, all Day 1A and Day 1B survivors who returned for a shot at the $61 million prize-pool and Main Event glory.
When the dust settled at the end of the day, only 630 players were still in contention and Eric Cloutier sat atop the provisional chip leader board, with 383,500 chips.
Brandon Demes, one of the Day 1 chip leaders, did pretty well too and amassed a nice stack as did Greg Mueller and Ed Perry.
The beginning of Day 2A featured fast and furious action, as those who’d survived the Day 1 action on short-stacks were quick to make that do or die move. Gus Hansen was among the early victims, though it’s safe to say through no fault of his own. He suffered a terrible bad beat when he shoved all-in holding a Broadway straight on the turn against an opponent’s set. The river then paired the board and gave his opponent a boat which sent the Great Dane to the rail.
Johnny Chan followed him to the rail soon and so did Sandra Naujoks, Jennifer Tilly and Richard Brodie.
Phil Laak was sent to the rail as well a tad later in the day.
Tony G, Barry Greenstein and Jason Mercier reached the end of the line too and busted out one by one as the dinner break drew closer.
Jack Ury, the oldest player ever to play in a WSOP Main Event, dropped all his chips on Day 2A and exited the room amid the crowd’s ovations.
He lost a marginal hand with top pair on a board of A,Q,4,5,8 with A,10 against an opponent’s A,J.
Mel Judah suffered a bad beat too to leave the tournament just before the dinner break. The board read 9,A,A nobody bet out. The turn brought a 6 and gave Judah, who held 6,6 in his pocket, a boat. His two opponents checked around to him again and Judah shoved all-in. One opponent folded and the other one called him with Q,Q for two pair. The river card fell another A though giving his opponent a higher boat and promptly sending Judah to the rail.
After dinner, even more beleaguered short-stacks decided to risk their tournament lives to make sure they advance to Day 3. As a result of that, heads started rolling with an unusual frequency again. Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow, Billy Argyros and Alex Kravchenko all busted out during this period. Matusow ran his K,Q into an opponent’s pocket Ks to bust. He was followed to the rail shortly by Amarillo Slim, Gavin Smith, Dewey Tomko and Brad Garrett.
Eric Cloutier built up his stack at the expense of Juha Helppi late in the day. Helppi picked up a couple of Ks and moved all-in right away. He got called by Cloutier’s pocket rockets though and the board failed to help the Finn out.
Vitaly Lunkin, Erik Seidel, Greg Raymer, Andy Black, Jimmy Fricke and Roland De Wolfe have also made it past the day.
