Home / Poker News May 2009 / Justin Bonomo leads WSOP 2009 Event #2, the $40,000 anniversary special
Justin Bonomo leads WSOP 2009 Event #2, the $40,000 anniversary special
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-05-31 02:03
89 players returned to the green felt on Day 2 of the 2009 WSOP’s $40,000 anniversary event. Among these players were chip leaders Bruno Fitoussi and Chris Moneymaker as well as Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Doyle Brunson, and Mike Matusow who was grumpy as always, this time over the innovative tournament structure adopted for the event.
Due to the huge buy-in and to the Day 1 attrition, the Day 2 field did indeed look like a hand-picked selection of the best poker talent available. The online starts were well represented too, by the likes of Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and James “mig.com” Mackey.
The end of Day 2 would see Justin Bonomo top the provisional chip leader board.
Bill Chen was among the early victims of Day 2. He ran his pocket 10s into Mark Seif’s pocket Jacks and the board bricked out on both players. Hoyt Corkins followed him to the rail soon and Doyle Brunson and John Duthie joined them shortly too.
Michael DeMichele fell at the hands of Lex Veldhuis, giving the latter the chip lead briefly, early in the day. DeMichele’s pocket rockets got blown away by Veldhuis’ pocket 8s which hit quads on the turn.
Ted Forrest missed part of a level but that didn’t prevent him from gunning for the chip lead later in the day. Forrest made progress at Moneymaker’s expense who – despite having started the day second in chips – failed to string anything together and busted out before the money bubble. In his final hand, Moneymaker got all his chips in on pocket 10s vs Forrest’s K,K. The flop gave both players a set but all that did was to put Forrest even further ahead. The turn and the river didn’t bail the former Main Event Champ out, and he was done.
Raymer sent Steve Zolotow to the rail and thus secured the top spot for a brief while. Phil Galfond left the tournament in 29th and Neil Chriss busted on the money bubble after him.
After the bubble, only six more hands were played on Day 2, those 6 hands however provided plenty of opportunities for the short-stacks to perform their do-or-die antics.
Vanessa Rousso busted out during these last 6 hands and so did Sorel Mizzi.
Brian Townsend, Tony G and Lex Velhuis all survived the day, and they will do battle with Greg Raymer, David Baker and Ted Forrest on Day 3.
