Home / Poker News June 2008 / Big names bust out in event #32. Velador comes from behind to take the lead
Big names bust out in event #32. Velador comes from behind to take the lead
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2008-06-19 18:49
Am I ever glad I chose this $1,500 NL Holdem event to run a news feature on. Day 2 saw a complete shakeup of the chip leaderboard as the last of the accomplished professional busted out leaving it up to the amateurs to fight it out at the final table.
Needless to say, going into day two, all eyes were on Phil Hellmuth. He started off by almost doubling up, pitting his A,K against Jeffrey Milkey’s A,5. His luck didn’t last though, and slowly but surely he bled away most of his stack. When he was forced to go all-in against Jeff Norman’s 10,10, his Q,J failed to improve and to the rail he went in 71st place. He did improve his record of WSOP money finishes though, to 65.
John Nguyen proved to be particularly unlucky as he took one bad beat after another. Pocket Jacks is probably a hand Nguyen won’t be playing for a long time to come. First, his J,J went up against Ben Alcomber’s big slick, and the latter landed a K on the river. Then, he pushed all-in with J,J again, against A,K and lost as his opponent made a straight.
Andy Garza, who began the day in the lead, was hit big twice by Osmin Dardon. First, his 7,7 ran into Dardon’s J,J as they both made sets on the flop, then his A,Q went unimproved against Dardon’s K,K. He was eventually eliminated by Shane Stacey, on a KK vs A,9 match-up.
Jose Louis Velador was the dominant force on day 2. He eliminated one player after another, on his way to building up a stack of 1,898,000 chips. He first sent Joe Bussey packing, then David Tashman and Jimmy Tran also got a taste of Velador’s medicine.
Anthony Signore, Osmin Dardon, Shane Stacey, Jae Chung, Utsab Saha, Joseph Georges, Justin Hofmann and Dean Bui are the other finalists.
