Home / Poker News September 2009 / WSOPE Main Event Day 2 – Ian Munns leads
WSOPE Main Event Day 2 – Ian Munns leads
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2009-09-30 10:35
Day 2 of the 2009 WSOPE Main Event saw a field of 178 Day 1 survivors belly up to the tables of the Empire Casino. Play began at 5:30 PM only, which meant that only 86 players bit the dust as there were still 92 survivors when the action was called.
The outstanding quality of the field meant that all those who hit the rail on Day 2 were well known to say the least. Among those eliminated was Phil Hellmuth, whose triumphant Roman Emperor entry on Day 1B failed to give him good luck. He busted out at the hands of Antonio Esfandiari, thus failing to make it to the first break of the day.
Esfandiari’s pair of Qs had Hellmuth’s pair of eights dominated, as the Emperor checked and called every street right down to the river to lose his entire stack. True to the image right down to the bone, the Emperor then threw a rage berating Efandiari in every possible way, behavior which could’ve put some of his historically less appreciated Emperor-brethren to shame.
Probably already familiar with such “Hellmuthian” tantrums, Esfandiari took it all in stride, his stack size proof to how good or bad a player he was.
The other story of the day was that of Doyle Brunson. The veteran poker legend, whose name used to be synonymous to Texas Holdem, put his younger peers to shame by outplaying them and by amassing a 210,900 chip stack which put him in 6th position at the end of the day.
Ian Munns was the one who finished on top, his 528,300 chip stack well ahead of second place Praz Bansi’s who only managed to accumulate 299,000 chips.
Oyvind Riisem finished the day in 3rd place, with 255,300 chips, followed by Amnon Filippi and David Docherty.
Ram Vaswani and Jason Mercier were in the top 10 as well.
James Akenhead, one of the 2009 November Nine members had a pretty good day 2 as well. He finished in 17th place, looking more than capable of making a rush to the finish line. His excellent performance comes to confirm the myth according to which November Nine members acquire an uncanny knack for doing well in events before their final table showdown.
UK soccer player Teddy Sherringham did well too, surviving to day 3 and outlasting many of the “name” pros like Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer and the “Emperor” himself, Phil Hellmuth, who all busted on day 2.
Day 1B chip leader Steve Zolotow will play on day 3, together with Kenna James, Toby Cousineau, Dennis Phillips, David Oppenheim, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Beevers, Dave Ulliott, John Tabatabai, Freddy Deeb, Annette Obrestad, Farzad Bonyadi, John Juanda, Todd Brunson and Men Nguyen.
Day 3 of the event will be a full one, with the star-packed field looking to play down to the money bubble and possibly past it.
