Two days are in the books in the $50,000 Player’s Championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Fifty-four players remain out of the 116 who entered on Friday, including several members of the online poker community. Omaha aficionado Scott BigRiskky Clements (pictured at right) owns a top 15 stack at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas with 438,000. The entire field is staring up at the 741,000 chips of WSOP bracelet winner Kirk Morrison.
Saturday marked the end of the line for many internet poker players in the $50,000 buy-in event. They can now give their undivided attention to Sunday majors across the world’s largest online poker rooms. Jason treysfull21 Mercier (pictured at left) was all-in during Stud Eight or Better, but his split fours ran into Eugene Katchalov’s split queens. Shortly beforehand, he had dropped a sizable pot to Cole South showing 4h-Ad-7d-2d against South’s 9s-Ks-10h-Ah. South bet out on sixth street and Mercier relinquished his hand.
Justin Boosted J Smith (pictured at right) ousted fellow online poker player Marco CrazyMarco Johnson during 2-7 Triple Draw. Smith owns the 46th largest stack in the room at 101,000 after Day 2 and hails from Florida. David Bakes Baker, meanwhile, scooped a pot in Omaha High-Low against 2009 WSOP Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey. Baker sits at 35th on the leaderboard after two days of play at 226,000.The top 10 in chips in the $50,000 Player’s Championship after Day 2 are as follows:
1. Kirk Morrison – 741,000
2. Andy Bloch – 716,500
3. Mikael Thuritz – 697,500
4. Nick Schulman – 683,000
5. Erik Sagstrom – 656,000
6. Robert Mizrachi – 625,500
7. Daniel Alaei – 605,500
8. Brett Richey – 578,000
9. Alexander Kostritsyn – 525,000
10. Ilya Bulychev – 490,500
Other online poker players remaining include Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo (43rd for 151,000), Steve MrSmokey1 Billirakis (48th for 78,500), Sorel Imper1um Mizzi (52nd for 36,000), and Barry barryg1 Greenstein (53rd for 32,600).
PocketFivers fared better in Event #3 of the 2010 WSOP, a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Day 1A kicked off on Saturday with a starting grid of 2,601 players and by its end, only 276 remained. Sitting pretty after Day 1A was Blake Balla-B13 Cahail (pictured at right), who is in ninth place on the leaderboard with 78,400 in chips. Joining Cahail in the top 10 are Dan Raiden Lu, Matt ch0ppy Kay, and Cyriel supa4real Dohmen.
Entering Event #3 on Saturday was 20th ranked David Doc Sands Sands (pictured at left). The former #1 player in the Online Poker Rankings told PocketFives.com prior to taking to the felts, “I am expecting a really soft field, but also a very fast structure, especially early. By the third level, the starting stack is only 30 big blinds and my goal is try to put myself in a position to win some big pots early against some of the softer players who I know will make errors, without risking too much of my stack.” Sands has pre-registered for all six $1,000 open events, whose Day 1s take place on Saturdays and Sundays.Among those who survived Day 1A was Laurence rivermanl Houghton. He held pocket sevens, but ran into pocket jacks and pocket aces as part of a three-way all-in. Houghton flopped an open-ended straight draw, which promptly hit on the turn and sent his chip stack skyrocketing to 47,000. He ended the day in 169th on the leaderboard at 20,400.
Here are the top 10 in chips after Day 1A of Event #3:
1. Terry Fleischer – 119,300
2. Nancy Todd Tyner – 103,000
3. Jerrymee Jose – 96,100
4. Drew Crawford – 95,000
5. Anders Taylor – 93,200
6. Dan Raiden Lu – 90,000
7. David Vanwert – 78,900
8. Blake Balla-B13 Cahail – 78,400
9. Matt ch0ppy Kay – 75,500
10. Cyriel supa4real Dohmen – 74,400
Other PocketFivers who can be found in the top 100 include Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania (20th for 58,300), Clayton Clayton_27 Newman (35th for 48,700), Jared TheWacoKidd Hamby (73rd for 36,000), Blair blur5f6 Hinkle (74th for 36,000), Jonathan FieryJustice Little (82nd for 33,000), and Tyler brainwash Cornell (83rd for 33,000).
Finally, Hoai Pham took down Event #1 of the 2010 WSOP, the annual $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em tournament, for $71,000. Pham defeated Arthur Vea heads-up and grabbing fourth in the event was none other than PocketFives.com member Matt drstraightaw Hollinger, who walked away with $21,000. Jeff unrealzeal Bennett took eighth place for nearly $7,000, or 14 times his investment. The final nine were as follows:
1. Hoai Pham – $71,424
2. Arthur Vea – $44,079
3. Christopher Reider – $28,655
4. Matt drstraightaw Hollinger – $21,047
5. Patrick Silvey – $15,677
6. Kent Washington – $11,829
7. David Villegas – $9,029
8. Jeff unrealzeal Bennett – $6,969
9. Yuta Motoyama – $5,434
Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest WSOP coverage of online poker players.
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