The WPT North American Poker Championship Day 2Pros Dominate On Day 2 Of The World Poker Tour Event |
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The surviving fields of 1A and 1B gathered in the Fallsview Casino's Grand Hall for the official "day two" of the World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship. While the two day ones revolved around completing seven levels of tournament play, the NAPC's second phase was all about one thing, eliminations.
A total of 223 players entered action, and by the end of day two, only 45 would remain.
Play began at 12:13 p.m. EDT. The level 8 poker featured $400-$800 blinds and $100 antes. The trend of slow action during early play ended on day two as 53 participants dropped out of contention in the first hour-and-a-half.
Some notables among the level 8 eliminations included "Captain" Tom Franklin, Sean McCabe, Dan Harrington, Victor Ramdin, Liz Lieu, Alan Goehring, and Isabelle Mercier.
For Nam Le, early action brought nothing but success. The tournament veteran doubled up through an opponent courtesy of a flopped set of fives, taking his stack to the $150,000 mark, and then followed that up by busting local favorite Gavin Smith.
In spite of the loss of Smith, fans still had a hometown hero to cheer for in the form of "Yukon" Brad Booth. For the second day in a row, the North American Poker Championship became "The Brad Booth Show," as the popular high-stakes specialist, wearing a bright red Canada jersey, entertained fans and opponents with his table banter and play.
Before moving to a table with Gene Todd (who provided his Canadian counterpart with some old-school hip-hop lessons by reciting the lyrics to Rob Base's classic hit "It Takes Two"), Booth tangled with Shaun Sturgeon on one of the more memorable hands of the day.
The action started, when, after a 10
10
7
flop, Booth bet $5,000 and Sturgeon raised to $13,000. After the J turn, Sturgeon moved all in for $61,200. With players, tournament personnel, and media surrounding the table, Booth chatted with John Juanda, the dealer, and Sturgeon, checked Sturgeon's pulse, called "clock" on himself for taking too long, and then…slammed $61,200 into the pot.
Booth's J 2 gave him the lead over Sturgeon's K Q, but a rare silent moment occurred at the poker table when the Q landed on the river.
As more and more tables broke, one pro whom few expected to still be around was Barry Greenstein. After having aces cracked late on day 1A, Greenstein battled on a short stack and steadily climbed the day 2 leader board. An all-in reraise with pocket kings against an opponent's A Q
put Greenstein in good position to double up, but Greenstein's NAPC ended when his opponent made a Broadway straight on the K J 10 9 8 board.
After tournament officials performed a table redraw for the final 90 players, Melissa Hayden ensured that she would be the last woman in the North American Poker Championship by eliminating the only other female participant left in the field.
Day two proved to be more of the same for pros John Juanda and John D'Agostino. While Juanda, who came into action second in chips, stayed near the top of the leader board all day, D'Agostino went on a late surge that shot him up the chip counts.
The Full Tilt pro raked two $100,000 pots during the final level of the day, taking the first down with flopped trip nines, and winning the second when his A K held against an opponent's A Q. The combination of wins propelled D'Agostino into second place on the leader board.
At 1:23 a.m. EDT, the remaining 46 players stood one elimination away from bursting the money bubble, and the North American Poker Championship went into hand-for-hand play.
Ten minutes later, the bubble burst and day two play concluded when Mark Newhouse's pocket queens held against Kam Low's pocket sixes.
The top five chip counts going into day three of the North American Poker Championship were:
1. Marc Karam – $742,500
2. John D'Agostino – $733,500
3. Mark Newhouse – $671,000
4. John Juanda – $505,000
5. "Yukon" Brad Booth – $460,500
For complete list of chip counts please click here.
Other notables moving on to the NAPC's next stage include Melissa Hayden ($416,500), Farzad Bonyadi ($276,000), Nam Le ($269,500), James "Krazy Kanuck" Worth ($202,000), Allen Cunningham ($119,000), and Gene Todd ($63,000).
Some pros who failed to survive play were Jordan Morgan, Eli Elezra, Amnon Filippi, Chris Bigler, Thomas Wahlroos, Freddy Deeb, Marcello Del Grosso, Bill Edler, and Steve Paul-Ambrose.
The remaining field of 45 return at noon EDT and will play down to the final six participants.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for all your live updates, chip counts, photos, and daily recaps.
Quote of the Day: "That's a lifetime for a 35-second-year-old baby" – Brad Booth on the relativity of time (he had 35 seconds to act after calling "clock" on himself)
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