Day two of the
World Poker Finals featured the most popular words in any high-stakes poker tournament. Money. Bubble. A total of 168 players returned to the Sunset Ballroom, each with the opportunity to earn some cash, but first 108 participants needed to be eliminated.
Play started at high noon EST with $1,000-$2,000 blinds and $300 antes.
Fans again arrived early for the
World Poker Tour event, but unlike the previous day's action, the crowds didn't need to wait long to see
WPF casualties. Alex Jacob, the 2006
U.S. Poker Championship winner, exited a mere six minutes into play. A number of other pros soon joined Jacob outside the rails including Steve Frederick, Eric Haber, "Miami" John Cernuto, Kevin Saul, and Cliff Josephy.
A high-profile match up between 2006
WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen and
DoylesRoom.com rep Hoyt Corkins produced one of the day's other big-name bustouts. Madsen raised from late position for his last $63,400 and Corkins, seated immediately to his left, called. The A
K
put Madsen in good position to double up against Corkins' A
Q
, but a queen on the flop ended Madsen's 2006
WPF.
The run of eliminations continued and by the four-hour mark only 90 players remained.
An early loss courtesy of a missed open-ended straight flush draw put Daniel Negreanu in danger of joining the growing list of bust outs, but "Kid Poker" survived the hit and doubled up two levels later when his flopped trip sevens topped an opponent's two pair.
A constant draw for fans all day, Negreanu received almost as much attention for his open protest to the
WPF's structure as he did for his play. The decision to stay 10-handed throughout, coupled with the absence of a $5,000-$10,000 blind level, infuriated Negreanu. Backed by many of the remaining field, Negreanu exchanged words with a tournament director, and vowed to skip next year's event unless changes are made.
While Negreanu progressed into the second half of the day, other notables, such as Chad Brown, Devin Porter, Jean-Robert Bellande, Barry Greenstein, and Tuan Le all fell before the dinner break.
In typical pre-money bubble fashion, play slowed as the
World Poker Finals approached the magic 61st-place elimination. At 8 p.m., a memorable hand that saw the K
K
best the K
K
and A
J
on a J
10
9
8
2
board, sent the
WPF into hand-for-hand action.
An hour later, Rich Levy earned the title of "bubble boy" when Alan Schein's A
3
made a straight to crack Levy's A-K.
Peter Grahm's 60th-place finish netted $14,373, and the lines at the payout desk soon started to build. Twenty players dropped in the hour following the bursting of the money bubble. After a second switch to hand-for-hand to accommodate the pay bump at the 36th-place finish ($20,123), which stopped when Mimi Tran's pocket kings eliminated Chris Wall in 37th, the second day of the
World Poker Finals came to an end on two dramatic hands.
Amir Bonder exited in 32nd-place ($20,123) when his pocket kings lost to an opponent's rivered gutshot straight, while Gerald Limber became the day's 31st-place ($20,123), and final elimination, after
his pocket kings dropped to a spiked heart flush.
The remaining 30 players return at noon EST and will play down to the six seats of
World Poker Tour's televised final table.
Notables still in the hunt for the $1.7 million dollar first place prize include Clonie Gowen, Kathy Liebert, Mimi Tran, Nenad Medic, Erik Cajelais, and Daniel Negreanu.
For a complete list of chip counts and finishes please click
here.
Stay tuned to
CardPlayer.com for all your live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and daily recaps.
Quote of the Day: "No, they're all gone" - Daniel Negreanu in response to a fan who asked if any big stars were left in the tournament.
