Valentin Vornicu Leads 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event After Day 2AB

The 1,847 players who survived days 1A and and 1B of the 2016 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event returned today for day 2AB. By the end of play only 760 remained with a shot at becoming the next world champion.

Eight-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner Valentin Vornicu bagged up the largest chip stack at the conclusion of play with 838,600. Vornicu came into the day with 100,800 and quickly rose up the ranks, heading into dinner break as one of the largest stacks. He closed out the night strong as well and now sits over 250,000 chips ahead of his nearest competitor from this flight in Jaime Shaevel with 586,000.

2014 Card Player Poker Tour Foxwoods main event champion Ronnie Pease ended the night with 518,100. The Glastonbury, CT native was also among the early chip leaders in the 2014 main event.

2012 WSOP main event tenth-place finisher Gaelle Baumann has put herself in a great position for another deep run, bagging up 504,600 for the ninth largest stack so far going into day 3. Baumann runner-runnered a flush on a 93268 board against Alan Schein. Baumann made huge bet of 55,000 on the river and Schein called with pocket queens only to be shown the A9 for a pair of nines on the flop that turned into the nut flush by the river.

Other notables in the top 50 include Maria Ho (435,000), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (410,500), Kenny Hallaert (410,100), Alexander Kostritsyn (388,900), Owen Crowe (385,000) and 2016 WPT L.A. Poker Classic main event champion Dietrich Fast (359,500).

Big names that survived the day include Antonio Esfandiari (327,400), Jon Turner (318,500), Antoine Saout (291,100), Melanie Weisner (280,000), Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (278,200), 2015 Card Player Player of the year winner Anthony Zinno (209,300), two-time bracelet winner and Barry Shulman (182,100), 2004 champion Greg Raymer (179,800), Matt Glantz (169,000), and 2016 double bracelet winner Benny Glaser (167,800).

Of course not everyone could make it to day 3. Players that were eliminated today include Mike Matusow, Max Pescatori, 2009 WSOP main event fifth-place finisher Jeff Shulman, Jonathan Little, 2015 third-place finisher in this event Neil Blumenfield, John Monnetter, Faraz Jaka, Phil Galfond and Mike Watson.

Those who made it through today will combine with those who survive Wednesday’s Day 2C, which will restart on July 14 at 11:00 AM.

Here is a look at the top ten stacks at the end of play:

For a complete listing of day 2AB chip counts click here.

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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