The 234 remaining players in the
North American Poker Championship finally met on Monday in their first full flight of the tournament. With registration closed and half the field eliminated, tournament staff finally announced the
payouts that players will battle four more days to win. The tournament attracted 504 players that created a prize pool of $4,863,300.The first-place prize is $1,361,724 and a seat into the
WPT Championship in April. The top money is still four days away, though,
and in order to make a play for the prize pool, the contestants first had to navigate the waters of day two.
Yesterday (day one (C)), the dull roar of Niagara Falls was blown away by the sound of a jovial
Jean-Robert (insert
Survivor cliché here)
Bellande amassing chips. Today, however, the sounds of the falls returned as Bellande spent much of the day trying to stop the flow of his chips into other stacks. Bellande started the day as the chip leader, with a little more than 200,000, but by the dinner break he held his head in his hands, as his chip stack dwindled to under 90,000. This wasn't the first time Bellande has struggled after amassing a huge stack this season. Bellande reached 140,000 by the second level of the
WPT Mandalay Bay Championship, and then proceeded to blow up, limping into day two with 17,975 chips. Bellande was able to defuse the bomb today after his initial freefall, and at the end of the day, he raised his arms and said, "Yeah, I survived day two." He ended the day with 214,000 in chips.
Card Player contributor
Marc Karam has positioned himself to make a deep run in the same tournament he had made the final table of just a year ago. In 2006, Karam was eliminated in sixth place by the eventual champion
Soren Turkewitsch. Karam has already outlasted Turkewitsch this year, and he ended the day with 181,400 in chips.
Things weren't good for all of the big-name professionals in the field, and the following players were eliminated on day two:
Victor Ramdin,
Roy Winston,
Gavin Smith,
Nam Le,
Steve Sung,
Allen Kessler,
Gus Hansen,
Amnon Filippi, and
Dan Harrington.
At first, it looked like
Card Player Player of the Year contender
Jon Little would continue the success he has had in this tournament and throughout the season. Little entered the day as the chip leader of his flight (day one (A)) with 164,200, and it looked like he wouldn't lose that momentum. He cruised into the overall chip lead by the third level, and played his dominating game. However, things started to derail when he doubled up
Adam "Roothlus" Levy in a 100,000 pot, and he was not able to rebound. Little finished the day with a disappointing count of 132,000.
Day two leader board:
1. Kofi Farkye - 404,900
2.
Joe Cassidy - 330,500
3. Aran Jamasi - 306,800
4.
Dale Pinchot - 256,000
5.
Lee Markholt - 239,100
6.
Scott Freeman - 215,000
7. Jean-Robert Belland - 214,300
8.
Jeff Madsen - 213,200
9.
Tyler Reiman - 212,000
10. Bryn Kenney - 208,300
11.
Scott Clements - 205,900
12.
Marc Karam - 181,400
13.
Peter Feldman - 175,500
14.
William "Bill" Edler - 167,800
15.
Daniel Shak - 166,600
16.
David Singer -148,500
The remaining 79 players will meet tomorrow at noon EST and play five full levels. Stay tuned to
CardPlayer.com for all of the exclusive live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos from Niagara Falls.
