Day 2 of the World Poker OpenMr. Phan's Wild Ride |
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It was payday in Tunica, as the remaining 143 players combined to play down to the money. Faced with the task of reaching the final 27, players and tournament staff alike braced themselves for a much longer day than usual.
He asked Rousso, “Vanessa, do you want some chips?” When Rousso responded that she did, Phan offered her some of his Fritos. Then Phan started chatting up the dealer saying, “I can get drunk at my job. I really should fire myself. Of course, I think I play better with alcohol.” Just as the word “alcohol” left his mouth, it created some confusion, as Rousso heard the words “I call.” Luckily, she didn’t expose her hand and Phan mucked without much more thought.
Phan, or “The Razor”, soon began playing every pot, and his chip stack reflected his wild and brash decisions. Phan’s stack would rise dramatically, peaking near the chip lead, and then be near the felt just minutes later.
Usually the aggressor, he would agonize over each decision he made, usually while ordering another
Despite his obvious inebriation, Phan routinely got opponents to give him their stacks, as they often shoved on his bets with little to no outs. Phan ended the day with 169,000 and will quite possibly start tomorrow with a hangover.
Liebert was not quite so lucky, as she finished just outside of the money. Unfortunately for Liebert, Barry Greenstein’s in-the-money finish means that she will be $20,000 lighter, as the two booked a last-longer bet on day 1. Her elimination did bring about a round of applause, however, from the roughly 50 or so onlookers who enjoyed watching her play.
As the bubble approached and players slowly dropped out of contention, a group of professionals managed to get ahold of a lot chips in a relatively short span of time. It started with Dutch Boyd breaking the 400,000 mark. Boyd held set over set against another big stack and managed to avoid the one-outer to pick up the massive pot.
Both Men “The Master” Nguyen and Hoyt Corkins bullied their way to the top of the leader board with big preflop raises and some timely flops. Greenstein and Erick Lindgren both played a lot of small-ball poker throughout the day to chip up and keep themselves out of danger. Lindgren hit some hands towards the end and finished with the chip lead.
Freddy Deeb rode a short stack all day long, but he was still able to take out both Chad Brown and another player when his pocket queens outlasted pocket eights and A-K. Deeb worked well with his newfound chips, building his stack up by taking most of the small denomination chips at his table.
Just before 2 a.m. local time, Weikai Chang burst the bubble when he moved all in preflop with 9-6 and was called by a dominating K-9. The board brought two pair for his opponent and Chang was the official bubble boy.
The remaining 27 players are now all in the money and will return tomorrow at 1 p.m. to battle down to the final six, who will make up the TV final table.
Here are the top 10 chip counts:
1. Erick Lindgren — 498,000
2. Dutch Boyd — 440,000
3. Gabe Costner — 402,000
4. Freddy Deeb — 324,000
5. Men Nguyen — 323,000
6. Barry Greenstein — 280,000
7. William McMahon — 265,000
8. Michael Baas — 247,000
9. John Spadavecchia — 223,000
10. Jimmy Tran — 204,000
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