Making way for pit games and slot machines, day 2 action of the Wynn Classic was relocated to the main poker room. The returning 90 players occupied 10 tables on the east side of the room, including half of the high-limit section. Despite being tucked away from the rest of the casino, tournament fan-favorites Mike Matusow and Scotty Nguyen still received plenty of attention from on-lookers, and the rail stayed packed throughout the day.
The tournament was scheduled to play down from 90 to the final three tables of 27. Players anticipated a quick day and early indications didn’t disappoint. Within just 15 minutes Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Rick Salomon, and Darrell Dicken were all eliminated. They were joined over the course of the next level by notables Alex Bolotin, Kevin Saul and John Racener.
Both Erick Lindgren and Michael Binger were fighting short stacks when a bad beat came that would end their day. Lindgren got it all in preflop with A-K against Ralph Perry’s A-6. The board brought the wheel and Lindgren was eliminated from the tournament. Binger was all in with pocket aces against the pocket sevens of Keven Stammen. The flop brought a seven, and Binger’s comeback was cut short.
Roy Winston came into the day second in chips behind Mike Matusow, but Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar pocketed most of his chips to send him to the rail with 50 or so players remaining. But, as Rajkumar wrote in his exclusive Card Player pro blog, his chips wouldn't stay with him for long.
It was at this point that three players made their move to the top of the leader board. Eugene Todd was able to take a huge pot off of Rajkumar without ever seeing the flop and used his new found chips to run his stack up to 210,800 by the end of the day. Rajkumar ended his roller-coaster ride of a day after losing a coinflip with A-K against his opponent's pocket jacks.
Even though they were short stacked for most of the day, the last level of play belonged to Jonathan Little and Ryan Young. Both of these young guns tore up the circuit in the last year and spent the last two hours punishing their opponents. They both put themselves in position for a run at the title tomorrow. Little finished with 203,000 and Young is in second with 328,700.
Notables Mike Matusow and Allen Kessler struggled early on but found their stride after dinner to pick up chips and finish in the top 5. When play ended for the night, the remaining 27 players bagged and tagged their chips, knowing that 9 of them will walk away from the poker room tomorrow with nothing. They will play down to the final table, which will be on Wednesday.
Here are the top 10 chips heading into tomorrow:
2. Ryan Young - 328,700
3. Mike Matusow - 218,900
4. Allen Kessler - 212,000
5. Eugene Todd - 210,800
6. Jonathan Little - 203,000
8. Blake Cahail - 161,700
10. Adrian Yazdi - 131,700
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos from the tournament floor.
