Day 2 at the WPT World Poker Challenge

If day 1 at the World Poker Tour stop in Reno, Nevada, for the World Poker Challenge was a long, slow grind into the night, day 2 was its schizophrenic twin. It started fast, but then hit a wall toward the end of play to finish slowly. A field of 75 returned from the original 261, and they got down to business in a hurry to reach the final 45 players. But then the money bubble loomed close on the horizon, and play slowed down considerably on the path to 27.

Jordan Rich kept things light early when he brought some reading material with him to the table he shared with Erick Lindgren. It was a copy of Lindgren’s strategy book World Poker Tour: Making the Final Table. He flipped through the chapters and asked Lindgren about key points in the book, to E-Dog’s mild amusement.

The quick start of the morning saw many of the short-stacks perish on their final hands. Among the professionals lost during the first level were Eugene Todd, Tom Schneider, and Brandon Cantu. Cantu fell at the hands of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi when his pocket eights ran into Mizrachi’s pocket jacks. The jacks held on a board of 10 7 4 K K, and Cantu was eliminated from the tournament. This pot gave Mizrachi 135,000, which put him near the top of the leader board, but still far away from the early chip leader, Phil Ivey. Ivey dominated during the early chaos of the day, and he increased his stack to 243,500, and then to 274,000, at a time when no one else approached 200,000.

After the first break, only 55 players remained, and things showed no signs of slowing down as the field managed to shrink to five tables by the end of the second level. The chips kept flying in and out of pots and players’ stacks at a fast rate, and Huck Seed, Bob Stupak, Steve Sung, and Bill Edler were lost along the way. In some cases, it was professionals busting professionals as Lindgren sent Peter Feldman to the rail with pocket eights over pocket fives.

The third level of play saw a huge slowdown take over the tournament, as the money bubble was a realistic aspiration for the remaining short-stacks to acheive. During this change in the order of the day, Ivey continued to play well, but a number of players closed the gap on him. Jason Gray became the second player to cross the 200,000 threshold, just as Ivey fell to 190,000, but Gray wasn’t able to sustain this early success and ended the day with just 44,600.

It took well over two hours for the field to shrink from five tables to four, and just 36 players remained in play. The professionals that fell during this stretch of play included “Bodog” Ari Engel, Hasan Habib, David Redlin, and Arnold Spee (who won this event during Season III). It took another long stretch for the final nine to make an exit, but there was no shortage of chip movement during the process. Rich charged into first place as he built his stack to 270,000, but Zach Hyman topped him when he eliminated Lindgren to become the first player to cross the 300,000 mark.

Even Hyman’s reign at the top was short-lived, because Don Dooley won a huge pot to grow his stack to 311,000 a few minutes later. A few more professionals were among the final nine to hit the rail with no prize money, and they included Ted Forrest and Eli Elezra, who made their exits before the dinner break. The last eliminations of the night proved to be the toughest — it took almost two hours for the money bubble to burst after 30 players returned from the dinner break. Robert Goldfarb took the dubious distinction of bubble boy, busting out in 28th place, but he made a valiant stand and clung to life for 45 minutes on a short-stack before he was eliminated by Hyman just before 10 p.m. PDT.

While a number of professional players were eliminated today. some top-flight talent remains, as well. Ivey, Mizrachi, Rich, and Hyman will be joined at the final three tables by 2007 Card Player Player of the Year David “The Dragon” Pham, as well as Chau Giang, Tim West, Lee Markholt, and Erik Seidel. We will see which of these professionals emerge to make the final table, but one safe bet is Ivey, who has made the final table in every WPT event in which he has made the money.

The final 27 players will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. and play down to a final television table of six, which will take place on Friday, March 28, at 5 p.m. PDT. Here is a look at the top of the leader board heading into the play-down day tomorrow:

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