WPT: Festa al Lago Day 2Daniel Negreanu Leads the Field Heading Into Day 3 |
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This wasn't how it was planned. It wasn't supposed to be like this. With 45,000 in starting chips and 90-minute levels, most players expected a slow-moving deep-stacked grind over the course of seven days of play. After two long day ones that saw the elimination of only 112 players, day two was a fast-paced affair, and the field was dramatically clipped from 256 to 104 runners.
Some of the chip leaders entering the day were unable to maintain their day-one momentum and busted among the short stacks. Antonio Esfandiari, who came in as the overall chip leader with 313,000, lost almost half of his stack in the first level of play. Later in the day, after a brief comeback, Esfandiari ran his pocket aces into Daniel Negreanu and his set of jacks, doubling up Kid Poker to a dangerous (for the other players) position. A few hands later, Esfandiari's A-J ran into Negreanu's A-Q to send The Magician packing. To put that in perspective, a stack of 313,000 would have finished the day in ninth place.
Instead, Negreanu used that momentum to chip up and eventually take the chip lead. He eventually took out Steve "thorladen" Weinstein and Tom "durrrr" Dwan in the final level of the night to take a monster lead and end the day with 513,100. His nearest competitor, Blake "Bballa-13" Cahail, is behind him by nearly 50,000 in chips.
Other big stacks, such as Brian "tsarrast" Rast, Daniel "RekRul" Schreiber, Jason Mercier, and Matt Giannetti also faltered and were unable to survive the day.
The remaining 104 players will return on Thursday to play another five levels. With the blinds starting at 1,200-2,400 with a 300 ante, the field should be able to reach the money at 50 players relatively easily.
Here are the top 10 stacks in the room:
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