by Scott Huff
Day 2 saw the combining of the survivors from Day 1A (198) and Day 1B (135) into one field of 333 players. Play began at 4:15 Pacific time, and the goal was to play down to the final 72 players, all of whom would be in the money.
Plenty of familiar faces returned for Day 2 action, including: Phil Hellmuth, Chip Reese, Jennifer Harman, Cyndy Violette, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Andy Bloch, Carlos Mortensen, Barry Greenstein, and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi.
As has become the custom, play started scattered throughout the Bike, with three full tables in play outside of the tournament area and just above the main casino floor. However, the action was fast out of the gate, and the three rogue tables were broken quickly, consolidating play to the tournament area. The rapid pace of play did not stop there, and by 10 minutes after the first break the field was down to 270 players. Among the early notable exits: Chau Giang, Ron Rose, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, and Aidily "Mrs.Grinder" Elviro.
It was a slippery slope for Day 1A and Day 1B chip leaders Luong Trinh, and Tommy Hang. Trinh managed to survive until the money, but he is 9
th to last place heading into day 3 competition. Hang was not as fortunate. He made a wild call with a ten high flush draw and missed, sending him home, and putting Jason Steinhorn over the $200,000 mark in chips.
Day 2 provided its fair share of bad beats, with one player being eliminated by river quad jacks after flopping a set of kings. Gabe Kaplan, who started the day with over $100,000 in chips was cold decked to half of that, after Matt Elsby hit a two outer to cripple his stack. After the beat, Kaplan was left with $45,000 in chips. A lesser player may have gone on tilt in this spot, but Kaplan hung tough over the course of the evening, and doubled his stack by the end of the day.
Another player who fought a tough run was former WPT winner Andy Bloch, who was down to his last $30,000 in chips, and then made a late evening surge, that included a double up through Carlos Mortensen who was focused, and seemed unbeatable for most of the day. Bloch ended Day 2 with $343,800 in chips, good for fifth place.
Day 2 may have narrowed the field, but many of the strong have survived. Day 3 is going to be even more grueling, as the field will play down from 72 players to the T.V. final table of 6.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates and chip counts on the road to the final table.
