After the madness of day 1C, the Main Event rediscovered some equilibrium. The surviving players from days 1A and 1B came together to fight it out at the Rio, with Bryan Campanello leading the way at the start of play. By the end, many players had fallen, with some interesting names having also clambered up the counts.
Day 2AB overview
3,248 players took their seat for day 2AB and were joined by a further 100 or so late entries. The players dived into a day of poker which would last for five two-hour levels, with only 1,087 souls surviving to wearily bag-up at midnight. Bryan Campanello had begun the day with a chip leading stack of 417,500, and although he increased his holdings through the day, he had fallen off the pace of the leaders who were pushing towards 800,000 by the close of play.
While late registration will extend to day 2C, we can confirm the current field size as 8,225. This makes 2019 the second-largest Main Event field ever, and it is unlikely to threaten that record now, with 8,773 players taking part in 2006.
Chip leaders and notable names through to day 3
Around two-thirds of the field may have fallen today, but plenty of players have been rising through the rankings, including a few familiar faces.
Timothy Su (791,000) is the official Day 2AB chip leader, followed by Tony Blanchandin (744,500.
Here are some of the bigger stacks whose name you may also recognise: Anton Morgenstern (735,000), Galen Hall (705,900), Brian Yoon (643,400), Qui Nguyen (602,400), Adam Owen (511,800), Andre Akkari (467,400), Jeff Lisandro (466,400), Asi Moshe (464,100), Bryan Campanello (460,400), Barny Boatman (445,000), Kelly Minkin (444,500), Shaun Deeb (428,200), Allen Kessler (407,200), Igor Kurganov (330,000) and Todd Brunson (284,200).
Slightly further down the list are: Brian Hastings (274,000), Daniel Hachem (262,100), Michael Gathy (249,000), Niklas Astedt (247,000), Jean-Robert Bellande (237,100), Scott Blumstein (229,700), David Bach (222,900), and Olivier Busquet (205,300), Paul Volpe (190,700), Allen Cunningham (182,600), Faraz Jaka (177,500), Jon Turner (172,700), Jonathan Little (161,700), Kevin MacPhee (91,500), Alex Foxen (89,600) and Christoph Vogelsang (70,200). Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker are also still in, with slightly below starting stacks.
Notable Asian/Australian survivors
There are still many Asian and Australian players in contention for the biggest tournament title in poker. Here are a few of the bigger stacks who will take their seats for day 3: Australia’s Luke Martinelli (575,300) and William Mitchell (397,700), Hong Kong’s Alan Lau (382,000), Japan’s Takehiro Kato (346,300), Australia’s Sosia Jiang (333,800), China’s Chunhui Ji (328,100), Japan’s Sota Sato (314,800), China’s Jiaxiu Liu (298,200), India’s Siddarth Karia (294,800), China’s Yilong Wang (284,400), Japan’s Takao Shimizu (278,000) and India’s Ankit Ahuja (275,200).
Others still above starting stack and in contention include: Macau’s Huidong Gu (259,100), Korea’s Daniel Lee (245,700), Japan’s Simon Casserly (245,600), Japan’s Junichi Nakanowatari (238,000), Australia’s Paul Hockin (228,100), China’s Renji Mao (221,000), Hong Kong’s Joshua Zimmerman (219,200), China’s Shenming Yin (215,400), China’s Zizheng Huang (208,100), Japan’s Naoya Kihara (201,000), Australia’s Gary Benson (200,700), Macau’s Yee How Lee (192,800), and Australia’s Stevan Chew (192,800).
Also still alive, but further down the order are: Japan’s Kento Mori (191,400), Hong kong’s Yik Chiu (184,500), Korea’s Jeonggyu Cho (183,000), Hong Kong’s Steven Au (182,700), Japan’s Shintaro Baba (180,400), Australia’s Craig Blight (178,900), China’s Shaotong Chang (174,500), Australia’s Jan Suchanek (170,200), Australia’s Jonty Obrien (167,200), Korea’s Kyung Jung (160,000), Japan’s Kazuki Sasaki (152,300), China’s Dong Guo (150,000), Australia’s Christopher Graydon (138,500), China’s Yuan Li (104,200), India’s Kunal Patni (102,600), Japan’s Shuichi Hiratsuka (98,200), China’s Youcheng Jiang (97,300), China’s Ye Shen (92,700), Australia’s Sara Bilney (85,600), and compatriots Jason Pritchard (80,000) and Heidi May (74,700).
In the field
One noticeable absence so far at the Main Event has been all-time leading bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. He has taken a holiday mid-series and is flying back to late-reg the Main Event at the start of play tomorrow.
The Tortoise always wins in No Limit Hold’em tourneys! Reminds me how tight I have to play today in @WSOP Main Event! Catch me playing LIVE on @ESPN in a few hours (11:30 AM PST). Giant Land Turtle, yesterday, in Galápagos Island #TortoiseInspiration #PHNiceLife #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/nJP9lK5qA2
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 7, 2019
One of the bigger stories of the day has been that of Qui Nguyen. For those who do not recognise the name, Nguyen won the Main Event three years ago. After taking the stage early to announce the shuffle and deal, he has spent today rocketing up the chip counts, having doubled up in the first level of the day. He will start day 3 with 602,400 chips.
There were a few notable names among the rail-hitters today and we can confirm that Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Justin Bonomo, Phil Galfond and Ryan Riess will not be joining the field when they return.
Stay tuned to Somuchpoker for daily reports on the biggest event of the year.
Article by Craig Bradshaw
