Ivey bossing and Asian players rising as Main Event second day starting flights conclude
The field for this year’s WSOP Main Event reached the impressive number of 7,874 but with the second day starting flights now having come to a close, we have just 2,786 players still standing (1,182 make the money).
The players are competing for a piece of the $74,015,600 prize pool, with $8,800,000 set aside for 1st place. All players will come together as one field for day three, and there are numerous interesting stories hidden in the chip counts and several Asian players flying high.
Here is our roundup of the second day’s action.
Phil Ivey among the WSOP chipleaders
Among the big stacks and big stories of the second day is none other than Phil Ivey. The game’s biggest star managed to put together a stack of 434,200 to move into the top 30 chip stacks in the tournament going into day 3.
Ignacio Sanchez currently leads the way, as day 2C chipleader with 627,200, and he is more than 70,000 chips ahead of his nearest rival,Eric Sfez (551,900).
Shawn Daniels sits 3rd in the overall chip counts with 532,500 having topped the counts in day 2AB.
Chinese-American player Yueqi Zhu is also in a strong position with 429,200 and the same can be said of bracelet winner Simeon Naydenov who has 338,400, EPT winner Dominik Panka who sits with 316,800 and superstar Patrik Antonius with his stack of 296,600.
Also still in the field with healthy stacks are Xuan Liu with 279,600, Daryll Fish 278,800, Marvin Rettenmaier with 256,400, Eugene Katchalov with 242,400, Mustapha Kanit with 235,800, Paul Volpe with 234,500, Barry Greenstein with 225,100, Allen Cunningham with 223,500, Chris Moorman with 220,000 and Shaun Deeb 218,300.
280k at 2kbb for day 3. Hope to get my first #WSOPMainEvent cash tomorrow, like this one guy at my table today who used his savings to buy-in and fulfill his grandpa’s wish. (it’s his first tournament ever) pic.twitter.com/AaK5SOFVax
— Xuan Liu (@xxl23) July 7, 2018
Many other notable names are still in contention further down the order, including 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth who has 162,700.
Asian hopes: Marc Rivera among the leaders
With more than half the field now gone, there are still plenty of Asian stars still in the mix with Filipino hopefulsMarc Riveracarrying 395,900 through to Day 3 and Lester Edoc having bagged up68,800. Mike Takayama who became the first Filipino to win a WSOP braceleta few days ago is still in contention with a healthy stack of 204,300. John Tech is alive as well but with only 18 big blinds.
Flying the flag for Taiwan is Chen An Lin who has 346,500 chips and Singapore’s Baoqiang Ho also carries a strong stack of 295,700 forward.
Japan’s hopes remain in good shape, with Shigeho Yoshioka having bagged up 347,600, Masayuki Hakoda holding 280,000, Yosuke Sekiya having 184,500 chips with him as he heads into day 3.
End of day 2 with 126,200. Restart on lvl 11, 1k-2k(300) for day 3 tomorrow #WSOP2018
— Aditya Agarwal (@AdiAgarwal_int) July 7, 2018
Indian players Paawan Bansal and Aditya Agarwal have also made it through the early stages and have stacks of 47,900 and 126,200 respectively.
Hong Kong’s hopes are also shaping up nicely, with Ro Park, Joshua Zimmerman, Park Yu Cheung and Alan Lau all progressing. They carry forward respective stacks of 114,900, 158,600, 147,500 and 25,300.
China’s Raymond Wu is doing well, with 166,700 in chips.Yiu Kwok also remains in contention with 77,300.
Australia still has a few big names in the tournament too. Alex Lynskey has 270,500, James Obst will continue with 224,300 and Jackie Glazer will bring 121,500 forward to the next phase of this magnificent event.
Vietnam is no longer represented with both Ha Duong and Vi Khoa out.
Somuchpokerwill keep track of the action so stay with us as we update you on the Day 3 results and the progress of the Asian players.
Article by Craig Bradshaw