Eight-time World Series of Poker Circuit winner, Valentin Vornicu finished ahead of 759 other players at the end of Day 2A/B. Maria Ho, Tom Middleton, and Gaelle Baumann also finished the day with towers of chips.
Valentin Vornicu will be hoping 2016 is the year he adds a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet to the eight World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) gold rings he has in his collection. Winning the WSOP Main Event is the only hope of realising that dream, and at the end of Day 2A/B, he leads the remaining survivors with 838,600 chips.
764 players entered Day 1A, and 1,733 players entered Day 1B creating a combined attendance of 2,497 players. 1,847 of them made it through to Day 2A/B, and this is how life turned out for a select few worthy of a few keys.
The action started in Level 6 with blinds at 300-600 and a 100 ante. Justin Young departed early when his AQ banged heads with the KK of Jake Abdalla; someone sent Terence Chan back to the octagon, and last year’s 14th place finisher will not be repeating that feat after Justin Schwartz lost a flip AK<TT to finish the series in disappointing fashion.
Alvaro Lopez and Gary Sewell were leading the way after the first two hours.
Level 7 saw Faraz Jaka hit the rail after pinning his 10bb hopes on KJ, only to be called and eliminated by the 77 of Steven Zazaian. Mike Matusow, Mike Watson, Danielle Anderson, Phil Galfond, and John Monnette also left the building.
Level 8 was the end of the road for the Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer. The former Full Tilt f**k ups were sent packing by Jeff Dumas and Shea Smith. And we lost 2015 November Niner Neil Blumenfield, who felt the full blunt force trauma of flopping bottom two pairs when Michael Chow held top set.
Chad Holloway proved he could play as well as he could write after eliminating Daniel Idema AQ>T9hh, and Max Pescatori suffered a fatal bad beat when Jeff Glenny’s pocket sevens cracked the pocket kings of the Italian. The level ended with Lopez still at the top, but Vornicu was already making some serious headway.
Barny Boatman and the former WSOP Player of the Year, Frank Kassela, left the party in Level 9. Matt Jarvis eliminated Chris Bjorin KK>AK in Level 10, and someone also booted the former Nov Niners Steve Gee and Jesse Sylvia towards the rail. David Sands, Dominik Nitsche, Dan Fleyshman, and Jeff Lisandro are not going to win the Main Event. And Chad Holloway put down his cards and picked up his pen when his 77 crashed and burned against the JJ of his opponent in the final level of play.
760 players made it through to Day 3.
Here is the Top 10
1. Valentin Vornicu – 838,600
2. Jamie Shaevel – 586,000
3. Alvaro Lopez – 573,200
4. Ramin Hajiyev – 558,400
5. Chad Power – 546,800
6. Petr Bartagov – 546,000
7. Ronnie Pease – 518,100
8. Jonas Lauck – 510,000
9. Gaelle Baumann – 504,600
10. Eric Afriat – 510,000
Other notable stacks belonged to Tom Middleton (471,600), Maria Ho (435,000), and Marc-Andre Ladouceur (410,500).
Yaron Zeev Malki Leads Day 1A of the $1,111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em
The Big One for ONE DROP might have packed its bags, buggered off to Monte Carlo, and put a big two fingers up to the professional poker players, but the Little One has stayed behind.
The first of three starting flights, with unlimited re-entries, attracted 754 entrants on Day 1A. Yaron Zeev Malki leads; Barry Hutter is in second, and Fabian Ortiz finished in fourth.
Day 1A players created $678,000 in prize money and collated $83,694 for the ONE DROP Foundation. 120 players survived the action.
