Day 2 is officially in the books and the final table has been set for the 2008 WSOP Caesars Palace Circuit Championship. The festivities are scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. PT and the lineup is sure to entertain:
Seat 1: Motoyuki "Moto" Mabuchi - 142,000
Seat 2: Kelly Samson - 385,000
Seat 3: Ben Fineman - 828,000
Seat 4: Ralph Perry - 319,000
Seat 5: Thomas Hover - 407,000
Seat 6: Blair Hinkle - 382,000
Seat 7: Justin Bonomo - 272,000
Seat 8: Allen Cunningham - 296,000
Seat 9: Doug Lee - 324,000
Can Doug Lee capture his second WSOP Circuit championship? Will Allen Cunningham add another bullet to his already stellar tournament resume? Or will chip leader Ben Fineman score the largest cash of his young tournament career? Tune in to PokerNews.com tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. to find out!
Until then, from "The Entertainment Capital of the World," good night and good luck!
Than Nguyen has just earned the unwanted distinction of final table bubble boy after running into Kelly Samson's pocket queens. Nguyen open-shoved all in from the cutoff holding and Samson insta-called from the small blind with the ladies.
An unpaired, jack-high board sealed Nguyen's fate and he'll walk away with $19,322 in prize money for his tenth place finish.
Ben Fineman has amassed a mountainous, field-leading chip stack (currently 810,000) over the past few levels by employing a selectively aggressive playing style, picking up small pots practically every other hand.
To put Fineman's dominance into perspective, the second largest stack at the table, owned by Ralph Perry, is just 290,000.
With the recent elimination of Jason Riesenberg, the field is now down to the final ten. The tournament will now be played hand-for-hand on two five-handed tables until one more player gets eliminated, at which time play will cease for the evening.
Thomas Hover has just eliminated a frustrated Jason Riesenberg from the championship event after his pocket sixes out-raced Riesenberg's in what was a pre-flop all-in confrontation.
Blair Hinkle opened the pot with a 24,000 pre-flop raise and Hover made the call from the small blind. The action then fell to Riesenberg, who reraised all in for a total of approximately 148,000. Hinkle slid his cards back to the dealer and Hover made the call. When Riesenberg caught sight of what he was up against, "Jesus Christ!" were the first two words that came out of his mouth.
The dealer then spread a flop which generated a fist pump from Jason, but the gave Hover a pot-clinching spade flush prompting Riesenberg to grab his bag and walk away from the table. The river, though insignificant, was the .
Riesenberg earned a $19,322 payday for his efforts, while Hover stacked up right around 400,000 with the win.
Jaws dropped over on table 45 the moment Lee Rubin called off his remaining 76,000 in chips holding , pre-flop. Rubin opened the pot with a ~32,000 raise, leaving himself 76,000 behind and Blair Hinkle followed up with a re-raise, putting Lee to a decision for all of his chips. As you now know, Rubin made the call and truth be told, he actually wasn't too far behind, as Hinkle tabled .
A board of gave Hinkle three kings, however, sending Rubin to the rail in 12th place.
With 41 minutes to play in round 15 there are 12 players remaining in the tournament and the average chip stack is 278,333. A player currently wielding an average sized stack has about 23 big blinds, which could promote some fast play at our two remaining tables.
With the blinds now at 6,000/12,000, Jimmy Tran decided it was time to make a move and moved all in before the flop holding . Justin Bonomo made the call and was pleased to see that he had his opponent dominated, as he tabled .
The board panned out and Bonomo's ace kicker earned him the pot, bringing his chip count back up to 255,000. Tran earned a respectable $16,102 for his 13th-place finish.
Former WSOP Circuit winner Doug Lee has just doubled up through the man they call "Moto," Motoyuki Mabuchi. The hand saw Mabuchi make it 33,000 to go from early position and the action folded around to Lee in the small blind, who moved all in for a total of 182,000.
"Double me up, man!" Lee said to Mabuchi as he pondered making the call. Moto eventually opted to make the call, tabling a pocket pair of fours and found himself racing against Lee's .
Mabuchi held the lead after the flop, which came , but the on the turn tipped the scales in favor of Lee, who dodged Mabuchi's outs on the river to take down the pot, worth 370,000 in chips. Moto fell to 190,000 with the loss.