World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Day 2: DeNiro Ahead By Six Figures
The action continued on Saturday for the 2011 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event. From the starting field of 666 players, 507 of them returned for Day 2. Overnight, a few more registrants ponied up the $10,000 buy-in and made the field grow to 681 players with 522 starting the action on Day 2. With the extra players entered and registration officially closed, the prizepool sits at $6,537,600.
After the second day of action, Joe DeNiro ended atop the leader board. He bagged up a whopping 366,700 in chips, which was over a 100,000 chips more than his closest competitor.
DeNiro is followed by plenty of notable names. James Carroll is in second place going into Day 3 with 264,800, Jason Senti finished with 258,200, Mike Sowers bagged 252,500 and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi ended with 227,600.
As with all tournaments though, not everyone can survive. Bryan Devonshire, Jonathan Little, Joe Serock, Gavin Smith, David Baker, Matt Stout and Vanessa Selbst were all players who won’t be returning to Day 3.
Selbst was eliminated by Vivek Rajkumar in a Team-Pro-versus-Red-Pro battle. On the board of 8♥6♣2♠7♣, there was approximately 17,000 chips in the middle according to the WPT Live Update Team. Selbst checked to Rajkumar and he bet 11,500. Selbst raised all in for about 30,000 and Rajkumar made the call holding the 8♣7♥. His top two pair was up against the 6♦5♥ for Selbst.
Selbst was behind, but not drawing dead with her pair and straight draw. The river completed the board with the 10♥ and wasn’t what Selbst needed to stay alive. She was eliminated while Rajkumar climbed to 115,000. He eventually finished out the day with 176,100 in chips – good for 14th overall.
A few of the other notables still left in the field include Jason Mercier (128,400), Phil Hellmuth (128,100), Jeff Madsen (80,000) and Phil Ivey (76,500).
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe DeNiro | 366,700 |
| 2 | James Carroll | 264,800 |
| 3 | Jason Senti | 258,200 |
| 4 | Mike Sowers | 252,500 |
| 5 | Michael Mizrachi | 227,600 |
| 6 | Nikolay Evdakov | 213,200 |
| 7 | Carlos Mortensen | 204,900 |
| 8 | Evan McNiff | 203,100 |
| 9 | Allen Cunningham | 196,400 |
| 10 | Ted Jivkov | 195,900 |
The field was whittled down to 238 players at the end of the day and all the remaining players will come back to action on Sunday at noon local time in Commerce, California to continue their quest. A massive $1,654,120 is up for grabs to the winner and the top 63 spots will be paid out a minimum of $22,230.
Be sure to check back with PokerNews for all recaps from the action after everyday completes.
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