2011 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Day 2: Aldridge Edges Out Slaubaugh for Lead
Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker wrapped up on Saturday with 99 players remaining out of the 757 who entered the event. Leading the way into Day 3 is Ken Aldridge with 659,500 in chips. Aldridge barely edged out Cody Slaubaugh who finished in second place overall with 658,000 in chips. Other than that, no player bagged more that 600,000 in chips. Will Failla and Matt Berkey were the only other two players to collect more than half a million at day’s end.
Starting the day, J.C. Tran was the leading man with 265,000 in chips. He picked up right where he left off, building his stack early to around 400,000 as the tournament moved through Level 11. At the end of the day, Tran was only able to manage bagging a stack of 176,500, which was a bit less than what he began the day with. Tran’s good friend Nam Le also finished the day with less than what he started with. Unfortunately for him, that number was zero because Le was eliminated on Day 2.
Other notable eliminations from Saturday included Barry Greenstein, Scott Clements, Ali Eslami, Dan Shak and former WPT champions Joe Bartholdi, Andy Frankenberger and Taylor von Kriegenbergh. Bartholdi was eliminated by Slaubaugh in what was, according to the WPT live update team, a big 250,000-chip pot.
Slaubaugh raised to 2,400 from middle position with the blinds at 600/1,200 with a 200 ante. Batholdi reraised from the button to 7,000 and action folded back to Slaubaugh. He four-bet to 22,500. Bartholdi came right back with a reraise to 40,000. Slaubaugh then slid out all his blue T5,000 chips for a six-bet to about 90,000. Bartholdi moved all-in for roughly 120,000 total and Slaubaugh made the call.
When the hands were tabled, Bartholdi showed A♣K♠ for two overcards against Slaubaugh's 9♦9♠. The flop hit both players, but it hit Slaubaugh harder when it fell A♦9♥3♦. Bartholdi hit top pair, but fell well behind Slaubaugh's set of nines. The turn and river were the 4♠ and 5♣ to keep Slaubaugh in front and eliminate Bartholdi.
From there, Slaubaugh kept climbing his way up the leader board en route to finishing just shy of the chip lead. Another big pot that Slaubaugh was able to win to secure his position in second place overall was against Amnon Filippi in boat-over-boat action. On a board of J♦10♠3♦J♥Q♥, Slaubaugh’s Q♦Q♣ was best against Filippi’s J♠10♥ to put him over 500,000 in chips.
Some of the other players who have advanced to Day 3 with some hefty chip stacks are Ray Henson, Allen Kessler, Dan O’Brien, Alec Torelli, Dwyte Pilgrim and Gavin Smith. They’ll all be returning to action with the remainder of the field on Sunday at 1200 PDT (2000 BST) to fight for the $758,085 first-place prize.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ken Aldridge | 659,500 |
| 2 | Cody Slaubaugh | 658,000 |
| 3 | Will "The Thrill" Failla | 550,500 |
| 4 | Matt Berkey | 502,000 |
| 5 | Tom Braband | 482,000 |
| 6 | Saifuddin Ahmad | 465,000 |
| 7 | David Tuthill | 464,000 |
| 8 | Ray Henson | 454,500 |
| 9 | James Carroll | 450,000 |
| 10 | Brent Hanks | 430,000 |
The money line is set at 81 places, which means that the bubble will surely break on Day 3. Netting a min-cash will earn a player $7,000, but it’s the first prize of over 100 times that that they’ll be chasing. Be sure to check back right here at PokerNews for the recap from Day 3’s play.
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