WSOPC Harrah's St. Louis Day 2: Conrad Leads; Masek, Moore & Tripp Alive
Day 2 of the 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s St. Louis Main Event kicked off on Sunday with 303 players returning from Day 1. Late registration was open until the start of Day 2, and when it was closed, the number of players had risen to 625, creating a prize pool of $909,375, with $190,961 reserved for first place.
After 14 levels of play, the field was reduced to just 21 players. Leading the way with 1.512 million chips is Chris Conrad, but plenty of competitors still remain and are ready for battle including Tripp Kirk, Michael McKuin, Dave Schwartz, Charles “Woody” Moore, Blake Cahail and Alexandru Masek.
Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as the aforementioned players. Matthew Chang, Amanda Musumeci, Bernard Lee, David Clark, La Sengphet, AP Phahurat, Aaron Massey, Paul Harris, Dennis Phillips, Sam Barnhart, Kurt Jewell, Mark “Pegasus” Smith and Nelly were just a few of the notables who were among the 262 players who exited the tournament empty-handed.
Last year’s champion, Kyle Cartwright, who was fresh off winning his fourth gold ring in Event #10 on Saturday, bought in at the start of the day for a 20-big-blind stack. He proceeded to run it up to 80,000 at one point, but then disaster struck on the money bubble. It happened when Cartwright and Terry Stuhldreher got their chips all in preflop, with the latter having a slightly bigger stack.
Showdown
| Cartwright: K♠ K♣ |
| Stuhldreher: A♦ K♦ |
Cartwright was in great shape to double if he could avoid an ace and diamonds, which he did through the 5♥2♥Q♦ flop and 8♥ turn, but the A♠ spiked on the river to eliminate him on the money bubble.
One man who got off to a good start on Day 2 was Scott Clements. He won a monster pot in the middle of the day to vault into the chip lead. It happened when he picked up A♥A♣ against an unknown opponent's A♦K♦. Each ended up putting in 42,000 preflop to see the 10♦3♥6♦ flop. Both players had about 100,000 behind, and all the chips went in. Neither the 4♥ turn nor 9♥ river hurt Clements, who eliminated his opponent while raking in the biggest pot of the tournament up to that point. He used those chips to cruise into the money, but ultimately finished in 36th place for $3,947.
Speaking of the money, once the bubble burst, a big hand developed when a preflop raising war between Ryan Tepen and Roger Campbell resulted in the latter being all in for approximately 300,000, creating a pot of around 600,000.
Showdown
| Campbell | A♠Q♠ |
| Tepen | K♣K♠ |
The 10♥Q♥5♥ flop gave Campbell a pair of queens, but he still needed help. The A♣ turn was just what he had in mind, giving him two pair and the lead. The table was shocked but not as much as they were when the K♦ spiked on the river to give Tepen a set and the win. Campbell couldn't believe it as he made his way to the payout desk in 60th place. Meanwhile, Tepen's stack grew to close to a million and he ended the day as one of the 21 survivors.
Some players who managed to make the money but couldn’t find their way to the end of Day 2 were Everett Carlton (52nd - $3,228), Travis Lutes (48th - $3,228), Michael “Carwash” Schneider (44th - $3,547), Seneca Easley (37th - $3,547), Ross Bybee (35th - $3,947), Steve Melton (33rd - $4,438), Katherine Bowen (27th - $5,820), Steven Graham (25th - $5,820), Joe Kuether (23rd - $6,793) and Jeff Wade (22nd - $6,793).
WSOP Circuit Harrah’s St. Louis End-of-Day 2 Chip Counts
| Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Chris Conrad | 1,512,000 |
| Tripp Kirk | 1,326,000 |
| Gannesh Letchumanan | 1,235,000 |
| Jeff Fitzgerald | 962,000 |
| James Russell | 804,000 |
| Ryan Tepen | 743,000 |
| Brett Schwertley | 627,000 |
| Brian Davis | 627,000 |
| Blake Cahail | 619,000 |
| Bradley Lipsey | 588,000 |
| Tim Killday | 478,000 |
| Dan Blakeman | 454,000 |
| Charles Moore | 417,000 |
| Dave Schwartz | 401,000 |
| Ryan Enis | 377,000 |
| Alexandru Masek | 364,000 |
| Michael McKuin | 251,000 |
| Peter Brooks | 236,000 |
| Jerry Milanos | 220,000 |
| David Davenport | 203,000 |
| Jeter Brock | 127,000 |
The third and final day of the tournament will commence at 1200 CST (1800 BST) on Monday as the remaining 21 players will play down to a winner. Be sure to follow the action from the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s St. Louis right here on PokerNews as our Live Reporting Team will be on hand to bring you all the action and eliminations.
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