2012-13 WSOP Circuit Bicycle Casino Day 2: Nathan Bjerno Leads With 13 Remaining
Sunday was a long day and eventful day at the 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Bicycle Casino Main Event. When Day 2 of the tournament came to a close Sunday evening, only 13 of the original 721 players were left chasing $216,275 top prize, and recent WSOPC ring winner Nathan Bjerno was leading the pack with 1,842,000 chips.
The action moved quickly right out of the gate Sunday as notables Eric Baldwin, Soi Nguyen, Christina Lindley and Allan Le were eliminated early on. Also busting out short of the money was last year's champion, Freddy Deeb. After buying into the event late on Monday, Deeb entered Day 2 sitting on a short stack and ended up getting it all in with A♥10♦. He was ahead but couldn't hold up against his opponent's 9♠7♠.
It wasn't long after Deeb's elimination that the players reached the money bubble. The bubble boy was none other than actor James Woods, who's well known for his role in the film Casino. Woods was taken down by former WSOPC champion Doug Lee, whose AxKx held up against Woods' Ax4x to burst the money bubble and secure a cash for the remaining 81 players.
That wasn't the only time Doug Lee stirred up trouble. In another hand, Lee used a timely river card to make a straight with Jx10x against his opponent's A♥K♥, which had flopped top pair. Lee advanced to Day 3 with 905,000 chips, slightly below the average stack.
One of the players to build up a big stack after the bubble burst was Suzie Zhao. At one point she was close to the chip lead with 660,000, but ended up getting in a huge pot with Nathan Bjerno to bust just after the bubble for the biggest pot of the tournament at that time. Zhao was all in with A♠2♠ for a flush draw against Bjerno's 5x5x for a flopped set. Zhao failed to improve and she was eliminated in 37th place for $3,895.
Toward the end of the day, Bjerno took another huge pot off Huicun Qaio to gain the chip lead heading to the final table. In the hand, action started with Bjerno raising to 32,000 in the cutoff. Qiao three bet on the button to 100,000, and Bjerno came along. The flop came down K♥J♦2♠, and Bjerno check-called a bet of 150,000 from Qiao. The turn brought the 9♥, and Bjerno once again checked. Qiao leaned over to look at Bjerno's stack, and after about 20 seconds of thought, he announced "all in!"
It was a massive bet, as it represented the 817,000 left in Bjerno's stack. Bjerno was in the tank for about three minutes before he hunched over in his seat and said, "I call."
Bjerno: K♦Q♦
Qiao: A♦4♠
It was a great call by Bjerno as Qiao had shoved with complete air. Bjerno still had to sweat an ace on the river, but that card was the J♥. After the hand, Bjerno was up to 2.1 million, while Qiao tumbled down to 448,000. Bjerno ended up finishing the day with 1,850,000.
Notables Nam Le and Joe Tehan also advanced to Day 3, making for what should be an exciting final day at The Bike. Here are the seating assignments for the final 13 players of the World Series of Poker Circuit Bicycle Casino Main Event:
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Huicun Qiao | 612,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Jesus Gastelum | 1,440,000 |
| 1 | 4 | David Malka | 866,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Baptiste Chavaillaz | 1,783,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Joe Tehan | 507,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Jared Ingles | 1,400,000 |
| 1 | 9 | Nathan Bjerno | 1,852,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Greg Brask | 477,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Eric Varela | 1,088,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Erik Roussakis | 1,500,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Doug Lee | 905,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Zhong Chen | 1,633,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Nam Le | 318,000 |
Day 3 kicks off Monday at 12:00 p.m. PST. Be sure to follow our live updates here at PokerNews.com as we cover the action all the way until a champion is crowned!
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