WSOP What to Watch For: Jacobson, Luxemburger Lead to Start Day 2a/b of Main Event
With Day 1 of the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event now complete, the remaining players today take the next step toward discovering who among them will be walking away with the $10,000,000 first prize.
While Phil Ivey and the other survivors of yesterday’s Day 1c wait to resume their Main Event tourney journeys on Wednesday, today finds those who made it through Days 1a and 1b coming back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to play five more 120-minute levels and try to reach Thursday’s Day 3 when the entire field will at last be combined.
Here’s what we have witnessed so far now that the three Day 1 flights have all taken off and landed:
| Day | Entrants | Made Day 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1a | 771 | 505 |
| 1b | 2,144 | 1,428 |
| 1c | 3,768 | 2,571 |
| Total | 6,683 | 4,504 |
For today’s “Day 2a/b,” the 505 survivors of Day 1a will be playing alongside the 1,428 who made it through Day 1b, meaning 1,933 players total will be taking seats today. However, the two groups will remain separated with Day 2a playing out in the Amazon room while Day 2b players will be seated in the Brasilia and Pavilion.
Day 2a: Jacobson Tops Chip Ladder
Martin Jacobson of Stockholm, Sweden returns to the biggest stack of anyone from the Day 1a group, having accumulated 200,100 chips on Saturday. Aaron “WiltOnTilt” Wilt will start with the second-biggest stack in the Amazon with 157,650, with Naoya Kihara, Kenny Tran, and Mukul Pahuja also having finished Day 1a inside the top 10.
2014 WSOP Main Event Start of Day 2a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Jacobson | 200,100 |
| 2 | Aaron Wilt | 157,650 |
| 3 | Seamus Cahill | 150,775 |
| 4 | Benjamin Gold | 144,875 |
| 5 | Naoya Kihara | 124,225 |
| 6 | Ken Einiger | 120,400 |
| 7 | Yung Hwang | 118,875 |
| 8 | Kenny Tran | 115,400 |
| 9 | Mukul Pahuja | 114,800 |
| 10 | Aleksandar Simic | 110,675 |
The average chip stack for Day 2a players to start play will be 45,802, meaning Nick DiVella (102,525), Kevin MacPhee (100,250), Eric Cloutier (92,250), Tom Middleton (84,475), and two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan (83,375) will be among those with stacks well above par when the first hands are dealt today.
2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess (70,225) likewise will return to a healthy stack when he takes his seat in the Amazon today, as will 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker (69,850).
Meanwhile Antonio Esfandiari, last year’s Main Event runner-up Jay Farber, Layne Flack, Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton, 1983 Main Event champion Tom McEvoy, 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson, and poker author Jim McManus will also be part of the Day 2a crowd to start play this afternoon.
Day 2b: Luxemburger Leading the Way
On Sunday, Trey Luxemburger of Louisville, Kentucky finished the night on top of the Day 1b counts with 193,450, with Sarkis Hakobian his nearest challenger with 189,000. Ryan “KJulius10” Julius is also among the players who’ll be returning to top 10 stacks among the players gathered in the Brasilia and Pavilion rooms today.
2014 WSOP Main Event Start of Day 2b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trey Luxemburger | 193,450 |
| 2 | Sarkis Hakobian | 190,125 |
| 3 | Ryan Buckholtz | 189,000 |
| 4 | Daniel Wirgau | 173,350 |
| 5 | Ryan Julius | 165,125 |
| 6 | Maxim Panyak | 158,425 |
| 7 | Jeff Norman | 156,625 |
| 8 | Julian Stuer | 155,200 |
| 9 | Steve Ryan | 147,500 |
| 10 | Richard Moon | 146,200 |
An average stack to start Day 2b will be 45,042, with a lot more players in this group beginning the day with 100,000-plus stacks (74 compared to the 17 starting Day 2a).
Included in the Day 2b six-figure club are Erik Seidel (134,025), Mark Radoja (126,000), Matt Affleck (122,150), Taylor Paur (116,600), Marvin Rettenmaier (115,000), Jorn Walthaus (108,475), David Williams (104,100), and Brian Hastings (100,350).
Others who made out well on Sunday to begin Day 2b in good starting shape are Phil Galfond (91,000), Antoine Saout (85,025), Jeff Madsen (80,275), Jon Turner (79,950), Kristy Arnett (75,550), and David Bach (73,075). Also part of the Day 2b field will be 1995 Main Event champion Dan Harrington whose stack of 35,200 will equate to an “M” of about 29 when play resumes today. And the player who won the Main Event the year after “Action Dan,” 1996 champ Huck Seed, will be there, too, with a stack of 22,750.
Last year a slightly smaller overall Main Event field saw Mark Kroon emerge from the Day 2 flights with a stack of 507,300 to lead the 1,753 players making it to Day 3.
Day 2a/b kicks off at 12 noon PDT today, so point your browser to the Main Event live updates then to begin reading the next chapter of the World Series of Poker Main Event story.
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