Joseph McKeehen Leads the Final 19
It’s been a long day here at Atlantic City. When we started the day, 299 players walked through the doors here at Caesars with hopes of being the next WSOP-Circuit Main Event Champion. After over 14 hours of play, only 19 players still have a shot at obtaining that dream. The player in the best position to do this is Joseph McKeehen, who will come into tomorrow as the chip leader with 1.904 million. Not far behind is Raymond Morgan, who will bring 1.257 million to the tables tomorrow.
McKeehen got a huge boost to his stack after picking up pocket aces in back-to-back hands, knocking out a player each time. In the first hand, McKeehen opened for 25,000 from early position, then Norman Michalek reraised to 62,000 from a seat over. It folded back to McKeehen who sat quietly for a moment, then pushed out a column of chips to make it 128,000 to go.
Michalek responded quickly by saying he was all in, and McKeehen instantly called.
Michalek: 
McKeehen: 
The board ran out 
, the result being flushes for both, but the nut flush for McKeehen.
On the very next hand following McKeehen's elimination of Norman Michalek, he opened again with a raise and got a single caller in Jeffery West from the blinds. The flop came 
, and when West led with a bet McKeehen put in a hefty raise. West thought a bit, then called all in.
West showed 
for top pair. McKeehen then tabled his hand... 
! Pocket aces on consecutive hands! And after the 
turn and 
river, consecutive knockouts for McKeehen as well.
We lost all of our big notable names today. Amongst those who came back today and left empty handed were Mike Sica, Mark “Pegasus” Smith, Gary Bolden, Nick Frangos, and Carter Phillips. Timothy Finne (42nd), Christian Harder (35th) and Matt Glantz (27th) finished in the money, but fell short of their goals to make it to Day 3.
The surviving players will be back in less than ten hours for the 12 PM restart. Tomorrow, we will crown a champion! Be sure to tune into Pokernews for all of the live updates! Until then, good night from Atlantic City!