Ryan Jones Leads Final Eight in WSOP Circuit Baltimore Main Event
Day 2 of the WSOP Circuit Baltimore $1,700 Main Event is in the books with eights players remaining and bagging for the final day of the tournament tomorrow at noon local time.
The lineup is led by two-time Circuit ring winner Ryan Jones with 2,100,000. Jones started Day 2 as the chip leader and managed to bag the chip lead for the final day as well. Jones has two WSOPC Main Event wins and will bring up a ton of experience and skills from his past victories.
Jones is followed by Faisal Siddiqui with 1,890,000 in the bag. Siddiqui has already been at the final table of this event. In fact, he was the runner-up of the WSOPC Baltimore Main Event in March 2015. He fell one spot short from glory back then and will be looking to get the title this time.
Joseph Cashen will return to the final day with the third biggest stack (1,225,000) and has already locked his biggest Circuit cash by making it to the final table. It wasn't all smooth for Cashen but he did show that he wasn't afraid to gamble it up and he played many huge pots throughout the day.
Ryan Tamanini sits in fourth with 990,000. Tamanini found himself as one of the shortest stacks at some point but he didn't give up and managed to climb his way back up eventually bagging 40 big blinds for the final day.
Mark Redding is closely training Tamanini with 970,000. Redding will be going for the first six-figure score of his poker career.
Bracelet winner Michael Wang is still in contention as well with 875,000 in the bag. Wang is an experienced pro with $718,228 in WSOP cashes. He has been having an incredible series and he claimed two victories at this stop. He will try to top it with a third one.
Shinya Shimada (660,000) and Joseph Malebranche (415,000) round up the final eight. Shimada took over the chip lead early in the day and although he couldn't keep it all the way, he did manage to make it to the final day.
As for Malebranche, he started Day 2 near the top of the leaderboard and continued climbing throughout Day 2 eventually making it to the final day.
The remaining eight players all have $11,860 locked up but eight-place will be no-one's target when play resumes. They will have their eyes on the first-place prize of $113,143 along with the WSOP Circuit ring.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Tamanini | United States | 990,000 | 40 |
| 2 | Michael Wang | United States | 875,000 | 35 |
| 3 | Shinya Shimada | Japan | 660,000 | 26 |
| 4 | Joseph Cashen | United States | 1,225,000 | 49 |
| 5 | Ryan Jones | United States | 2,100,000 | 84 |
| 6 | Joseph Malebranche | United States | 415,000 | 16 |
| 7 | Faisal Siddiqui | United States | 1,890,000 | 75 |
| 8 | Mark Redding | United States | 970,000 | 39 |
Action of the Day
Day 2 saw 50 players returning to the felt of 303 entries. The bustouts were going at a very fast pace at the beginning of the day and within two levels, the field was whittled down to just 28 players. Just a level later, the field was reduced to 18 payers and many notables made it to the final two tables but couldn't survive much longer including David Moses (18th place - $5,248), Charles Johnson (15th place - $6,250), Peter Vitantonio (13th place - $6,250) and Christian Harder (11th place - $7,591).
The final table was reached when Siddiqui eliminated Jeremy Meacham after turning a flush against Meacham's nut flush draw. Siddiqui managed to get paid and stay ahead.
Action slowed considerably at the final table and within the last two levels of play Chris Grove was the only player to hit the rail. Grove only had 12 big blinds left and needed to find a spot to double up. He three-bet shoved with ace-eight against Mark Redding's ace-seven in a blind vs blind situation, but Redding flopped a seven and Grove couldn't recover.
The remaining eight players will return to the tournament area at noon tomorrow to continue to battle it out until a winner is crowned.
Play will resume at Level 24 which features a small blind of 10,000, big blind of 25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante.
The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be bringing you all of the updates througout the final day of the event so stay tuned as all of the action unfolds.