Hand #7: Shawn Silber raised to 20,000, then continuation bet the flop against David Greene. Greene folded.
Hand #8: James Park raised to 20,000, and Eddie Blumenthal and Noah Schwartz called. Silber reraised to 115,000. The blinds, Park, Blumenthal and Schwartz folded.
Hand #9: Action folded to KT Park, who completed the blind. James checked to see a flop of . KT checked, and James bet 13,000. KT called, seeing a turn. He fired out 21,000. James bumped it to 68,000. KT folded after tanking for about two minutes.
Hand #10: Action folded to James in the small blind, who completed. Eric Shanks checked. James bet 15,000 on the flop, and Shanks folded.
Hand #11: Blumenthal raised to 20,000, and everyone else folded.
Hand #12: Silber raised to 20,000, and Greene made the call, as did Blumenthal from the big blind. The flop came . Everyone checked, and the dealer placed the as the turn. Blumenthal and Silber checked once more, and Greene bet pot for 71,000. Blumenthal and Silber folded.
Hand #5: KT Park opened for 20,000, James Park called and Shawn Silber called from the big. All three players checked the flop, the turned and KT bet 28,000 after Silber checked to him. James made the call, Silber folded and the completed the board on the river. KT checked, James bet 53,000 and KT thought for well over a minute before folding his cards.
Hand #6: Eric Shanks opened for 20,000 and Noah Schwartz called from the button. Shawn Silber came along from the small blind and then Brandon Crawford did the same from the big, leading to a flop. Three checks saw Schwartz fire out 38,000, only Crawford called and the dealer burned and turned the . Crawford checked, Schwartz bet 87,000 and Crawford hit the tank. Eventually he emerged and moved all in, which Schwartz snap-called.
Crawford:
Schwartz:
Schwartz had flopped the nut straight while Crawford, who if you recall finished as the Day 1 chip leader, held three pair. That meant Crawford needed one of his cards to pair on the river, and although the paired the board, it wasn't the card he needed.
Crawford exited the ESPN Main Stage to a nice round of applause on his way to the payout desk to collect $19,909.
Hand #1: Eddie Blumenthal raised to 22,000. Eric Shanks and Brandon Crawford called. The flop came . Everyone checked. The turn was the , and everyone checked once more. A hit the river, and Blumenthal bet 44,000. Shanks and Crawford folded.
Hand #2: Blumenthal raised to 20,000. James Park reraied pot, to 75,000. Blumenthal folded.
Hand #3: Park raised to 20,000 from the cutoff, and Blumenthal called. The flop came , and Blumenthal checked. Park bet 24,000. Blumenthal raised to 62,000. Park folded, and Blumenthal took another pot.
Hand #4: Blumenthal completed the blind, and Noah Schwartz checked. Blumenthal led out for 14,000 on a flop, and Schwartz called. The turn came , and both players checked. A river completed a four-straight and a three-flush, and Blumenthal and Schwartz checked again. Blumenthal showed and took the pot with two-pair.
The most accomplished player at the final table, Noah Schwartz, also happens to be the chip leader. The 29-year-old from Sunny Iles Beach, Florida has more than $3.2 million in live tournament winnings since 2006, with his career year coming in 2012. That is when he won $1,127,927 including a win in the World Poker Tour $3,500 Jacksonville bestbet Main Event for $402,972, fourth in the L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Championship for $355,750 and sixth in a €25,000 High Roller Event in Monte Carlo for $219,162.
As far as the World Series of Poker is concerned, Schwartz, who earned a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from FIU, has 12 cashes for $589,408. Nearly half of that came back in 2009 in the special 40th anniversary Event #2 $40,000 No-Limit Hold'em when he finished eighth for $246,834. Other highlights include a 24th-place finish in the 2009 WSOP Event #40 $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship for $46,225 and fourth in the 2011 WSOP Europe Event #5 €10,400 No-Limit Hold'em Split Format for €112,092.
Schwartz has previously said that pot-limit Omaha is his favorite game, so how sweet would it be if he captured his first gold bracelet in that game? He has a good chance of doing it as he holds about a quarter of the chips in play, but only time will tell if he can find himself as the last man standing.
Thanks to a late-night charge on Day 2, local Shawn Silber begins the day second in chips. He gathered those chips in large part by eliminating some tough players like Pakinai Lisawad, Levon Khachatryan and David Johnson.
Today will mark Silber's largest career cash, with his previous best being a 217th-place finish in the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event for $10,000. You read that right, the 2004 WSOP. That means Silber has been playing for at least the better part of a decade. Toss in a fifth-place finish in the 2007/2008 WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace Las Vegas Event #10 $550 Pot-Limit Omaha for $3,667, and Silber has the experience to come out of relative obscurity to win the WSOP gold bracelet.
Brandon Crawford has had an up-and-down experience in Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. On Day 1, he ran and played better than everyone as he finished chip leader among the final 117. Crawford, who hails from Los Angeles, California and works in digital marketing, used that chip advantage to make it to the final table, albeit as the second shortest stack. That means he faces an uphill battle if he hopes to capture his first gold bracelet.
Even so, we happen to know Crawford is friends with Justin "Boosted J" Smith, who stopped by the tournament area to wish his friend well late on Day 2. If Crawford can get some advice from his experienced friend, he might just be able to make a run at the title.
Today marks Crawford's third, and largest, cash at the World Series of Poker. He also has one WSOP Circuit score for $32,990, which came from a sixth-place finish in the 2012 $1,600 Main Event at the Bicycle Casino. While that score was nice, his largest actually came in the 2011 L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Championship Event when he finished 16th for $50,340. That career score could change today though if he can manage to finish fifth or better.
David Greene of Germantown, Maryland begins the day on the short stack with 163,000. While Greene no doubt enjoys the challenge and thrill of competition, poker isn't his primary game. That happens to be golf. With that said, the gold professional learned to play poker from members at his local country club.
He's put those lessons to good use as today he'll notch the largest score of his young poker career--his only other cash came from the 2012 WSOP Event #8 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better when he placed 25th for $7,989.
Like the other Park at the table, little is known about Michael Parks, who told PokerNews on Day 1 that he prefers to go by KT Park. The 47-year-old consultant was born in South Korea but now resides in Los Angeles, California. Today marls his first-ever WSOP cash. He begins the day sixth in chips.
. KT checked, and James bet 13,000. KT called, seeing a 
turn. He fired out 21,000. James bumped it to 68,000. KT folded after tanking for about two minutes.
. Everyone checked, and the dealer placed the 
as the turn. Blumenthal and Silber checked once more, and Greene bet pot for 71,000. Blumenthal and Silber folded.
flop, the 
turned and KT bet 28,000 after Silber checked to him. James made the call, Silber folded and the 
completed the board on the river. KT checked, James bet 53,000 and KT thought for well over a minute before folding his cards.
flop. Three checks saw Schwartz fire out 38,000, only Crawford called and the dealer burned and turned the 
paired the board, it wasn't the card he needed.
, and everyone checked once more. A 
hit the river, and Blumenthal bet 44,000. Shanks and Crawford folded.
, and both players checked. A 
river completed a four-straight and a three-flush, and Blumenthal and Schwartz checked again. Blumenthal showed 
and took the pot with two-pair.
