Bounahra, "THAY3R" Lead Final 16
Bob Bounahra bagged 1,058,000 to lead the 16 remaining runners at the end of Day 2 of Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Bounahra, notably, was a member of the November Nine in 2011, the final table eventually won by Pius Heinz. That $1.3 million cash for seventh place is his lone six-figure score, but he'll be shooting for number two tomorrow.
Trailing Bounahra is Thayer Rasmussen, best known by his online handle "THAY3R," under which he has had plenty of success online. Rasmussen ended the night in second with 933,000, good for a wide gap over third-place Dominik Nitsche (707,000). Rasmussen collected a huge pot near the end of the night when he turned two pair against Louis Campbell.
The field of a $1,000 buy-in at the WSOP is typically chock full of lesser experienced players, however plenty of steely veterans navigated the minefield and find themselves among the final 16. Jeff Gross, Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen, Nitsche, Bounahra and Dan Alspach all have north of $1 million in live cashes alone, with plenty more online.
Some big names also fell along the way: JC Tran, Erik Seidel, Jason Koon, James Mackey, David Williams, Mukul Pahuja, and Jason Senti all collected some money but no glory as they fell by the wayside during the 10 level grind today.
Day 3 begins tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time, and we'll be on the watch as the field is whittled down to a winner who will collect more than $300,000 and a gold bracelet. Be sure to tune in to the action right here on PokerNews.