Lee & Givens Biggest Stacks After Day 2 of Event #59: $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship
The day began with 919 players returning from the massive 6,140-player starting field, all guaranteed an $875 min-cash but looking at the $397,903 first-prize. Once the play was halted at the end of level 27, there were just 83 players remaining with Lang Lee (6,075,000) and Will Givens (6,025,000) leading the charge.
With $2,063,956 in total live earnings and the gold bracelet of a $1,000 No Limit Hold'em event in 2014, Givens will be a tough opponent in the race for the trophy tomorrow. He is followed in the counts by Ricardo Trevisani, a famous Italian sports journalist, with a hefty stack of 5,475,000.
Only two other bracelet winners are still in contention with the likes of Kathy Liebert (755,000) and Dan Matsuzuki, chip leader at the end of Day1 and who managed to keep a nice advance all day to bad a comfortable stack of 4,460,000. Jessica Dawley, the winner of the 2018 Ladies Event, felted one hour before bagging, losing her last 400,000 chips all in preflop with ace-queen versus Siagzar Payvar's pocket tens.
As expected, play was fast and furious as players restarted after the bubble was reached at the very end of Day 1, and numerous familiar faces were lost during the first levels of the day such as the 2016 Main Event champion Ryan Riess (912th - $875), Kelly Minkin (795th - $923), Steven Wolansky (690th - $984), Farid Jattin (487th - $1,256), Greg Raymer (468th -1,387), Humberto Brenes (274th -$1,971), Asi Moshe (175th, $2,254) and Eric Baldwin (139th -$2,600).
Other players to look out for when play resumes at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 27 include Giovani Torre (5,455,000), Jason Wheeler (2,300,000), the ever-dangerous Jimmy Tran (2,160,000) , Lawrence Brandt (840,000) and Sandrine Phan, continuing her fabulous deep run in this WSOP after her previous third place in Ladies Event for $72,821.
Each of the 83 returning players is guaranteed to win at least $3,549 for their efforts thus far. Play is set to recommence at 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, with a 15-minute break every two levels and will play down until the first ever $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship winner is crowned.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to provide extensive live coverage throughout the day.