Jose Garcia Holds the Final Four Chip Lead
Play has ended for the day in the World Series of Poker Event #2, the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, with four players set to return tomorrow to close out the event.
Day 2 was intended to conclude with the crowning of a champion, but instead, the final four players, led by Jose Garcia with 13,795,000 chips, will resume play at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 30. They will compete for the top prize of $79,134 and the prestigious WSOP bracelet.
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Garcia | United States | 13,795,000 | 46 |
| 2 | Richard Rothmeier | United States | 8,705,000 | 29 |
| 3 | Lang Anderson | United States | 4,015,000 | 13 |
| 4 | Alexander Green | United States | 2,990,000 | 10 |
Some 179 players began the day with hopes of maneuvering their way to the final table. It took thirteen 40-minute levels to reach the unofficial final table of ten players. PokerNews’ Michael Holtz became the final table bubble boy after failing to improve against Garcia in an all-in preflop confrontation.
Garcia entered the final table with a dominating chip lead, immediately putting it to use by sending Jason Dorado to the rail when his queen-nine failed to improve.
Next to fall to Garcia was PokerNews’ Lukas Robinson, who also couldn't improve and settled for a ninth-place finish in his first WSOP final table appearance.
Short stack exits quickly followed, with Christopher Keem being the next to head to the cashier's desk after shoving blind-on-blind and running into Barry Goldberg's ace-jack.
Joshua Sieverding finished in seventh place at the hands of Goldberg. Bradley Wolfe, who held the chip lead for a substantial part of the day, eventually fell in sixth place to Goldberg's pocket kings.
The last elimination of the day was Goldberg in fifth place. Goldberg was crippled after losing ace-queen to ace-king and was finished off by Richard Rothmeier with ace-jack.
Some of the PokerNews players who made deep runs but fell short of the final table were Tyler Boyer (100th), Chance Castro (61st), Tyler Foran (50th), Connor Richards (44th), and Claudio Elizalde (40th).
Players will reconvene in the Horseshoe Events Center at 1 p.m. local time on May 30, with the blinds starting at Level 33 (150,000/300,000 and a 300,000 big blind ante).
Stay tuned for all the excitement as the PokerNews Live Reporting team covers Day 3, along with our comprehensive summer-long coverage of the 2024 WSOP at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.