Day 2 of Event #68: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em has ended with 23 players remaining out of the 335 who began the day. Play resumes on Day 3 at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 29, in the Horseshoe Event Center, where they will play down to a champion in this stacked event.
The total prize pool generated was $4,959,525. The top seven will lock up a six-figure payday, with the winner receiving the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $667,963.
Leading the pack is WSOP Bracelet Winner and $25k Fantasy draftee Nacho Barbero, who bagged a whopping 9,935,000 and was hovering around the other big stacks for most of the day until he caught fire late in the day and soared past them to put himself way into the chip lead.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 9,935,000 | 99 |
| 2 | John Reiter | United States | 7,280,000 | 73 |
| 3 | Ivan Stankov | Bulgaria | 6,400,000 | 64 |
| 4 | Andre Akkari | Brazil | 5,055,000 | 51 |
| 5 | Colin Robinson | United States | 4,835,000 | 48 |
| 6 | Gianluca Cedolia | Canada | 4,665,000 | 47 |
| 7 | Peter Park | United States | 4,540,000 | 45 |
| 8 | Carl Shaw | United Kingdom | 4,500,000 | 45 |
| 9 | Alisson Piekazewicz | Brazil | 3,500,000 | 35 |
| 10 | Gonzalo Almada | Argentina | 3,360,000 | 34 |
Bagging near the top is John Reiter with 7,280,000 who is looking for his first bracelet and best live cash earnings. This event will be Reiter’s first cash in the 2024 series as he hopes to add to his $268,226 winnings thus far.
Prior bracelet winners who still remain include Andre Akkari (5,055,000), Peter Park (4,540,000), Carl Shaw (4,500,000), Barry Schulman (3,045,000), Jin Hoon Lee (1,390,000), Rui Ferreira (1,300,000), PokerNews Podcast’s Co-Host Mike Holtz (1,015,000), and David Guay (925,000).
Action of the Day
The day began with a blistering pace as eliminations occurred left and right. As the bubble had just burst the night before, it took less than 2 hours for the field to almost halve from its starting size. Eliminations became less frequent as pay jumps became a factor. By the dinner break, only 59 players remained. As ICM implications came more into play, action slowed heavily. The day ended with the three table redraw having occurred shortly before the end of the day.
Some of the unfortunate players that failed to make it to Day 3 include Phil Ivey, Joao Simao, Mustafa Kanit, Brian Yoon, and the poker power couple of Kristen Foxen and Alex Foxen.
The final players will resume at 12 p.m. on June 29 on Level 28 with blinds at 50,000/100,000. Play will continue until a victor is crowned.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for the exciting finale of this tournament as well as all other 2024 WSOP events!
