Eddy Sabat Bags Big Lead as 30 Players Advance to Day 3 of Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Day 2 of the 2017 World Series of Poker Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em saw a total of 239 players out of a 1,086-entry strong field return to the tables in the Brasilia room. All of them eyed their share of the $2,443,500 prize pool, but more than 70 hopefuls would walk away empty-handed without anything to show for.
Only the top 163 spots were paid and it was Spain's Josep Maria Galindo Lopez who ended up as the bubble boy early into level 14. The Spaniard four-bet shoved pocket nines for almost 50 big blinds and Linglin Zeng reluctantly called with ace-king suited to spike an ace on the flop.
Until the dinner break after the sixth level of the day, only 71 players remained in contention with the Brits Scott Margereson and Chi Zhang at the top of the counts. Throughout the next four and a half levels, the field was thinned out further and just 30 hopefuls bagged up chips with Eddy Sabat in the lead with 1,866,000 chips. Sabat's best score at the WSOP comes from a 16th place in the 2014 Main Event for $347,521 and is in prime position for the bracelet and $456,822 payday that comes along with it.
Sabat is the only player above a million in chips and has more than double of Asi Moshe in second place with 921,000 while Tom Thomas follows in third place overnight with 861,000. Among the other big stacks and notables still in contention are UK's Scott Margereson (712,000) and Chi Zhang (674,000), Giuseppe Pantaleo (568,000), Curt Kohlberg (376,000), John Dolan (305,000), Jonathan Abdellatif (252,000) and 2015 November Niner Federico Butteroni (236,000). Start-of-the-day chip leader Pablo Fernandez lost two all ins at the end of the night and bagged up 132,000.
Among those to bust before the money were notables Kevin Eyster, Steven Wolansky, Mike Watson, Sam Trickett, Adrien Allain and Uri Reichenstein. After everyone had secured a minimum cash of $3,758, more than two dozen players joined the rail within half an hour. Three-time WSOP champion Dutch Boyd was the first to head to the payout desk and such familiar names as Blake Bohn, Adrian Mateos, Jesse Yaginuma, Michael Martin, Kristen Bicknell and Jason Wheeler followed in quick succession.
John Monnette, who recently won his third bracelet, lost most of his stack with ace-king versus jacks versus pocket aces in a three-way all in and had to settle for 79th place and $5,209 this time. Max Waxman was all in and at risk with king-queen and faced the pocket fours of Vitor Rangel, despite flopping a gutshot on top of his two live cards the WSOP bracelet winner failed to get there.
While Zhang and Moshe dominated the action until then, it was Sabat who crossed the million chip mark first and remained in the lead for the remainder of the day after sending Matthew McEwan to the rail. Sabat had pocket queens and McEwan only pocket nines, the board came ace-high without any nine in sight. Sabat also claimed the stack of Joel Ettedgi after the Brit five-bet shoved with pocket sixes right into the pocket rockets of Sabat.
The remaining 30 players have $10,868 guaranteed so far and will return at noon local time on Saturday for half an hour at blinds of 6,000/12,000 and a running ante of 2,000. The event is scheduled to play down to a winner and the PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide all the action from the floor.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brasilia | 700 | 1 | [Removed:153] | Sweden | 676,000 | 56 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 3 | Pedro Cabeca | Portugal | 208,000 | 17 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 4 | Matthew Bucciero | United States | 234,000 | 20 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 5 | Vitor Rangel | Brazil | 259,000 | 22 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 6 | Troy Sprungl | United States | 195,000 | 16 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 7 | John Dolan | United States | 305,000 | 25 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 8 | Asi Moshe | Israel | 921,000 | 77 |
| Brasilia | 700 | 9 | Curt Kohlberg | United States | 376,000 | 31 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 1 | Tom Thomas | United States | 861,000 | 72 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 2 | Jonathan Abdellatif | Belgium | 252,000 | 21 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 3 | Sadan Turker | United Kingdom | 331,000 | 28 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 4 | Joseph Kent | United States | 130,000 | 11 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 6 | Eddy Sabat | United States | 1,866,000 | 156 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 7 | Jamie Armstrong | United States | 756,000 | 63 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 8 | Eric Cloutier | Canada | 228,000 | 19 |
| Brasilia | 701 | 9 | Federico Butteroni | Italy | 236,000 | 20 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 2 | Griffin Abel | United States | 312,000 | 26 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 3 | Scott Margereson | United Kingdom | 712,000 | 59 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 4 | Philip Hannon | United States | 176,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 5 | Giuseppe Pantaleo | Germany | 568,000 | 47 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 6 | Leonardo Vilela | Brazil | 299,000 | 25 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 8 | Michael Krasienko | United States | 436,000 | 36 |
| Brasilia | 704 | 9 | Pablo Fernandez | Spain | 132,000 | 11 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 2 | Raul Martinez Requena | United Kingdom | 230,000 | 19 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 3 | James Calvo | United States | 572,000 | 48 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 4 | Carlos Reis | Portugal | 223,000 | 19 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 5 | Chi Zhang | United Kingdom | 674,000 | 56 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 6 | Gaurav Raina | United States | 491,000 | 41 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 8 | Pete Chen | Taiwan | 354,000 | 30 |
| Brasilia | 705 | 9 | Charalampos Lappas | Greece | 526,000 | 44 |