Day 2 is a Wrap
It was just about twelve hours ago when 108 players meandered into the Orange section of the Amazon Room to take their seats for Day 2 of Event #23, the $2,500 Limit Hold'em extravaganza. After ten levels of bet, two bets, three bets, we've made it down to our final twelve, and it's time to close up shop for the morning.
A whole wagon load of notables were wheeled out of here in the early going today. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was one of the first to stroll back out the door, and it wasn't long before the likes of Joe Sebok, Mike "GoLeafsGoEh" Leah, Erik Cajelais, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, J.C. Tran, and Vitaly Lunkin followed him off to the Bad Beat Bar.
The money bubble came and went without so much as a whimper, and we went straight from 34 players on into the payouts for the final thirty-two. Just limping into the cash list were Martin Kabrhel, Justin Bonomo, Phil Gordon, Shawn Buchanan, Michael Binger, and Rafe Furst.
That still leaves us with a few familiar faces at night's end. JJ Liu has been up near the top of the counts for about two days, and she finished up in good standing with 182,000. Dutch Boyd has been up and down a bit, but he had himself a fine second half of Day 2 to close with 348,000 in his chip bag. Al "Sugar Bear" Barbieri has been waiting for his spots for two days now, and he finally picked up some chips as the night wore on. He finished with 415,000, and that's good enough to set the pace heading into tomorrow's final day.
We'll be back at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow for the play down to the bracelet. Sometime during the late night or early morning hours, one of these twelve players will be hoisting a shiny gold bracelet. We'll see you then!