Welcome to Day 2 of Pot-Limit Hold'em
Play resumes today in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold��em event with just 69 players remaining and a plan to play either ten 60-minute levels or down to a final table of nine.
Play started at noon yesterday with just a couple hundred entrants and some fairly tight early play. The entries and the play did steadily increase however and we were just a couple players short of eclipsing last year��s total at the dinner break. Another 27 players would enter during the dinner break upping the total number of entrants to 557.
Late entrants included Scott Seiver and Phil Ivey who would start play with just over 11 big blinds. Scott Seiver was not so lucky, as he joined other notable exits like Jeremy Ausmus, Sorel Mizzi, James Woods, Kathy Liebert, Kevin Saul, Jonathan Little, Dwyte Pilgrim, Joe Cada, and Antonio Esfandiari who all hit the rail before the completion of Day 1.
Phil Ivey did find a quick double-up with pocket aces, however, and went on to build a respectable stack of 31,300 and a seat at today��s second day of action.
It was David Martirosyan that would build the biggest stack, though, as he was able to negotiate his way through two monster pots in the last level of play. Martirosyan is stacked at 119,500 and Matthew Damadeo is not far behind with 117,600. Joseph Cheong is lurking closely in fifth position with 67,200. In total, 69 players will return today and 63 will be paid for their efforts, with the winner taking home $169,225.
PokerNews will be there to follow the bubble bursting as part of our complete Day 2 coverage starting at 1 p.m. PDT.