Day 2 Concludes; Lord Leads, Boyd Looks For Third Bracelet
It was an exciting day of poker here in the Amazon Room at the 2014 World Series of Poker as Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. moved through its second day of play. By the time of bagging chips, just 15 players remained in contention for the bracelet and the $230,744 first-place prize. Kristan Lord was the player closest to achieving that goal, bagging up the chip lead with 475,000 in chips.
While Lord sat on the biggest returning stack, Stewart Yacik was hot on his heels with 468,000. Rounding out the top three was Brandon Guss with 371,000.
These three players bagged up the most chips for the day, but their paths to glory will still be laden with obstacles as the field houses some familiar names and top players. Most notably, Dutch Boyd bagged up in the middle of the pack with 209,000. Boyd sat atop the chip counts for a good portion of the day and will be a force to be reckoned with as the tournament progresses. A two-time bracelet winner, Boyd has put himself in a solid position to earn his third piece of WSOP jewelry. Boyd's first bracelet came in 2006 when he defeated the field in the $2,500 Short-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event for over $475,000. Four years later, Boyd captured his second in a $2,500 Six-Handed Limit Hold'em event where he pocketed just above $235,000.
Boyd isn't the only bracelet winner returning tomorrow, though. David "ODB" Baker won his first and only WSOP bracelet in 2012 during the $2,500 8-Game event. Baker, who has already proven himself a deadly mixed-game player, could very well be the next gold bracelet winner of the 2014 WSOP. Also returning, but very short on chips, will be 2012 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low bracelet winner Adam Friedman. Friedman bagged up 39,000 in chips, which was just under two big bets, but if he's able to run his stack up early then he will certainly have a chance at winning bracelet number two.
Other notable names to return for Day 3 include 2013 WSOP Asia-PAcific $1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet winner Jim Collopy (336,000), Chris George (311,00), Tommy Hang (163,000), and Jon Turner (116,000).
While these players all progressed onto the third day of play, other players were not as fortunate. Some players to fall before the money bubble was burst included Matt Glantz, Phil Ivey, Gabriel Nassif, Alex Rocha, Xuan Liu, Greg Raymer, Scott Bohlman, Michael Chow, and Andy Bloch.
The top 80 players were guaranteed a payday of at least $2,577. Some of the players eliminated in the money were Barry Shulman (79th), Richard Ashby (72nd), Toto Leonidas (64th), Roland Israelashvili (59th), James Van Alstyine (51st), John Cernuto (43rd), Jeff Shulman (42nd), Huck Seed (27th), Joe Cassidy (21st), Chris Klodnicki (19th), and Aaron Steury (17th).
Play will resume at 1 p.m. PT on Saturday where the final 15 players will play down to a champion.
Who will be the next gold bracelet winner of the 2014 WSOP? Only time will tell, but one certainty is that PokerNews will be on hand to provide all of the latest updates. Until tomorrow, have a good night and enjoy the first episode from PokerNews' new series Ivey Stories.