Michael Rocco Leads the Final Nine Players in Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
Day 2 of Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6 Handed of the 2022 World Series of Poker is in the books. The day started with 93 players returning to Bally’s but the field whittled down through the ten hours of play and only nine players survived to see Day 3.
Michael Rocco finds himself in the chip leader seat with 1,675,000. The Californian player has cashed in multiple WSOP events throughout the years and has one WSOP Circuit ring to his name. He will be looking to add a first gold bracelet to his collection. Rocco has a good start in this series so far, with a seventh-place finish in Event #12: High Roller No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed for $192,570.
Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed End of Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Rocco | United States | 1,675,000 | 34 |
| 2 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 1,170,000 | 23 |
| 3 | Andrew Kelsall | United States | 1,145,000 | 23 |
| 4 | Gabe Ramos | United States | 1,100,000 | 22 |
| 5 | Mike Lancaster | United States | 975,000 | 20 |
| 6 | Shaun Deeb | United States | 715,000 | 14 |
| 7 | Zachary Green | United States | 600,000 | 12 |
| 8 | Robert Como | United States | 585,000 | 12 |
| 9 | Kevin Erikson | United States | 570,000 | 11 |
He is followed is the counts by some serious opponents, as three-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus (1,170,000) and Andrew Kelsall (1,145,00), winner of the 2020 WSOP Global Casino Championship complete the podium. Five-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb will also take part of the final day tomorrow as he managed to bag 715,000 chips.
The defending champion, Ryan Hansen, was among the runners at the beginning of Day 2 but ended up being eliminated over the course of the day. Some of other notables to finish outside of the money were two-time bracelets winners Robert Campbell and Eric Froehlich, Jesse Lonis, Greg Mueller, Motoyoshi Okamura and Rafael Lebron just to name a few.
The money bubble burst at the end of Level 16 and it was Matthew Mortensen who was the unfortunate bubble boy when he pushed his last big blind with ten-six suited and ran into Deeb's ace-king suited and couldn't hit anything on the board.
Other big names who made the money but couldn't make it much longer include bracelet winners Joao Vieira (32nd place-$4,939), Day 1 chipleader Daniel Vampan (25th place-$5,402), Andrew Brown (23rd place-$6,174), Ruiko Mamiya (20th place-$6,174), Koray Aldemir (18th place-$6,174) and Ian Johns (13rd place-$7,500).
The final nine have locked up at least $11,980, but of course the $142,147 up top and WSOP bracelet will be the target for each player.
Play will resume tomorrow at 1 p.m local time on Level 21 (blinds 13,000/25,000) with 60-minutes levels and a 15-minutes break every two levels.
PokerNews will be there to bring you all the action, so keep it right here for everything you need to know from the 2022 World Series of Poker from its new home at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
and Ramos bet. Hoang called all in with his last chips to create the following showdown: 
turn and 
river to be eliminated of the event. Hoang, who finished in seventh place in this event last year, ended this run in 11th place for $9,357.
, giving Hoang two pair, queens and fours, to keep him alive.
to give both Rosen and Rocco a pair of aces but Rocco's seven kicker came in to play and he took down the hand, sending Rosen to the rail.
. Rocco check-raised a bet from Johns and the latter called all-in with his last chips:
river didn't change anything for Johns, who made his way to the exit.
and Deeb bet, called all-in by Vo to create the following showdown: 
, giving two pair to Deeb and eliminating Vo in 14th place.
and the river an 
when Brent Mutter bet from the small blind and Shaun Deeb called. 
river to make his way to the payout desk.
and with the missed straight draw and no pair on board, Grech's pocket deuces were good to take the pot and knock Henson out of the tournament in 17th place.
