Enough of these split days. It’s time to get everyone still in the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in the same room. And that’s just what will happen tomorrow as all of the survivors from Days 2A and 2B reconvene as the field of the world’s biggest live poker tournament continues to narrow to the November Nine.
Leading the charge is one of the two stars of this summer’s festival (along with Phil Hellmuth), Ben “benba” Lamb. Lamb will go into Day 3 as the chip leader with a stack of 551,600 chips, followed closely by online star Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul, with 542,200. Nobody else has over half a million chips and just seven others have eclipsed the 400,000 chip mark, including Day 2A’s leader, Aleksandr Mozhnyakov, with 478,600. The all-world, ladies’ poker fantasy man, Patrik Antonius, sits in 12th place with 361,000 chips.
It took a healthy dose of luck for Lamb to even still be around at this point in the tournament, but any successful poker player will tell you that it takes a few fortunate moments in a tourney that long to make it to the end. From the button, Lamb raised to 2,400 and was called by the two blinds. When the flop came down a monotone 5d-6d-8d, the small blind checked, the big blind pushed all-in for 14,000, Lamb raised to 60,000, and then the big blind decided to put himself all-in for about another 35,000 chips.
Lamb had a good hand, 8s-5s, giving him two pair, but the small blind had flopped a King-high flush and the player in the big blind had bottom pair and the nut flush draw. Of course, Lamb is the chip leader and we wouldn’t be telling you about this hand if he didn’t hit one of his outs, so needless to say, the 5c fell on the turn, filling his boat, and eliminating both players in the blinds. With that pot, Lamb was up to 415,000 chips and he was on his way.
Ben Lamb currently sits second in the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year standings, with 659.05 points to Phil Hellmuth’s 710.25. Lamb has cashed four times at the WSOP, including his first-ever bracelet in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, a runner-up finish in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event, 8th place in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, and 12th place in the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship. All told, that’s over $1.3 million in cashes.
Day 2B started with 2,490 and saw that cut by more than half by the end of the night, with 1,043 runners able to bag up chips before they headed to bed. Combined with Day 2A, there are 1,866 players remaining in the Main Event, with 693 eventually getting paid.
Seven players still have a shot at winning a second Main Event title: Tom McEvoy (1983 champion), Berry Johnston (1986), Phil Hellmuth (1989), Huck Seed (1996), Carlos Mortensen (2001), Robert Varkonyi (2002), and Joe Cada (2009). Besides a possible gold bracelet, Johnston is also aiming to extend his record for the most cashes in the history of the WSOP Main Event, which currently stands at ten. Two former champs, Joe Hachem and Jamie Gold, were eliminated on Day 2B.
The top ten players going into Day 3 are as follows:
1. Ben Lamb – 551,600
2. Kevin Saul – 542,200
3. Aleksandr Mozhnyakov – 478,600
4. Ryan D’Angelo – 462,300
5. Tuan Vo – 434,500
6. Guillaume Darcourt – 410,500
7. Nicolas Fierro – 405,000
8. Narendra Banwari – 404,800
9. Stephane Albertini – 400,100
10. Dong Yang Yan – 383,400
Wednesday is a day off for the players; Day 3 will pick up on Thursday at noon Pacific time.
