A total of 98 players registered for the $10,000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Western Regional Championship at Harrah’s Rincon and, after two days of play, that number has been clipped down to 18. Kwinsee Tran will enter Day 3 with the chip lead after building a stack of 269,100, but close on his heels are PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu, Ali Eslami, Tim “Tmay420” West, and three-time WSOP Circuit champion Dwyte Pilgrim.
Tran eliminated Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder in the final level of Day 2 to claim the chip lead. The poker pro from California has a number of big wins under his belt, including an event at the L.A. Poker Open in November for $178,830, and has more than $650,000 in earnings on the live tournament circuit. A victory in this WSOP Circuit Event would be worth $282,242.
Pilgrim, meanwhile, made several big hands late in the day to increase his stack to 236,500, good for second most heading into Day 3. Pilgrim has already won two WSOP Circuit Events at Rincon; he won a $300 buy-in event last year for $13,400 and the $5,000 Main Event in 2009 for $125,775. That title also awarded him a $10,000 seat into the 2009 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.
One of the major stories heading into Day 2 was the late arrival of Negreanu, who decided at the last minute to travel to Rincon to participate. Negreanu missed Day 1 because he was busy playing Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown. Feeling good about his $26,500 victory over Blom, Negreanu boarded a plane to California early Monday morning and arrived in time to take his seat with the 59 players who advanced to Day 2.
Negreanu joined seven other late registrants on Monday with the starting stack of 30,000 (50 big blinds) and boasted on Twitter that he’d be starting the day with more chips than both Phil Hellmuth and Pilgrim. He got off to a rocky start, but was able to climb his way into the chip lead with 29 players left heading into the dinner break.
Negreanu then lost a big pot to David Peters that sent him back toward the middle of the pack. According to PokerNews, Negreanu and Peters saw a flop of Qd-4d-3h and Negreanu checked to Peters, who led out for 11,000. Negreanu then check-raised to 18,500, thinking Peters had bet only 8,000, and was forced to raise to 22,000. Peters called.
Both players checked the 2h on the turn and Negreanu bet 26,500 when the As landed on the river. Peters called and revealed 5h-5d for a straight and Negreanu mucked, leaving him with around 150,000. He finished the day with 173,800.
Among the players sent home on Monday were UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Full Tilt Poker pro Carlos Mortensen, Shannon Shorr, John Hennigan, Allen Kessler, Victor Ramdin, Josh “JJProdigy” Field, Sam Stein, and Hellmuth, who was eliminated when his A-K couldn’t outrun West’s pocket kings.
Play will resume at Noon local time on Tuesday and conclude when the televised final table of nine is in place. Only the top 12 will get paid, but the nine players who reach the final table will also be awarded a seat to the $1 million WSOP Circuit National Championship, which will be played from May 27th to 29th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks heading into Day 3 of the WSOP Circuit Western Regional Championship in San Diego:
1. Kwinsee Tran – 269,100
2. Dwyte Pilgrim – 236,500
3. Ali Eslami – 227,500
4. Tim West – 216,900
5. David Peters – 200,500
6. Joe Parker – 200,000
7. Miller Dao – 186,600
8. Daniel Negreanu – 173,800
9. Kyle Bowker – 168,100
10. Dylan Wilkerson – 166,000
Other notables: Steve Brecher (157,900), Todd Terry (108,600), Scott Montgomery (103,100)
