Zimba WSOP Blog: Day 2B Morning to Dinner Break

Day 2B represents the larger flight of the World Series of Poker with hopes of advancing to a combined Day 3. Read which big names are doing well or have bust out. Check out the latest overheard conversations at the poker tables in the Rio. Have your finger on the WSOP pulse.

Zimba Blog:

Day 2A began with 2,490 hopefuls who survived either Day 1B or 1D. The "shuffle up and deal" honor was given to the Caesar's Entertainment dealer of the year winner.

In early going Shannon Elizabeth and Liv Boeree failed to join the 822 survivors from Day 2A who are already on to a combined field Day 3. Cliff Josephy, Todd Terry, Tony Dunst, Joe Sebok, two-time main event final tablist Jeff Shulman and 2011 bracelet winner Eugene Katchalov also saw their Main Event dreams come to an end. At the break we learned that Barry Greenstein and Daniel Alaei also joined the rail.

After the first two levels of the day, blinds will move to 400/800 with a 100 ante as the green 25 chips are raced off. Over 500 players have been eliminated in the first two levels. Kevin Saul is one of the chip leaders with 280,000.

Other notable decent stacks:

Patrik Antonius 220k
Sam Simon 170k
Justin Bonomo 165k
David Chiu 147k
Jeff Madsen 143k
Dan Kelly 135k
Victor Ramdin 130k
Jamie Gold 130k
Phil Laak 126k
Robert Varkonyi 118k
Todd Brunson 115k
David Williams 115k
John Racener 108k
Matt Matros 106k

Ben Lamb continues his torrid run in the 2011 WSOP. He is currently over 300k and applying pressure on a shorter stacked Phil Hellmuth in the Player of the Year leaderboard. For instance, if Lamb finishes better than 138th, and Phil Hellmuth is unable to make the money, Lamb would take the lead in the Player of the Year race.

Overheard at the tables as I walked around "If you ever want to win a prop bet, ask a guy what is the national sport of Canada. It's not what you think. Originally it was lacrosse until in 1994 they added ice hockey over people's objections."

Also overheard at the tables "Why are New Yorkers always so angry? They realize the light at the end of the tunnel is New Jersey."

There seem to be fewer hats and costumes today. I saw that the Santa Claus, one of the cow outfits, one buffalo head, and one squirrel head were still in the field.

Announcers came back after the break to ask if players recognized a player who was lost and didn't know where to find his seat., nothing. Next they asked what tables had an open seat, nothing. Then they asked does anyone have a seat with a black sweater on it. Bingo, the guy is back at his proper seat, looking confused and bemused as the Amazon room broke into applause.

Near the dinner break I walked up to a table in full debate about some poker player. I first heard "that guy likes to start companies that catch flying knives." When I listened a bit more, they were discussing Dan Fleyshman, the entrepreneur, poker player and CEO of the defunct poker room (now affiliate) Victory Poker. Three players were spouting out their opinions, rumours heard, or personal experiences with Dan. Everyone loves to give their two cents regarding well known people. The resulting conversation ranged from "He's a good guy" to "I heard he was a scumbag and crook." I shudder to think what people would say about me if I was well known.

One late level three bust out was Brad "Yukon" Booth. He was featured in a very candid CardPlayer article detailing his struggles the last few years with being cheated, big debts and losses playing poker. He has been trying to pay people back while he remakes his poker career. He had high hopes that he could make a deep run to give a big boost to those efforts. Unfortunately for him, he will need to find poker salvation at another poker tournament.

Players are now on dinner break with the average at over 72k. While the field was larger today, the pace of bustouts was quite a bit quicker too. The blinds will move to 500/1000 with a 100 ante after the dinner break.

Author

Gosu "GosuGamers" Gamers