Conrad Leads Final 21; Kirk, Moore & Masek Still Alive
Day 2 of the 2011/2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s St. Louis Main Event kicked off on Saturday with 303 players returning from Day 1, which attracted 606 runners; however, late registration was open up until the start of Day 2, and that number rose to 625 players. That created a prize pool of $909,375 with a healthy $190,961 reserved for first place.
After 14 levels of play, the field was reduced to just 21 players. Leading the way with 1.512 million chips is Chris Conrad, making him the favorite to capture the gold ring and punch a ticket to the National Championship; however, there are still plenty of competitors standing in his way such as Tripp Kirk, Michael McKuin, Dave Schwartz, Charles “Woody” Moore, Blake Cahail and Alexandru Masek.
Unfortunately, not everyone was so lucky as the aforementioned players. Matthew Chang, Amanda Musumeci, Bernard Lee, David Clark, La Sengphet, AP Phahurat, Aaron Massey, Paul Harris, Dennis Phillips, Sam Barnhart, Kurt Jewell, Mark “Pegasus” Smith and Nelly were just a few of the notables who were among the 262 players who exited the tournament empty-handed.
Last year’s champion, Kyle Cartwright, who was fresh off winning his fourth gold ring in Event #10 on Saturday, bought in at the start of the day for a 20-big-blind stack. He proceeded to run it up to 80,000 at one point, but then disaster stuck on the money bubble. It happened when Cartwright and Terry Stuhldreher got their chips all in preflop, with the latter having a slightly bigger stack.
Showdown
Cartwright:   |
Stuhldreher:   |
Cartwright was in great shape to double if he could avoid an ace and diamonds, which he did through the 
flop and 
turn, but the 
spiked on the river to eliminate him on the money bubble.
Some players who managed to make the money but couldn’t find their way to the end of Day 2 were Everett Carlton (52nd-$3,228), Travis Lutes (48th-$3,228), Michael “Carwash” Schneider (44th-$3,547), Seneca Easley (37th-$3,547), Ross Bybee (35th-$3,947), Steve Melton (33rd-$4,438), Katherine Bowen (27th-$5,820), Steven Graham (25th-$5,820), Joe Kuether (23rd-$6,793) and Jeff Wade (22nd-$6,793).
The third and final day of the tournament will commence at Noon CST on Monday as the remaining 21 players will play down to a winner. Be sure to follow the action from the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s St. Louis right here on PokerNews as our Live Reporting Team will be on hand to bring you all the action and eliminations.