Erik Seidel Leads Final 18 After Day 2
A total of 139 players returned for the second day of the $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low and it would be Erik Seidel who accumulated the most chips after ten one-hour levels of play with 444,000 in chips.
Those to fall before the money included such familiar names as Phil Galfond, John Racener, Chau Giang, Adam Friedman, Matt Savage and Dan Shak. Ismael Bojang bowed out three spots before the money and Thomas Beckstead survived at least four all-in showdowns on the bubble after being down to as low as a single grey T100 chip.
Bubble play carried on for an hour and in the very last hand of level 16, Chris Klodnicki and Dustin Leary busted at the same time to split the min cash of $4,694. Michael Chow and Thomas Butzhammer were eliminated in the first payout step, 2014 bracelet winners Georg Danzer and Vanessa Selbst followed shortly thereafter. Humberto Brenes scored his sixth cash of the 2014 WSOP and eventually bowed out in 32nd place.
Mike Matusow was short most of the day and then scooped a massive pot against Cameron Tahmasebi and Jeet Shetty on the final three tables; however, his celebration earned him a one-round penalty. Five further players would hit the rail in the final level and that did include Matusow in 19th place after losing two big pots before heading to the payout desk. It seems he was never able to get over what he deemed an unjust penalty.
Notables that made it through include Mike Leah (374,000), John Kabbaj (326,000), Joe Tehan (152,000), Tom Schneider (124,000), Robert Mizrachi (110,000), Allyn Jaffrey Shulman (106,000) and Matt Glantz (66,000). Glantz will be the shortest stack due in part from walking into the royal flush of Andrey "gigaloff" Zhigalov in Level 20.
Play resumes tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time when the final 18 players will play down to a winner. Seidel turned 20,000 at the start of the day into more than 20 times that, but will he be able spin it into a gold bracelet? Check back then to find out who scoops the most pots and earns the next WSOP title.