Pantling Leads; Laak, Bjorin Headline the Final Table
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Ten hours after Day 2 began, our field of 31 bracelet hopefuls has been reduced down to just six.
With 24 places paying, seven of our starters had to leave with nothing before we could get on with the business of the payouts. Jeffrey Lisandro was one of the unlucky early exits, and both Andrew Lichtenberger and Michel Abecassis joined him in the Bad Beat Booth without a dime to show for their efforts so far this week. It took about half the day, nearly five hours to shake those first seven knockouts. Javed Abrahams was the one who took the unenviable title of Bubble Boy for this opening WSOPE event, and it came in an awfully tough way to handle. Ilan Rouah flopped a flush with 
on a 
board, but Abrahams was leading the betting with his 
. A fourth diamond on the river got the rest of the chips into the middle with Abrahams banking on his ace-high flush. The 
river was the straight-flush card for Rouah, though, and Abrahams' big diamond flush was nothing but a big red herring.
From there on out, it was a pretty steady progression to the end of the night. Britain's favorite daughter, Liv Boeree had a fine run into the money, but she too was the victim of a straight flush that sent her off in 19th place. Chris Moorman showed up about three hours late to the tournament, but he managed to recover and rebuild for a while before finally being cut down in 12th place. Fellow Brit Praz Bansi was right behind him in 11th.
Before long, we were down to our last table, seven players with just one knockout separating themselves from a date with the final table and a chance to complete every poker player's dream quest for a bracelet. The skill level was high amongst the finalists, and it took a cooler to end our night just after 10:00 local time. John Tabatabai needed to make a move, and he found 
with which to do so. Unfortunately, he ran his Big Slick right smack into the pocket aces of Chris Bjorin. There were two more clubs on the flop but no further help for the Brit, and he was out as the final table bubble boy, cueing the chip bags and the bio sheets to be brought out from storage.
So then, we have our six for tomorrow. And heeeeere they are:
Seat 1: Willie Tann (72,000)
Seat 2: Chris Bjorin (368,500)
Seat 3: Phil Laak (317,000)
Seat 4: Andrew Pantling (627,000)
Seat 5: Ilan Rouah (200,000)
Seat 6: David Peters (251,500)
We'll have a whole lot more about these guys tomorrow, but we'll give you a few quick highlights. Willie Tann is up first, and he's earned himself a bracelet's worth of respect here today. Tann has been riding the short stack for two straight days, but he would not be gotten rid of. Chris Bjorin (by virtue of this performance) is now the WSOPE's all-time leading casher with five. Oh yeah, and he's also got more than $4.5 million in career tournament earnings. Phil Laak. Do we need to say anything? Andrew Pantling is the chip leader, and he's no joke. The Canadian has serious cashes on four continents, including one previous championship here in London. Ilan Rouah will be the wildcard tomorrow, an amateur from France who's shown no interest in being pushed around here this week. And then there's David Peters, the youngest player at the table who's thus far been a hard nut for his table to crack.
Those six will be back inside the Casino at the Empire tomorrow at 2:00 p.m., and we'll finally get to open the trophy case and pass out the first gold bracelet of the 2010 WSOPE. We'll be here to catch all of the action tomorrow, and we hope to see you right back here as well to crown a champion in Event #1!