April 11 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open took place on Sunday. Registration was held open until the start of play on Day 2, which allowed for another five players to join the mix and increase the overall field size to 97. From there, 62 were in action to start the second day with Ali Eslami in the lead. At the end of play on Sunday, the field was whittled down to 27 players with ClubWPT qualifier Andy Whetstone leading. He holds 334,400 in chips going into Day 3.

The WPT’s own Mike Sexton was one of the players returning for Day 2, but he didn’t go much further than that. Sexton only made it to Level 8 before his couldn’t beat an opponent’s . Sexton was joined on the rail by Jason Koon, Jack McClelland, Gregory Brooks, Jonathan Little and Hoyt Corkins. Corkins fell to eventual end-of-the-day chip leader Whetstone.

On the flop of , Corkins checked and Whetstone bet 12,000. Corkins check-raised to 60,000 and Whetstone moved all-in for 93,100. Corkins called and was all-in for less holding for the nut-flush draw. Whetstone tabled the . The turn brought the and the river the to leave Corkins in the dust and send Whetstone up the leaderboard with about 200,000 chips at the time.

Shannon Shorr was another player to have himself a great day on the felt. He finished with 250,900 in chips and will enter Day 3 in second place. In a key hand against Chris Bell, Shorr bet the flop of after Bell checked. Bell made the call, and the turn added the to pair the board. Bell checked again and Shorr bet 12,500. Bell called.

The landed on the river and Bell fired out 20,000. Shorr put in a raise to 66,500, which was enough to put Bell all-in if he were to call. Several minutes passed with Bell in the tank before he eventually laid down his hand. Shorr scooped the pot and saw his stack eclipse the 200,000-chip mark at this point in the day.

Eslami only added a few thousand chips to the stack he entered the day with and finished on 153,300. Also still alive and moving onto Day 3 are Erik Seidel with 133,000, Allen Kessler with 72,400, William Reynolds with 70,900, Andy Frankenberger with 61,100 and Amanda Musumeci with 57,900.

Day 3 Seating Assignments and Chip Counts

Day 3 will begin on Monday at 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). The final 27 players will return to play until ten remain. Be sure to check back on PokerNews for the recap from play.

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