February 26 2012, Donnie Peters

Saturday marked Day 2 on the schedule for the 2012 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino, in Los Angeles, California. At the end of Day 1 on Friday, 523 players had registered for the event. Registration stayed open until the start of the second day and the field size grew to 549. When Day 2 was over, 182 remained and Gordon Vayo bagged up 284,000 in chips to claim the chip lead.

As mentioned in the first recap, Phil Ivey returned to play his first live tournament in the United States at this event. Once again, all eyes were on Ivey for Day 2, but not much happened in terms of overall chip movement. Ivey began the day with 116,300 and ended on 106,000. Still, the 2008 winner of the L.A. Poker Classic will enter Day 3 above average in chips and right in the thick of things.

Scrolling through the end-of-day chip counts, nearly every player remaining is a notable in the poker world. Of course, there were quite a few who fell short of their goal and hit the rail on Day 2. Some of those players who were eliminated include Blair Hinkle, Mike Sowers, Jason Mercier, Allen Kessler, Tommy Vedes and the WPT’s own Mike Sexton. The defending champion, Gregory Brooks also fell, after running his pocket tens into Nick Schulman’s pocket jacks and opened up the door for a new winner this year.

Greg Mueller was able to thrive on the day, going from just over 54,000 at the beginning of the day to finish on 279,700. One of the hands that netted Mueller some chips came when he eliminated Bryan Devonshire from the tournament. According to Devonshire’s Twitter, his ran into Mueller’s and that ended his tournament. For his successful day, Mueller earned the distinction as ClubWPT Player of the Day.

Besides Vayo, Ivey, and Mueller, there’s plenty of star power left in this field. In the top 25 alone some of the names include Keith Ferrera, Joe Tehan, Shaun Deeb, Sorel Mizzi, Dan Kelly, Jason Somerville and Gavin Griffin. A little bit further down the list are Billy Baxter, Dan O’Brien, Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Erick Lindgren and Chau Giang.

Stephen Chidwick, Will “The Thrill” Failla and Amnon Filippi all ended the day with under 20,000 and will have their work cut out for them if they want to see themselves makes the money and score a deep run.

Speaking of money, the prize pool was announced on Day 2 at the beginning of Level 7. According to the WPT Live Update Team, the total prize pool generated was $5,270,400. The top 54 spots will be paid out a minimum of $21,080. The top prize will be worth $1,370,240 and a $25,500 seat to the WPT World Championship at the end of the season in May.

2012 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Top 10 Chip Counts

Day 3 will start on Sunday at 1200 PST (2000 GMT) with at least another five levels of play on the docket. WPT Tournament Director Matt Savage announced that a minimum of five levels will be played and that the field must get into the money. PokerNews will have the recap from play at conclusion.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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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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