There will be no more days like these, at least not this year. No more days of a mathematical fog hanging over the main event as you try to calculate numbers and chip averages, or consecutive days of new faces whose enthusiams knows nothing of the repetition that preceded them, a retread of the same path. Tomorrow things will be clearer and what we see will be what we get.
Day 2A finished with 466 players. The final numbers from Day 2B are not yet official, but the field looked to be a little more than 800 strong at day’s end. That will leave us with still more than 1,000 players going into Day 3, including more than 100 PokerStars qualifiers and Team PokerStars Pros.
Among those Pros still in the field is Victor Ramdin, a one-time World Poker Tour winner looking for his first bracelet. Since arriving half an hour late for his day one appearance the man from the Bronx hasn’t looked back and instead has set a path towards the chip lead which shows now sign of slowing. At the midway point today Victor hovered around the 250,000 mark. At the close of play that figure was more like 305,000.
Here is a profile of Victor Ramdin from PokerStars.tv.
Watch Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin on PokerStars.tv
ElkY made a big move from 5,400 to 121,000 in one level tonight, something that no one could believe until they saw for their own eyes a stack swollen in numbers and colour. Few ever discount the Frenchman but down so close to the felt it was hard not to write him off. Such a stunning comeback bodes well for the Team PokerStars Pro going into day 3.
Also coming back tomorrow to represent Team PokerStars Pro will be Chris Moneymaker, Hevad Khan, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso and Noah Boeken, each of whom made it through their respective second days with enough in their armoury to have a chance, although with the field beginning to narrow, time and opportunity will grow short.
Sponsored players Kara Scott and Kirill Gerasimov also deserve a mention, having made their way through the treacherous swings of today’s five levels. EPT presenter Kara started on 111,000 and swung up and down throughout the day (despite a case of food poisoning) to finish on 66,000. Kirill on the other hand continues to play the World Series of his career, amassing chips in his typically understated style, and will return tomorrow with 160,000. In the dying moments of the day Hevad Khan registered an almost Balboa-like comeback hitting quad threes to spin up his meagre looking stack to 88,000 – more of a fighting weight.
That’s the story of the Team PokerStars Pros and sponsored players, but it also proved a big day for a number of the PokerStars qualifiers remaining in the field.
Steve Chung nearly didn’t make it to Vegas because he nearly didn’t make it to Macau, where the satellite tournament that he won was being contested, in PokerStars’ brand new live card-room. But against the odds, he got there, played the game, won his seat and was close to 300,000 chips for much of the day, good for a sniff of the tournament chip lead.
PokerStars player Alberto Fontrytzner, from Madrid, Spain, got his chance under the ESPN studio lights today, but played badly there (in his own estimation) and will probably only make the final edit running kings into aces. Thankfully, his table was moved and he began to prosper, so much so that he appeared as a blip on our radar set to detect big stacks and sat behind nearly 250,000 for the late hours.
Andrew Brokos, from Baltimore, has taken it calm and steady to reach close to 200,000, while Bill Purle, from Berkshire, England, first consolidated and then improved on his overnight stack. Purle knocked a player out during the evening session, to take him past the 240,000 mark and keep him well in contention. Brandon Schaefer, meanwhile, is always smiling no matter what, and 220,000-odd is as good a reason as any. Finally Bryan Tiffin, our man out to make a score, ended the day still in it on 45,000.
If you’re just now logging on, here’s a look back at all the coverage from Day 2B
Numbers, numbers everywhere
From one extreme to another
PokerStars homegame in the Green Zone
The current adventures of Team Moneymaker
Moneymaker back on TV
The Washington Globetrotter
The quarter of a million mark
Qualifier looking for a big score
Swimming ahead of the shoal
The all new Hevad Khan
The PokerStars Video Blog team has been working hard all day long and posting video blogs from the World Series on the brand new PokerStars.tv. Be sure to check out the videos to get the password for the PokerStars.tv freeroll.
Here is the update from Day 2B.
Watch Main Event Day 2B Update on PokerStars.tv
Selected chip counts for Day 2B can be found on our 2008 World Series Chip Counts page. When the tourney staff sends out the final list for Day 3, we’ll post it on the same page.
We don’t limit our coverage here to the English-reading world. Be sure you take a look at all the other coverage on our German, Swedish, and Brazilian blogs.
For coverage from all the previous days, we’ve posted summaries below.
Day 1A
Day 1B
Day 1C
Day 1D
Day 2A
Photography ©2008, Joe Giron/IMPDI
Back to Top
