Posted by Andrew Feldman
Day 2 of the $50,000 HORSE event was moving day, and it seems as if those that play in Bobby's Room made it their responsibility to be at the top of the chip counts.
Only 67 players remain in the event, and chip leader Lyle Berman is stacked at $507,000, with his closest competitor, Patrick Bueno, at $485,500. Berman, with just less than $1 million in career WSOP earnings, is the owner of three WSOP bracelets and the founder of the World Poker Tour. He made it to the quarterfinals of the $10,000 heads-up world championship earlier this month, but he had not cashed at the WSOP since 2004. His last bracelet came in 1994, but he has been a prominent figure in the industry due to his influence at the WPT.
The lesser-known Bueno has less than $700,000 in career earnings and five WSOP cashes since 2006. He has been playing poker for more than 12 years and, during the start of the decade, played primarily in France.
The top 10 contains many more household names. Barry Greenstein, Minh Ly, Chris Reslock, Joseph Michael, Erick Lindgren, Justin Bonomo, Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson are all within striking distance and looking to have a solid Day 3 in order to put themselves in position for the final table.
Freddy Deeb, last year's champion, was eliminated on Day 2, as were Ted Forrest, David Benyamine, Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, Patrik Antonius and David Singer, the only player to have made the final table in both 2006 and 2007.
Still in the hunt are Phil Ivey (who is running out of time to win his bracelet bet), Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond, Kenny Tran, Scotty Nguyen and Jeffrey Lisandro.
Complete chip counts of this event can be found at WorldSeriesOfPoker.com.
There are other tournaments going on …
Even though the HORSE tournament has captured the focus of the world, there are four other tournaments that are in action on Friday. After last night's fourth-place finish by Erik Seidel, players and fans have set their sights on the final table of Event 44 -- $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys -- which will be broadcast Friday night on ESPN360.
Jesse Chinni leads the final nine, while Scott Freeman and Alex Bolotin are looking for their first WSOP victories. Freeman, known online as "SCTrojans," has won more than $723,959.66 online, according to Bluff's PokerDB. He plays in the highest stakes online tournaments but has also had success at the WSOP, cashing in last year's main event and twice already in 2008. Bolotin has made five WSOP final tables and has earned $940,748 in nine WSOP cashes. He's looking to make his sixth final table his most memorable.
Event 46 -- $5,000 six-handed no-limit hold 'em -- is heading into its second day of play. Jesper Petersen leads the field of 99 players who are looking for their place in WSOP history. Shannon Shorr, Will Failla, Dan Shak, Eugene Todd and Alex Jacob are still in the race, and the action will continue until the final table is reached Friday night.
Event 47 -- $1,500 seven card stud high-low, eight or better -- is led by Ben Tang as Day 2 begins at 5 p.m. The most notable name in the top quarter of the leaderboard is two-time 2008 bracelet winner John Phan, who is looking to make history with a third win. Marco Traniello and Men Nguyen also remain in the field of 117.
Starting today is Event 48 -- $2,000 no-limit hold 'em -- which is expected to have a field of more than 2,000 players.
Small blinds:
Usually players are looking for others to take a piece of their action. However, during the HORSE tournament, this was not the case. Phil Gordon said on the Poker Edge that he asked nearly 30 players, and nobody wanted to sell anything. … Mark Seif's pocket kings were cracked with barely more 20 players to go in Event 44. He finished in 23rd place. … Seif also extended his lead in ESPN.com's fantasy poker league, but Daniel Negreanu, Peter Feldman and Bernard Lee made upward moves over the past three days. … Don't forget to sign up for the Poker newsletter and find out what's new at the ESPN Poker Club.
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