WSOP Updates - Event #15, $1,500 NLHE - Fuller Leads Hellmuth, Machina to Final Table
160 players returned for Day Two of Event #15, $1,500 No Limit Hold 'Em, already in the money. Eyes were on 1989 World Champion Phil Hellmuth, who made his second cash of this year's World Series (and extended his own record for career WSOP cashes to 59) and had a chance to drive toward an 11th bracelet. Other tough players stood in his path, including Fabrice Soulier, Jon 'Pearljammer' Turner, James Van Alstyne, Morgan Machina and many others.
35 players were dumped from the tables in the first hour, Hellmuth was on the move in the early going at a table that also included James Van Alstyne and David Plastik. He cracked the 100K mark within the first hour and continued that drive through the entire day.
Plastik was eliminated just before the blinds went up to 2K/4K with a 500 ante. Jon Turner became the first person to top the 500K mark as after only four hours into Day Two action there were less than 60 players remaining. Morgan Machina, who started the day with only about 38K in chips, climbed higher, and Rick Fuller began a push by rivering a king to eliminate two players. At the dinner break, only 22 of the original 160 players had survived.
Turner was crippled after the dinner break when he ran into Andy Philachack. After a flop of J-10-7, both he and Philachack got all their chips into the center. Turner had flopped a straight with 9-8 and all Philachack could offer were pocket eights. The turn paired the seven and the river brought a miracle eight, giving Andy Philachack a runner-runner boat. Philachack moved up to over 700K in chips and Turner, down to 45K, was out on the next hand in 22nd place.
Hellmuth held fourth place with 18 remaining, but still stayed active, building over the million-chip mark. Rick Fuller made another double knockout to take the chip lead and, once Kiet Tran was dismissed in tenth place, the final table was set. Here's the lineup for today's action, the final table in Event #15:
PLAYERS �C CHIPS
Seat 1: Rick Fuller �C 1,779,000
Seat 2: Scott Clements �C 1,232,000
Seat 3: Morgan Machina �C 834,000
Seat 4: Fabrice Soulier �C 344,000
Seat 5: Ut Nguyen �C 624,000
Seat 6: David Simon �C 880,000
Seat 7: Andy Philachack �C 446,000
Seat 8: Phil Hellmuth �C 1,482,000
Seat 9: Taylor Douglas �C 259,000
Be sure to keep track of Hellmuth's pursuit of bracelet history starting at 2pm Monday PDT through PokerNews.com's 'Live Reporting' of Event #15, $1,500 No Limit Hold 'Em.
