Bonacci Rides Late Day Wave to Chip Lead of Final Nine Players
A wild Day 2 of the HPT Meadows Main Event has concluded after only five brisk and action packed hours of play reduced the starting field of 47 down to a final table of nine.
Frank Bonacci zoomed to the chip lead at the end of play with a stack of 2,235,000. He became the star of the final few minutes single-handedly bringing the field to the final table in seemingly a blink of an eye. The miraculous run nearly never happened as Bonacci was close to being out the door in what turned out to be one the biggest hands of the day. His entire stack was at stake with pocket queens against the pocket aces of Anthony McIe, but a queen on the flop saved Bonacci and sparked the flame to his late-day chip inferno.
The star in the early part of Day 2 was Calvin Snead, who had a similar hot run in the first few hours when he took out several players to increase his start-of-the-day chip lead. The hand that really kicked it off was a huge pot where he eliminated Ryan Delgros when a king hit the turn to crack aces to give him two pair. He eliminated several more players and at one point had close to a third of the chips in play and ended the day second in chips with 1,590,000.
Greg Raymer ended the day third in chips as he had a steady day chipping up, including a double knockout just before the two-table redraw. He will take a formidable stack of 1,195,000 with him into the final table tomorrow. Mike O��Neill finished the day in fourth place a smidge behind Raymer with 1,190,000 in chips. At one point Snead, Raymer and O��Neill had most of the chips in play before the surge of Bonacci.
The money bubble took only one hand to bust as Jason Mangold became the bubble boy after starting the day second in chips. Play would not slow down from there, as the pace of eliminations remained steady and only increased in speed the later the day went.
The nine remaining players will descend upon the final table at noon local time with two minutes remaining in Level 22. There will be a live stream available via HPT and PokerNews will be there to provide updates based off of the stream.