Vineet Pahuja Leads Remaining 18 Into Day 3 with Josias Dossantos Hot on His Tail
Day 2 of the Big Stax XXXI 500 saw a total of 185 players come into the day for action as 20 more entred before late registration closed and when the dust settled, just 18 found a bag moving onto the third and final day of the tournament.
With the final table yet to be assembled, the remaining players will look to acquire chips from Vineet Pahuja. Pahuja came into Day 2 with an above-average stack of 357,000 and continuously built it up never drooping bellow the average.
Coming up hot on Pahuja's tail is Josias Dossantos. Dossantos had the complete opposite day in comparison to Pahuja as he came into the day below the chip average with 135,000 and grinded that stack into the later levels where he took off. Dossantos went into the final three-table redraw with 1.5 million and saw that basically doubled after the elimination of Samuel Taylor.
Aside from Pahuja and Dossantos, no other player broke the 3 million mark but six players sit over the 2,060,000 average stack with Tam Nguyen just falling shy with 2,045,000.
Final 2 Table Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1 | Vineet Pahuja | 4,085,000 |
| 10 | 2 | Michael Marder | 2,175,000 |
| 10 | 3 | Friman Villalona | 2,405,000 |
| 10 | 4 | Kevin Lutz | 1,205,000 |
| 10 | 5 | Mark Amabile | 640,000 |
| 10 | 6 | Tam Nguyen | 2,045,000 |
| 10 | 7 | John Alesi | 1,675,000 |
| 10 | 8 | Michael Linster | 1,490,000 |
| 10 | 9 | Josias Dossantos | 3,890,000 |
| 11 | 1 | Joe Palma | 1,870,000 |
| 11 | 2 | Jeffrey Gross | 560,000 |
| 11 | 3 | Travis Decker | 2,090,000 |
| 11 | 4 | Mitchell Brown | 2,505,000 |
| 11 | 5 | Mike Kemeter | 1,875,000 |
| 11 | 6 | Steven Mccullough | 2,740,000 |
| 11 | 7 | Travis Hartshorn | 1,885,000 |
| 11 | 8 | Russell Rothstein | 1,420,000 |
| 11 | 9 | Rafal Kordys | 2,425,000 |
Day 2 Action
The day started with 165 players and added another 20 but once late registration ended, 144 players remained with 98 of them getting paid. A downpour of eliminations ensued shortly after the prizepool was released and it was not long until the bubble popped during the second level of the day that all players were then guaranteed at least $1,233 for their efforts.
Just moments after the bubble burst it seemed almost as a tidal wave came crashing down on the field, wiping out almost every short stacks that were there.
But not everyone eliminated was a short stack as Patrick Tynion Jr, Aubrey Williams, Wenhao Huang, Steven Ortiz, and Edan Sucov all held over one-million chips at one point but still fell short of making the final three tables.
Shortly before the last level of the night, the three-table redraw was reached with Vineet Pahuja leading the way by a landslide.Joe Palma sat in second but even he was over a million chips behind.
It only took one full hour to see the final 27 players drop down to the would-be two-table re-draw in the last hand of the night as the elimination of Day 1a chip leader Sameer Batra, set the stage for the final 18 players.
The final 18 will return at noon on Monday, and play will start on Level 26 with blinds of 25,000/50,000/50,000 big. The levels will increase to 90-minutes in length.
The tournament will not stop until a winner is crowned, taking home the $87,185 first-place prize, along with a Big Stax XXI 500 trophy.
Day 3 is scheduled for a noon start time, Monday, October 7th and PokerNews will be on the tournament floor bringing you all of the live-action so stay tuned here until a new champion of the Big Stax XXXI 500 is crowned.