Schulman Leads a Stacked Short-Handed Final Table
It took less than six hours of play to whittle our 23 Day 1 survivors down to a final table in this $100,000 Super High Roller wallet buster. When the chip bags came out, it was Nick Schulman with the biggest stack of 2.99 million, but the day was marked by some incredible turns of luck and some monstrous pots.
Justin Smith was the first to go broke today, shoving his into Tobias Reinkemeier's . Phil Laak was the shortest stack entering this Day 2, and he shoved the mighty into Caio Pimenta's to exit right behind Smith. At nearly the same time, Sorel Mizzi was busted by Daniel Negreanu, and Mizzi and Laak would hang around to needle Antonio Esfandiari for about a half hour until he lost a flip and joined his buddies on the rail.
Shawn Buchanan ran his pocket tens into Humberto Brenes' queens to go out next, and Andrew Robl had his kings cracked by ace-six to fall in 17th place and shrink the field down to the final two tables. Matt Glantz fell next, then David Benyamine both victims of pair-vs.-pair confrontations. Another one of those befell Jason Mercier when he ran his pocket queens into Nick Schulman's pocket aces; more on Schulman's aces in a bit.
The last few hours of the day were maddeningly active. Daniel Negreanu shot out to a huge chip lead while start-of-day chip leader Tobias Reinkemeier tumbled steadily down the board. Brazil's Caio Pimenta and American Bryan Colin were the next two out when both of their pocket pairs failed to win flips against opponents' overcards. Then came the pot of the day.
With huge three-way action, Reinkemeier and Rajkumar both got themselves all in, and Schulman woke up with aces to put both of them at risk. It was tens for Rajkumar and ace-jack for Reinkemeier, and neither of them could catch up on the board. Schulman was suddenly in a commanding lead as he vaulted up to 3.3 million, more than a third of the chips in play.
When James Obst and Daniel Cates were eliminated simultaneously on the final table bubble, the book was closed on Day 2. Schulman is still leading the way, but this seven-handed final table figures to have plenty of surprises in store. Here's how they'll be laid out when they return tomorrow to play for the title:
Seat 1: Nick Schulman (2,990,000)
Seat 2: Sandor Demjan (379,000)
Seat 3: Andrew Lichtenberger (373,000)
Seat 4: Bryn Kenney (1,390,000)
Seat 5: --empty--
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu (2,166,000)
Seat 7: Humberto Brenes (757,000)
Seat 8: Eugene Katchalov (1,476,000)
The final table will kick off at 1:00 P.M. tomorrow, and we hope you'll join us as we find our champion!
Until then, all that's left is goodnight.