Day 2 Ends With Donald Vogel Standing Tall as Chip Leader; Twenty Two Remain
After ten levels and 283 eliminations - Day 2 of Event 56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em has come to an end with 22 lone survivors. Donald Vogel leads the way yet again going into Day 3 with 1,297,000. Nipping at his heels is Gianluca Mattia (1,271,000), who scored a massive double up against Eliyahu Levy late in the day.
Day 2 began just eight eliminations away from the money and, as expected, the money bubble burst within the first half hour of play. Due to the sheer number of players remaining, we actually had a "double bubble," meaning that two players busted on the same deal during hand-for-hand play and split up a min-cash. The remaining players dropped like flies as over half the field was gone by the end of the third level.
Those fortunate enough to cash, but fall short during Day 2 include Matt Brady (225th), Jennifer Tilly (205th), Jeff Madsen (199th), Adam Levy (184th), Maria Ho (168th), Jennifer Leigh (133rd) and Daniel Negreanu, who met his end after getting short-stacked and losing an all-in preflop with 
.
One of the more notable survivors of Day 2 is 2008 Main-Event Champion Peter Eastgate (1,043,000), who was able to build stack steadily throughout the day and score a knockout that propelled him among the chip leaders late in the day.
A win for Eastgate would make him the first Main-Event Champion to earn a second bracelet since Carlos Mortensen, who earned his second bracelet back in 2003.
Other survivors going for the gold bracelet include World Poker Tour Champion Will "The Thrill" Failla (85,000), ninth-place 2011 Main-Event finisher Sam Holden (405,000) and Alexander "Argentina Boy" Queen (585,000), who recently placed eighth in Event 13: $1,500 Limit Hold'em.
Play is scheduled to resume tomorrow at 1:00 PM PST and will continue until we reach a final table and eventual champion! Please stick with us here at Pokernews as we bring you all the action from the felt!
Until then - goodnight from Vegas!