Ray Henson Leads Final 16 Into Day 3 of Event #56
The second day of the Event #56: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em saw 206 players return to the tables in the Amazon Room and Raymond Chen was leading the field as one of three players with three-digit stacks. Ten hours and levels later, only 16 players would remain and Ray Henson claimed the top spot with 897,000 in chips.
A large portion of his stack came from the elimination of Seyed Fazeli in 24th place when the pocket kings of Henson held up.
Not far behind in the overnight chip counts are Steve "gboro780" Gross (859,000) and Scottish veteran Richard Milne (827,000). Gross won his first gold bracelet one year ago in the $5,000 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha.
Other notables that made it through to the final day included World Poker Tour champion and TV producer Matt Salsberg (494,000), Justin Schwartz (354,000), Neo Hoang (237,000), and Bastian Fischer (219,000).
Among the first to hit the rail early on Day 2 were Noah Bronstein, Hoyt Corkins, Kathy Liebert, Vladimir Geshkenbein, and Soi Nguyen. Nguyen was a victim of the roller-coaster ride of Loni Harwood, who created the two of the largest pots of the entire day before bowing out in 46th place in a setup hand versus Matthew Frampton.
Vinny Pahuja was looking for another deep run after reaching the final two tables three times already at the 2014 WSOP, but his aces got cracked and he had to settle for 73rd place. John Hennigan, winner of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship, followed in 69th place and Thomas Muehloecker was eliminated in a three-way hand towards the end of the day.
Bryan Berryman and Craig Rombough reached the last two tables and were sent to the rail in the last level of play to create the following "Sweet 16" for Day 3:
| Table | Seat | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 450 | 1 | Robert Merulla | 529,000 |
| 450 | 2 | Daniel Riley | 232,000 |
| 450 | 3 | Steve Gross | 859,000 |
| 450 | 4 | --empty-- | -- |
| 450 | 5 | Raymond Henson | 897,000 |
| 450 | 6 | Matt Salsberg | 494,000 |
| 450 | 7 | Richard Milne | 827,000 |
| 450 | 8 | Bastian Fischer | 219,000 |
| 450 | 9 | Mike Kachan | 375,000 |
| 446 | 1 | Jeff Blenkarn | 252,000 |
| 446 | 2 | Justin Schwartz | 354,000 |
| 446 | 3 | Viktor Skoldstedt | 402,000 |
| 446 | 4 | Michael Marckx | 510,000 |
| 446 | 5 | Neo Hoang | 237,000 |
| 446 | 6 | Michael Spegal | 223,000 |
| 446 | 7 | Eric Shanks | 450,000 |
| 446 | 8 | --empty-- | -- |
| 446 | 9 | Andrew Egan | 731,000 |
Play will resume in level 22 at blinds 8,000/16,000 with an ante of 2,000, and the action gets underway at 1 p.m. Las Vegas time and will continue until a winner has been determined. All players have already secured a payday of $14,407, but the eyes are set on the first-place payout of $403,483.
Follow the PokerNews live updates and find out who will engrave their name into poker history on Tuesday.