Aaron Messmer Leads After Day 2 of Event #21: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em MILLIONAIRE MAKER
A total of 1,104 out of 7,361 players showed up for Day 2 of Event #21: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em MILLIONAIRE MAKER and after ten 60-minute levels, just 155 remain.
The chips were flying throughout the day here in the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and when the dust settled, it was USA's Aaron Mesmer at the top of the chip counts with 1,089,000. Fellow countryman Clyde Shimp sits in second with 978,000, while Germany's Manig Loeser rounds out the top three with 914,000.
Stanley Lee, who's in fifth with 866,000, vaulted to the top of the chips counts in one of the last hands of the night.
Lee raised to 18,000 from the cutoff and James Mackey reraised to 53,000 from the button. Lee called and they went heads up to the jack-nine-seven flop. Lee check-called a bet of 65,000 from Mackey and both players checked the queen on the turn turn.
The river was the ace and Lee checked to Mackey who checked behind. "How do you check that river" said Lee turning over his ten-eight for a flopped straight. "I guess you really do run good in this tournament" joked Mackey as he tossed his hand into the muck.
Lee is no stranger to the MILLIONAIRE MAKER after making a deep run in 2015, finishing 24th for over $45,000. He followed that up with a 39th place finish in 2016 taking home another $28,160. He narrowly missed winning his first bracelet in last year's $1,500 MONSTER STACK, finishing 3rd for his largest career tournament cash of $501,353. A fourth consecutive deep run in a massive $1,500 event makes Lee one to watch going forward.
Lee is chased by two former WSOP Main Event Champions, as 2015 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe McKeehen (487,000) and 2012 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Merson (295,000) will both return to Day 3 with healthy chip stacks. Former November Niners JC Tran (387,000) and Joseph Cheong (459,000) will also be joining them on Day 3.
Elio Fox continued his strong showing this summer putting 348,000 in the bag. Fox has started his WSOP off on fire winning Event #2: $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty for $393,693 and his second WSOP bracelet. He followed that up with a 2nd place finish in Event #5: $100,000 No Limit Hold'em High Roller for a mouth-watering $1,798,658.
As some notables bagged and cashed, others fell along the wayside, and there was a flurry of bust outs in the last level of play. Jack Sinclair, Martin Jacobson, Chris Moorman, Taylor Paur, Jared Jaffee, Tuan Le and Daniel Strelitz were among the last wave of players to be eliminated.
The final 155 players will return on Tuesday, June 11 at 11 A.M. local time to resume play. They will be playing 10 levels with a 15-minute break after every two levels and a one-hour dinner break after the sixth level (approximately 5:30 P.M.).
Make sure to come back on Day 3 to follow all of the live action as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide you with all of the updates.
