Julia Holds Big Lead With 17 Remaining; Matusow, Racener and Mizrachi Among Contenders
Another mixed game contest of the 2021 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas is one step closer to crowning a champion. Out of a field of 319 entries in Event #54: $2,500 Nine-Game Mix 6-Handed, just 17 players remain in the hunt for the coveted gold bracelet. The tournament, dubbed as the mini version of the pinnacle Poker Players Championship, will award the lion's share of the $709,775 prize pool on the final day on Saturday, October 30, 2021.
Nicholas Julia holds a commanding lead over his final 16 opponents as he bagged up an impressive stack of 2,150,000, which is more than two times of what Robert McLaughlin (1,013,000) has at his disposal. Among the other big stacks are three-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Aditya Prasetyo, the WSOP bracelet winners Kenny Hsiung and Justin Liberto, as well as actor and mixed game aficionado James Woods.
Mike Matusow continues his string of deep runs during the festival so far as he sits inside the overnight top ten and chases a fifth WSOP bracelet. A potential repeat victory at the WSOP is also possible for John Racener, Bradley Ruben, and the 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 2
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicholas Julia | United States | 2,150,000 |
| 2 | Robert McLaughlin | United States | 1,013,000 |
| 3 | Aditya Prasetyo | United States | 829,000 |
| 4 | Kenny Hsiung | United States | 822,000 |
| 5 | Kristan Lord | United States | 820,000 |
| 6 | Justin Liberto | United States | 715,000 |
| 7 | James Woods | United States | 649,000 |
| 8 | Matt Vengrin | United States | 635,000 |
| 9 | Marco Johnson | United States | 603,000 |
| 10 | Mike Matusow | United States | 559,000 |
Julia began his rise to the top of the leaderboard in the second level of the day when he knocked out Greg Mueller with the flopped nut flush against a rivered inferior flush. From there on, he was a wrecking ball at his alternating tables and remained in the top three on the leaderboard for the rest of the day. Many other notables such as Brian Rast, Yuri Dzivielevski, Max Pescatori, John Monnette, Jason Somerville, Day 1 chip leader Kao "Flexx" Saechao, and Daniel Negreanu were among the casualties before the money.
Eli Elezra was multi-tabling and had stacks in play for the mixed game contest and Day 2 of the Seniors Event. He paced back and forth between two different rooms in the and was ultimately eliminated by Joshua Rhodes not far away from the money bubble. Donny Rubinstein ended up as the bubble boy in a Razz hand against Kenny Hsiung and the eliminations thereafter came at a rapid pace once the players returned from the dinner break.
Notables in the money included WSOP bracelet winners such as Andrew Barber, Adam Owen, Andrew Kelsall, Kevin Gerhart, Jim Collopy, Carol Fuchs, Frankie O'Dell, and Naoya Kihara. Fuchs was denied a second final table of the festival when her ace-king came up second-best against ace-queen in a preflop contest. Kihara succumbed in a roller coaster Stud Hand against Rhodes.
Maria Ho made it to the final four tables before she bowed out in 23rd place and Matt Waxman followed soon after when his overpair ran into the flopped wheel of runaway chip leader Julia.
The remaining 17 players will return to their seats in the Amazon Tan section at 2pm local time and determine the latest WSOP gold bracelet winner. They have $7,626 locked up so far but the eyes will be set on the top prize of $168,608. Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who joins the winner's circle.