Chad Eveslage Bags Chip Lead Heading Into Final Table of Event #26: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 2 of Event #26: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship at the World Series of Poker at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas has drawn to a close with just nine players remaining. The day ended slightly early with all of the players agreeing to bag up their chips and return tomorrow where they will play to a winner.
After another 12 hours of play today, Chad Eveslage has emerged as the chip leader and will be the favorite when the cards get in the air tomorrow. Eveslage is coming off his first WSOP bracelet win earlier this summer in the $25,000 High Roller. It was also the poker pro's largest career score of $1.4 million, and he will be looking to ride that momentum into the final day. Eveslage broke through at the end of the day to bag up 1,080,000 chips, the only player in seven figures.
Breathing down his neck, also in search of their second bracelets, will be Matthew Schreiber with 970,000 chips and Joey Couden with 830,000 chips. The rest of the field will all be looking to capture their first piece of WSOP jewelry along with the first-place prize of over $245,000.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Bally's Feature | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matt Woodward | United States | 530,000 | 18 |
| 2 | Kyle Dilschneider | United States | 705,000 | 24 |
| 3 | David Litt | United States | 190,000 | 6 |
| 4 | Chad Eveslage | United States | 1,080,000 | 36 |
| 5 | Matthew Schreiber | United States | 970,000 | 32 |
| 6 | Matthew Gonzales | United States | 435,000 | 15 |
| 7 | Joey Couden | United States | 830,000 | 28 |
| 8 | Amir Shayesteh | United States | 175,000 | 6 |
| 9 | Jonathan Cohen | United States | 605,000 | 20 |
Day 2 Action
Late registration was open until the start of the day, which attracted 18 new entries, joining the 29 players that bagged chips on Day 1. Some of those notables included Phil Ivey, Josh Arieh, Julien Martini, and Joao Vieira. Unfortunately for them, they didn't last long with a starting stack of 60,000 chips, bowing out well before the money.
With a total of 92 entries, equalling that of the previous year, only 14 places got paid. It was Brian Rast, also a late entry, who was eliminated on the money bubble. Despite flopping a pair and the best hand, Rast succumbed to a king on the river, meaning the final 14 players locked up at least $16,920 for a min-cash.
First to hit the rail in the money was former chip leader Jesse Lonis. He was on the wrong side of multiple coolers over a short period of time and was unable to spin it back up. Matthew Rightnour and Marco Johnson followed Lonis out the door as other min-cash winners.
Yi Klassen was down to just two big blinds at one point near the money but out-lasted some others for a pay jump. Klassen was also the victim of a cooler where her nut straight ran into the nut flush of Eveslage. Only 10 players made it to the last break of the night and it didn't take long for play to halt for the evening. Nick Pupillo soon found himself on the short stack and eventually hit the rail in 10th place.
The final nine players will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time inside the Bally's Ballroom on the secondary feature table. The blinds will resume with around 70 minutes remaining in Level 17 with blinds at 10,000/15,000. The levels will continue at 90 minutes in length until a winner is crowned.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the live updates so keep it locked here.