Nick Guagenti in the Lead Going into the Final Day of Event #9: $1,500 Limit Hold’em
Only six out of 443 players remained at the end of Day 2 of Event #9: $1,500 Limit Hold’em, and firmly in first position is Nick Guagenti with 2,800,000 chips, almost a million ahead of the rest of the field.
Day 2 began with 121 players returning to battle it out for the total prize pool of $591,405 and the $121,074 first-place prize. The bubble burst just over two hours into the day and 67 players were paid at least $3,014.
Guagenti started the day with around an average stack but was able to steadily chip up throughout the levels. Guagenti was a pick in the 2024 25k Fantasy Team and will be earning vital early points for Team Baker.
Joseph Brodsky ended the day in second place with 1,885,000. Brodsky's stack was on the biggest rollercoaster of all the remaining players, as he fell to be an extreme short stack several times. At one point he was down to five big blinds, but always somehow managed to get back into contention.
Also remaining in the field is two-time bracelet winner and well-known Finnish pro Juha Helppi, who had a slow start to the tournament but was able to chip up steadily over Day 2. He will be entering Day 3 as the shortest stack with 1,280,000, a bit over 25 big blinds.
Among the players who made a deep run but didn’t make it into Day 3 were JJ Liu, who was eliminated in 23rd place, as well as 25k Fantasy players Renan Bruschi and Georgios Sotiropoulos.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joseph Brodsky | United States of America | 1,885,000 |
| 2 | Juha Helppi | Finland | 1,285,000 |
| 3 | Qinghai Pan | United States of America | 1,845,000 |
| 4 | Nick Guagenti | United States of America | 2,800,000 |
| 5 | Bradley Carter | United States of America | 1,645,000 |
| 6 | George Chen | United States of America | 1,645,000 |
Play will resume at 1 p.m. local time on June 2 in the Horseshoe Event Center with blinds at 25,000/50,000. Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates from Day 3 of the $1,500 Limit Hold'em event to see who will be crowned a new WSOP champion.