WSOP Event #2 Down To Last 15 Players: JP Kelly Fourth In Chips!
When play resumes at 13:00 Las Vegas time (21:00 UK time) it will be Jacob Bazeley who is the chip leader, his 1,291,000 chips enough to place him at the top of the chip counts
When it comes to reporting on poker tournaments the media - and fans of the game - much prefer to have some big names left in the field when the event reaches the latter stages. In large field events this is usually a rare occurrence but not in Event #2 of the World Series of Poker where just 15 players remain from the 2101 who started and amongst them are a handful of extremely talented poker players.
At the start of Day 2 there were 239 players ready for action and with only 216 places paid there were going to be some very disappointed, empty-handed men and women leaving The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. One such man was John Eames who ran his ace-king into pocket kings just two places from the money. Shortly after Eames' demise his fellow Brit JP Kelly picked up Ac-Kc and after a flurry of action found himself all-in and at risk of elimination against two opponents who held Qc-Qs and 10s-10c. Kelly was not in as bad shape as you would believe (38.44% equity) but that soon changed as the dealer put out the 8d-Jd-5c flop. By the 4h turn Kelly's outlook was rather bleak but the Ad on the river was one of his six outs and he flew towards the top of the chip counts with 140,000 chips.
From that moment on Kelly never looked back and he continually added previous chips to his ever-growing stack. At the end of play he had to try and cram 721,000 ceramic discs into his chip bag; enough to place him fourth with just 15 players remaining. This is Kelly's best chance to add to the two WSOP bracelets he already owns, but if he is to go all the way and take down the first open event of the 2012 WSOP he will have to endure a difficult penultimate table that is the home to Vanessa Selbst, Andrew Badecker, Ryan Schmidt and Todd Keikoan! Rather him than us!
When play resumes at 13:00 Las Vegas time (21:00 UK time) it will be Jacob Bazeley who is the chip leader, his 1,291,000 chips enough to place him at the top of the chip counts. Bazeley finished 66th in last year's Main Event and if he wants to best the $108,412 he received for that finish he has to come at least fifth in this particular tournament.
Each of the 15 players who have made it to the third and final day of this tournament have now locked up at least $23,655 for their efforts but they are now just 14 eliminations away from winning a piece of poker's most sought after jewellery and the massive $517,725 first place prize. Who will that winner be? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
Event #2 Day 3 Seat Draw
Table 1
Seat 1: Kwinsee Khoa Tran - 592,000
Seat 2: Vanessa Selbst - 706,000
Seat 3: Empty
Seat 4: Empty
Seat 5: Andrew Badecker - 349,000
Seat 6: JP Kelly - 721,000
Seat 7: Ryan Schmidt - 1,193,000
Seat 8: Kennii Nguyen - 411,000
Seat 9: Todd Keikoan - 265,000
Table 2
Seat 1: Richard Park - 379,000
Seat 2: Neil Willerson - 479,000
Seat 3: Joseph Cino - 703,000
Seat 4: Abdyl Konjuhi - 754,000
Seat 5: Kenneth Strickland - 685,000
Seat 6: Empty
Seat 7: Michael Kaufmann - 243,000
Seat 8: Jacob Bazeley - 1,291,000
Seat 9: Brent Hanks - 578,000
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
