Elizabeth, Ind. (October 13, 2014) — Gregory Johnson holds a convincing lead in a Horseshoe Southern Indiana Main Event final table that includes Circuit legends Charles “Woody” Moore and Doug “Rico” Carli as well as 2010 WSOP Europe final tablist Brian Powell. Johnson possesses 2,211,000 of the 7,200,000 chips in play and leads second place Powell (1,415,000) by just under 1,000,000. Carli and Moore, meanwhile, hold 548,000 and 368,000 respectively.

Moore, a past champion of this event (2010) and coming off the heels of his second gold ring win just a few days ago, makes his third cash of the series and takes the lead in the Casino Championship. He needs to outlast just one more player to mathematically lock up the title and secure his fifth consecutive berth in the season-ending National Championship — a feat accomplished by no other player.

Carli also records his third cash of the series and extends a record of his own — all-time Circuit in-the-money finishes. He now lays claim to 88. Moore is in second place, 39 behind Carli. Carli eyes his third gold ring here in the Main Event.

Others at the final table include ring winners Russ Head and Ryan Dersch as well as John Denman. Each of the nine remaining players is pursuing a $124,200 first prize, a Circuit gold ring and a berth in the National Championship.

The Main Event began Friday at 12 p.m. with the first of two starting flights and continued Saturday with the second. A total of 358 combined entries turned out for the start days and 116 punched their ticket to Day 2. Registration remained open until cards went in the air for the restart and two additional players ponied up the buy in bringing the total Day 2 field to 118.

Action restarted Sunday at 12 p.m. local time with just the top 36 finishers earning prize money. Notables such as bracelet winners Keven Stammen, Aaron Steury, Robert Cheung and Jonathan Taylor, five-time ring winner Mark Smith, Jean “Prince” Gaspard, Austin Buchanan, Chris Conrad and Charlie Dawson began the day in pursuit of the chip leader, Joseph Royer.

It took roughly five hours for the field to shear itself of Stammen, Cheung, Taylor, Smith, Conrad, Dawson and others and with their eliminations the remaining 36 players were in the money. From there, Buchanan exited the tournament 32nd and Gaspard made a run at the chip lead before ultimately succumbing to Johnson’s hot play in 30th. The start-of-day chip leader, Royer, exited the tournament 31st.

A more complete look at the day’s eliminations is available on WSOP.com.

Play resumes Monday at 1 p.m. Each of the nine remaining players are assured at least $11,675, but all are just a few eliminations shy of the $124,200 first prize, a Circuit gold ring and a berth in the season-ending National Championship.

Seating assignments with chip counts:

Seat 1: Ryan Dersch - 299,000 (12 BBs)
Seat 2: John Denman - 334,000 (13 BBs)
Seat 3: Doug Carli - 368,000 (15 BBs)
Seat 4: Russ Head - 793,000 (33 BBs)
Seat 5: Charles Moore - 548,000 (22 BBs)
Seat 6: Everett Lawrence - 997,000 (41 BBs)
Seat 7: Eric Wirthwein - 231,000 (9 BBs)
Seat 8: Gregory Johnson - 2,211,000 (92 BBs)
Seat 9: Brian Powell - 1,415,000 (58 BBs)