Ryan Hughes continues his strong summer with a top 5 stack on Day 2C
July 13, 2017 (Las Vegas, NV) - Ryan Hughes has put on a clinic this summer at the 2017 World Series of Poker. He's made a couple final tables already and cashed in a whopping 15 events. It's only fitting that he caps off the summer with a deep run in the Main Event.
He finished the day with 510,100 in chips, which is good enough for fifth in chips on the Day 2C leaderboard. Artan Dedusha bagged up the Day 2C chip lead with 680,000 in chips. He also takes the chip lead into Day 3 when all three starting flights combine.
There were 3,300 players that returned to the Rio for Day 2C, but by the day's end, only 1,524 survived. There will be 2,547 players coming back for Day 3, with Hughes sitting 11th in chips eying his 16th cash. Despite racking up cashes all summer long, Hughes isn't satisfied with his results.
"Yeah, I mean, I've been running really good in the early parts of the tournament," said Hughes. "But just haven't really closed anything out. So, for me, it's been pretty frustrating this summer."
Hughes is currently in fourth place in the WSOP Player of the Year race, behind John Racener, Chris Ferguson and the leader, John Monnette. Ferguson and Racener are both out of the Main Event already, but Monnette still has chips after finishing Day 2C with 81,000.
With a good run in what is his final event of the summer, Hughes is confident he can take home the title.
"I could've played the little drop yesterday and try and build up a big stack," said Hughes. "But I kind of just wanted to focus on this and kind of bypass that. If I make a really deep run in this, I should be able to win it anyway."
Hughes already has two bracelets to his name, but has never really put together a summer with as many cashes as this one. According to him, it's all because of some positive variance.
"I always play tournaments pretty good," said Hughes. "It's just a matter of running good."
Joining Dedusha and Hughes at the top of the counts are Marcin Chmielewski (564,000), Michael Krasienko (561,300) and Sonny Franco (546,700). Other notables to survive the day with healthy stacks include Javier Zarco (405,000), Jared Jaffee (402,000), Adam Levy (280,000), Paul Wasicka (272,000), Mustapha Kanit (240,000), Cathy Dever (228,000), Tom Cannuli (221,100) and Joe Serock (220,000).
One of the players that didn't survive the day's action was 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth spent the first six hours of play on the featured table that was streamed on both PokerGO and ESPN.
He survived his time under the lights without much damage to his stack, but after the cameras were turned off, Hellmuth found himself bleeding chips, mostly to Chicago area grinder Alan Cutler.
Cutler picked off a Hellmuth river bluff on the river with ace-high and then got Hellmuth to go on a classic Hellmuthian rant when he shoved the nut flush draw on the flop and showed his semi-bluff. Hellmuth got out of his seat and let out plenty of expletives while digging at Cutler.
Despite the rant, Hellmuth and Cutler have a good relationship. Cutler credits Hellmuth's 'Play Poker Like the Pros' for his first tournament win in 2006. At the start of the day, Hellmuth gave him an autographed copy of it.
"When I saw him today, I reminded him that reading his book, trusting your instincts, I've been watching him play for 10 years and it's all helped me become a better player" said Cutler. "Despite his reputation, I'm always his biggest fan. We chit chatted a little about video poker strategy, regular poker strategy, he gave me an autographed book."
That was at the start of the day and things changed once they moved the table away from the cameras.
"When we got moved out here, things changed," said Cutler. "At the end of the day, truthfully, I outplayed him twice and he went on a rant."
With his ace-high call down, Cutler explained that it was Hellmuth's river sizing that led him to commit the chips to call.
"A huge overbet signaled to me that he doesn't want a call because he either missed a straight draw or he doesn't want me to call to a chop," said Cutler. "But I did call to a chop and it turned out I didn't have to chop. Ace-high was good."
When he shoved the nut flush draw, Cutler decided that he was willing to gamble in that spot with a hand that he thought was at worst a coin flip.
"With two cards to come, I'm willing to gamble and be 50-50," said Cutler. "I have the disadvantage postflop against him, so I either have to fold the flop of get it in. But I can never flat the 30,000 raise with my stack."
Even after getting the Hellmuth treatment, Cutler still holds a ton of respect for the man who's won more bracelets than anybody in the history of the game.
"He has a great personality, he's a great guy off the table and when you light him up a little at the table, he is classic Phil," said Cutler. "Entertaining, showmanship, respectful. When you tilt him, he flares up a little, but his decisions are flawless. He plays perfect poker."
Cutler continued to trend upward even after Hellmuth was eliminated and finished the day with 356,100. On the other end of the spectrum, there were lots of players who joined Hellmuth on the rail. Leo Margets, Galen Hall, Alex Keating, Neil Channing, Xuan Liu, Griffin Benger, Eric Baldwin, Esther Taylor, Jamie Kerstetter, Joe McKeehen and Annette Obrestad were among the players who were unable to make Day 3.
Day 3 kicks off on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. The first three levels of play will be streamed live on PokerGO on a 30-minute delay. Starting on Day 4, almost the entire day will be live streamed.
Complete chip counts for all 2,547 players are being tabulated and will be posted overnight.