After a long night of poker, Day 2 of the Main Event of The World Series of Poker Circuit at Planet Hollywood is complete. For the second day in a row, the chip leader at the end of the Day is Matt Berkey.
Play began at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon, and 13 levels were on the schedule. With breaks and a few other short stoppages and redraws, Day 2 didn’t conclude until 5 a.m. Monday morning.
Berkey was the chip leader when Day 2 began. He held 237,300 at the end of his Day 1 flight. He was followed by 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong with 220,300. No other player had more than 200,000 at the time.
This is the first time the WSOP Circuit has stopped at Planet Hollywood, and attendance has been impressive for almost every tournament, including this Main Event. It garnered a total of 1,044 entries, the second-biggest Main Event on the Circuit so far this season. The total prize pool is $1,566,000, and the eventual winner will earn $289,706.
After two Day 1 flights (held on Friday and Saturday), 356 players advanced to Day 2. Registration was open until the start of play on Sunday, and there were a few players who took advantage of that option. When the dust finally settled at 5 a.m. Sunday morning, there were only 18 players left. Berkey leads the way with 3,227,000. His closest competitor is Corey Emery with 1,968,000. Also still alive are Johnny Neckar (who just barely missed out on winning a bracelet in 2009) and Chris Lindh, who finished 16th in the 2013 WSOP Main Event.
The event pays the top 108 finishers, so more than 2/3 of the players who took to the felt on Day 2 left empty-handed. The tournament reached the money bubble in the fifth level of the day, and it took about 45 minutes before Michael Skomac busted the unfortunate bubble boy in 109th place.
Anyone who was still alive at that point was guaranteed a payout of at least $2,881. Among the players making the money were Cheong (95th place), Ryan Welch (65th), Eric Baldwin (59th), 2001 WSOP Main Event champion Carlos Mortensen (55th), and 2014 WSOP APAC Main Event champion Scott Davies (42nd).
Play resumes Monday at 2 p.m. Here are the current chip counts.
Matt Berkey - 3,227,000
Corey Emery - 1,968,000
Michael Levine - 1,764,000
Ping Liu - 1,738,000
Jeff Fielder - 1,670,000
Michael Skomac - 1,539,000
Quang Ngo - 1,170,000
Dustin Johns - 1,120,000
Joshua Evans - 1,109,000
Johnny Neckar - 1,040,000
Bradley Libson - 971,000
Chris Lindh - 806,000
Leighton Thompson - 667,000
Stanley Kirst - 439,000
Michael Wynn - 438,000
Artur Demirchyan - 430,000
John Eames - 424,000
Huy Nguyen - 402,000