World Championship NL Texas Hold'em (Event 57)

648 players will return from day 2a. Eric Cloutier 383500 Ed Perry 370000 Brandon Demes 369800 Miika Puumalainen 361200 Jamie Brown 360400 Jerry Wong 348100 Samer Rahman 334700 Brian Hansen 333500 Kyle Wilson 306000 Rick Darabino 301100 Greg 'FBT' Mueller 287300 Peter Kremenliev 281800 Kevin Schaffel 279600 Mike Bisutti 274000 Mike Brooks 273400 Paren Arzoomanian 272900 Denise Molloy 262000 Carter Swidler 257900 Billy Kopp 248700 Karec Terrell 240400 Daniel Carter 239900 Kasper Cordes 237500 Matthew Waxman 233300 Nick Niergarth 233200 Abraham Mourshaki 232700 Carlos Oliveira 231300 Gabriel Vezina 228200 Joey Lovelady 226800 Nicolas Ragot 223000 Bryan Kerr 222900 Steven van Zadelhoff 221200 Jonas Danielsson 218600 Brandon Garrity 216300 Andy Black 215700 Kia Hamadani 215100 Clark Curry 215100 Mathieu Clavet 213400 Shawn Silber 211000 Tian Shou 209400 Luis Leyua-Castro 207900 Kyle Brown 206300 Phi Nguyen 203000 Gjorgji Chuchuk 202800 Patrick Hanoteau 199900 Chad Awerbuch 199400 Alexander Roos 198600 Pavel Milanov 197400 Scott Dorsch 195500 Richard Toth 193900 James A. Navolanic 193300 Osmin Dardon 191800 Antonio Cavezza 189000 Jeffrey Mathis 188400 Jeremy Wien 187200 Antoine Amourette 186100 Nick Maimone 185500 Kirk Banks 184600 D Douglas Dicken 183100 Walter Hall 179900 Ben Lamb 178900 Owen Crowe 178000 Matt Schwarmann 176400 Shane Warne 173700 Chvala Radek 173000 Meiri Aviv 172800 Hernan DeLeon 169800 Mike Sexton 169000 Dana Kellstrom 166500 Sorel Mizzi 166400 Daniel Makowsky 166300 John Kranyak 166000 Steve Sanders 166000 Jeffrey Papola 165500 Ludovic Lacay 165400 Juan Naranjo 161400 Sven Lucha 160800 Nicholas Sissou 160700 David D'Alesandro 159300 Alexander Beeckx 157900 Tim Kahlmeyer 155700 Marla Schwartz 153600 Burt Boutin 153300 Robert Campbell 153200 Yossi Azulay 153000 Greg Thompson 152500 Arthur Rhea 152200 Joe Luht 151900 Christian Dragomir 151600 Dino Brivati 151600 Patrick Song 150100 William Montag 149700 Will Brewin 149600 Arthur Hahn 149300 Julian Brecard 149000 Olivier Busquet 147800 Rock Gurney 147700 Ryan Fair 147600 Paul Smith 147600 Ryan Brauer 146900 Dennis Nikiforuk 146900 Elio Cabrera 146000 Fabrice Soulier 145800 Peter Buermann 145700 Daniel Rudd 145700 Luis Silva Salinas 145500 Henryk Nowakowski 145200 Thomas Joanides 144500 Rene Mouritsen 143200 Daryl Jace 143200 Sami Banizuraij 143000 Mark Klecan 142500 Bruce Perry 142500 Edwin Muller 142300 Goryachev Viacheslav 142200 Tome Moreira 141300 O'Sullivan Michael 140500 Max Casal 140000 Jason Tremblay 140000 Robert Eckstut 139600 Kara Scott 139500 Pamela Brunson 139300 Jimmy Fricke 138300 Aaron Ruppert 137400 Ernst Schmejkal 136300 Alex Prendes 136200 Vitaly Lunkin 135900 Jani Sointula 135600 Aaron Rondon 135100 Jordan Smith 134800 Rod Pennington 133800 Taylor Caby 133700 Leo Labbe 133300 Matt Affleck 133200 Christopher Salem 133000 Christopher Adlesh 132600 Michael Graydon 132500 Victor Greeley 132400 Rory Brennan 132400 Vadim Gruzglin 131800 Alex Jalali 131300 Raymond Rahme 131300 Gerald Foreman 131300 Craig Crivello 130900 Jason Lademan 130800 Steven Begleiter 130500 Tomer Berda 130500 Danny Fuhs 130200 Stuart Taylor 129500 Adrian Gavile 127700 Aaron Coulthard 127400 Lennart Konst 127200 Jason Poole 126400 Vinny Curry 126300 Luke McIntyre 125900 Jean-Philippe Goulet-Ratelle 125700 Shawn Madden 125300 Shayne Heine 124900 Mark Ader 124900 Shane Pacheco 124300 Gaines 123900 Tom Schneider 123700 Jamie Robbins 123600 Cory Drury 123100 Joe Sebok 122800 Jared Bluestein 122600 Claudio Baptista 122500 Scott Harris 122500 Lance Neumeyer 122200 Jesse Jones 122100 James Vanneman 121200 Kenny Duggan 121000 Vijayan Nagarajan 120600 Corey Burbick 120500 Benjamin Jensen 119900 Don Tinordi 119800 Ales Kalan 118300 Christian Jeppsson 118300 Derric Haynie 117400 Fred Barat 117300 David Sacks 116600 Ivo Donev 116500 Jerry Fowler 116400 Dmitry Lesnoy 115800 Timothy David Batow 115800 John Myong 115700 Corwin Cole 115500 Michael Greco 115200 Eldon Elias 114800 Chris Viox 114200 Magnus Persson 114100 Julian Gardner 114100 Tim Lahey 114000 Steven Shulman 114000 Gary Flynn 113500 Fabrizio La Spada 113400 Brian Baker 112500 Aaron Lasater 112200 Clarence Willingham 111900 Mostafa Jamasbi 111200 Jason McLane 111100 Myer Rainer 110900 Dariusz Paszkiewicz 109900 Kevin Kim 109600 Rob Perelman 109300 Mike Blocksidge 108800 Andrea Vezzani 108500 Steven Feren 108200 James Bayer 108000 Maria Macieras 108000 Shawn Pilot 108000 Viry Lue 107700 Daniel Wade 107600 Otto Richard 107400 Ramzi Jelassi 107300 Torsten Haase 106900 Aristomenis Stavropoulos 106200 John Magill 106100 Frank Ferrigno 105500 Christian Togsverd 105100 Michael Kamran 105000 James Calderon 104900 Jesse Haabak 104400 Patrick McDaniel 104300 Joe Awada 104300 Saar Wilf 104100 Paul Houston 104000 Ryan Julius 103700 Richard Sinclair 103600 Miroslav Fiala 103500 Eugene Fouksman 103500 Gian Marco Pala 103500 Jeffrey Anderson 103300 Mike Terhaar 102900 Clyde Nooris 102800 Luke Staudenmaier 102600 Allan Peers 101900 Scott Carpenter 101800 Carsten Joh 101700 John Mcclain 101000 Pedro Nunez-Cela 100700 Coba Cao 100000 Scott Mayfield 99600 Markus Otto 99400 Wayne Lewis 99000 Van Nguyen 98900 Ryan Madsen 98600 Jason Riesenberg 98100 Mark Bramley 97800 Jordan Rich 97600 Frank Calo 97300 Andreas Martens 97000 Ashley Cheung 96800 Karim Le Houssine 96100 Jeremiah Vinsant 95900 Greg Raymer 95900 Francesco De Vivo 95800 Patrick Hirtzer 95400 Konstantin Puchkov 95400 Christopher Brammer 94900 Chapin Anderson 94500 David Rubin 94300 Jeff Duvall 94200 Martins Adeniya 94000 Tommi Etelapera 93700 Robert McLaughlin 93700 Thomas Kelly 93500 Sean Nolan 92800 Kevin Sivaneri 92800 Adam White 92400 Andrew Brokos 92200 Balazs Botond 92000 Vadim Trincher 91800 Jeannette Levitt 91800 Scott Sitron 91600 Grayson Ramage 90700 TJ Eggers 90600 Hieu Luu 90000 Adam Dwek 89700 Paul Bong 89300 Matt Kurtz 89200 Robert Wanek 88400 Raymond Muster 88000 Jerry Maher 87900 Robert Fikac 87500 Samuel Seltzer 87000 Thor Hansen 86900 Jim Rubenstein 86900 Viet Nguyen 86400 Chris Tessaro 86300 Kevin Jenkins 86100 Gene Bauerlein 85900 Mike Krescanko 85800 Ilya Gorodetskiy 85400 Roger Goa 85000 Charles Harris 84100 Peter Haslam 83500 Christopher Zanke 83300 Mark Burford 83100 Kris Kuykendall 82900 Rolf Slotboom 82800 Anthony Roux 82700 Avery Cardoza 82600 Justin Kuzmicki 82500 Steve Gee 82500 Jon Brody 82000 Isaac Baron 81800 Ryan Dreyer 81700 Daniel Dumont 81300 Matt Molinari 81100 Dragan Galic 80900 Jon Curtis 80700 Marco Mattes 80500 Joe Monro 80400 Sven Mol 80200 Jon Eaton 80200 Jim Bookstaff 79400 Dmitry Gromov 79200 C.K. Hua 79200 Bob Slezak 79000 Mikael Johansson 79000 Cicatiello Pasquale 78900 Zuhdi Mansour 78700 John Crowe 78300 Willard Petrat 78100 Cody Shedd 77800 Suketu Vaidya 77600 Eric Tomberlin 77500 Fredrik Keitel 77200 Lauchlin Mckinnon 76800 Jena Delk 76400 Evan Sofer 76300 Carl Olson 76200 Christophe Schaming 76100 Jeff Carris 76100 Chris Ferguson 76000 Martin Tonnesen 75900 John Kim 75600 Mario Delis 75200 Dan Hindin 74700 Angelo Ricci 74700 Kush Patel 74500 Bronislav Berezovsky 74200 Matt Morris 74100 Asghar Naghizadeh 74000 Ernesto Margolis 73900 Chris McCoy 73800 Jason Alexander 73700 Jacquelyn Scott 73600 Craig Hopkins 73500 Stan Sinclair 72900 William Robertie 72800 Nicky Power 72700 Stuart Atkin 72600 Niclas Elfstedt 72500 Jose Paz 72400 Jimmie James 72300 Esteban Blanco Rodriguez 72100 Lars Brobak 71900 Chris MacFarland 71800 Russell Kamer 71500 Deric Senne 71300 Bryan Colin 71100 Bob Whalen 71000 Jason George 70700 Steven McLaughlin 70400 Marty Zabib 70300 Thomas Tyszkiewicz 70100 Farzad Rouhani 70000 Catherine Hearn 69600 Eduardo Santi 69600 Michel Dumas 69300 William Clark 69300 Joe Serock 69000 Joseph Patrick 68700 Michael Chow 68400 Sam Farha 67500 Peter Gelencser 67400 Matej Kokalj 67400 Felix Osterland 67400 Reily Torrey 67000 Andrey Moiseev 66700 Jean Desmoort 66500 Albert Kenny 66200 Paul O'Connor 66000 Giuseppe Mannino 65800 Luke Patten 65700 Robert Horan 65500 David 'Doc Sands' Sands 65200 Luka Gojcaj 65100 William Milne 65100 Patrick Kuykendall 64800 Corey Hochman 64600 Alex Fang 64600 Patrick Bruel 64500 Paola Martin 64200 Dale Pinchot 64000 Robert Mobley 63900 Ken Moore 63900 Geoffrey Cudd 63700 Gary Slentz 63500 Drazen Kapusta 63300 Barny Boatman 63200 Robert Haigh 62800 Jakob Carlsson 62800 Michael Mixer 62600 John Phillips 62500 Ari Levy 62200 Hans Hein 62200 Jeremy Ausmus 62000 Gary Braufman 61900 Terry Garner 61800 Pete Heard 61700 Jacqmin Mathieu 61400 Katja Svendsen 61400 Juan Manuel Pastor 61300 Ryan Price 61000 Robert Lee Preston III 60800 Allen Jacobsen 60800 Toni Ojala 60700 Joas Mudde 60400 Ludovic Lachance 60100 Michael Spegal 60000 Stephane Bisson 60000 Pollak Benjamin 59900 Norman Gautron 59700 John Hall 59600 Ryan Erickson 59500 Richard Harroch 59400 Jonas Lohmann 59400 Paul Lieu 59200 Keven 'Stamdogg' Stammen 59200 Johnny Kaplanis 58200 Terrence Jordan 57900 Carlos Mortensen 57900 John Alexander 57500 Steve Weixel 57400 Bill Edler 57300 Jason Young 57200 Kelly Corbin 56700 Schleps Florian 56700 Audrey Danilyuk 56600 Remy Biechel 56400 James Smyth 56200 Erik Seidel 55600 Julian Eliz 55500 Jim Bechtel 55000 Carl Gray 54500 Max Katz 54300 Dan Lu 54200 Art Tanimoto 53500 Mickey Neuberger 53400 William Rothstein 52800 Marcel Bache 52600 Flip Nechansky 52000 Magne Bo 51600 Joseph Gotlieb 51300 Mark Gregorich 51000 Thomas Edwards 51000 Randy Lorensen 50900 Bernhard Braumandl 50900 Richard Grace 50800 Steve Jelinek 50200 Peter Hedlund 50000 Sutton Zolner 50000 Nathaniel Nelson-Heath 49800 Mike Rajko 49600 Jaco Storm 49400 Markus Gonsalves 49000 Peter Oltchick 49000 Aytac Apaydin 49000 Leslie Spear 48600 Jeff Cuccurullo 48600 Robert Allen 47800 Elia Ahmadian 47600 Joshua Worthington 47600 Lasse Ludwig Nielsen 47500 Sean Baird 47300 Matthew Gloier 47100 Pavel Blatny 46700 Luis Ubierna Martinez 46700 Travis Taylor 46500 Donald Dukate 46500 Jose Ramos 46300 Ian McDonald 46100 Daniel Smits Bertelsen 46100 Aurangzeb 'Ozzy87' Sheikh 45700 Todd Lundwall 45700 Chase Steely 45700 Anthony George 45000 David Haas 44900 Saab Imad 44800 Shane Douglas 44300 Jeremy Symington 44000 Cole Miller 43500 Anders Gersel 42800 Andy Philachack 42600 Wade Woelfel 42600 Tobler Johannes 42300 Dominik Kulicki 41000 Andre Boyer 40000 William Tanimoto 40000 Christian Bowerman 40000 Martin Moral 40000 Peter Traply 39900 Dean Pettersson 39700 Marc Stiller 39700 Tyler Hamade 39200 Kyle Lehne 38600 Ted Weinstock 38400 Tammy Macdonald 38300 Joshua VanDuyn 37900 Pogos Simityan 37800 Bojan Gledovic 37000 Luca Pagano 36900 Salvatore Bonavena 36800 Tammy Lloyd 35400 Mark Teltscher 35200 Lewis Lewis 35100 Jonathan Tamayo 34900 Jessica Dawley 34900 Russell Dive 34700 Alessandro Gusso 34500 Jordan McMurter 34500 John Larochelle 34400 Mark Silvanovich 34000 Neehar Banerji 33900 Bob Bright 33600 David Frederic 33300 Roger Vieira 33200 Mike Souza 31700 Magnus Cornmark 31600 Chris Lahr 31500 Alexander Yaroshetskiy 31400 Ilosvay Zsolt 31300 Adam Knepp 31300 Matt Giannetti 31300 Philippe Castella 30700 Paul Lovett 30700 David Windisch 30600 Joe Gualtieri 30500 Shane Hellyer 30300 Adam Bennett 30200 Christopher DeMaci 30100 Richard Anthony 30000 Greg Dyer 29500 Kerry Bordinat 29400 Scott Lazewski 29400 Matthew Vogel 29300 Jack Hirschman 29200 Randall Brueckner 29000 John Alt 28800 Donne Romain 28500 Andreas Martens 27500 Kenny Brown 27500 Andrey Bykov 27500 Ivan Zardo 27400 Torsten Brinkmann 26800 Bob Riley 26800 Mathias DeMeulder 26700 Kenneth Stead 26700 Brad Viner 26700 Jason Gray 25700 Jonathan Lewis 25500 Jim Lack 24500 James Tilley 24000 Ed Lezcano 23900 Tony Brenner 23300 Roland Deslippe 23200 Simon Blouin 23000 Guang Pu Lu 22300 Kenneth Skidmore 21900 Roland De Wolfe 21200 Herbie Montalbano 20600 Florian Manz 20600 Chris Levick 20400 Sachin Mope 20200 Jamie Dawick 19700 Paul Westley 19400 Alexey Grigoryants 18900 James Hayes 18700 Amber Jackson 18400 A.W. Vidmer 18400 Joel Ranieri 18200 Jeffrey Hakim 18200 Josh Mammon 17800 Albert Minnullin 17200 Bill Mullins 17200 Louie Cohen 16900 Ken Smith 16800 Joseph Shield 15200 Jason Pohl 14000 Ahmad Faour 13700 Roy Duleba 13300 Mike Perez 11900 Leo Pope 11000 Daniel Walker 10100 Michael Taggart 6420 Carl Gorham 5800 Ryan Brady 4400 Andrew Gaw DNR Robert Hallman DNR Ernest Purdom DNR Pedro Fernandez Cavazos DNR Unknown Player DNR Connor Allisen DNR Massimo Di Cicco DNR Steve 'thorladen' Weinstein DNR

Day 2a is now in the books. 1,476 players walked into the Amazon Room at noon today and only 630 of them survived to walk out again more than 12 hours later. In between, we saw some huge stacks develop and some big names slip out the door earlier than they'd like. On the positive side of the ledger, Eric Cloutier ended the day with the big stack at 384,000. Seven other players also broke the 300,000 mark, including Ed Perry, Brandon Demes and Greg "FBT" Mueller. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a number of well-known pros won't be returning for Day 3. Some of the day's notable bust outs included Gavin Smith, Amarillo Slim Preston, Mike Matusow, Dewey Tomko, Gus Hansen, Sandra Naujoks, Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly, Tony G. and Barry Greenstein. Day 2b kicks off at noon tomorrow with a field almost twice as large as today's and, as always, we'll be there to bring you all the day's action.

After a flop of and with about 25,000 in the pot, Rob Moore led out for 27,000 and Andrew Gaw called from the button. The turn brought the and Moore moved all. Gaw made the call.
Showdown
Moore: Gaw: Moore was ahead in the hand after flopping two pair, but Gaw had both flush and straight draws with . The river was the , giving Gaw the Broadway straight. Moore, none too happy about his elimination on the last hand of the night, let out the loudest "Noo! Noooo!" the Amazon Room has heard this year.

On a flop of , Jim Bechtel moved all in for his last 10,700. Amber Jackson made the call to put Bechtel at risk. She held , and Bechtel was poised for a double up with . The turn was a good sweat as the gave Jackson nine more outs to the flush. The river was black, but the was no help to her, and Bechtel notches a much-needed double up here in the eleventh hour. He's back just shy of 25,000 now as the night winds down.

On a board of , Craig Gray check-raised all in with . His opponent showed . The river brought the to give Gray's opponent a flush. Gray was eliminated just moments before the end of the day.

Players have just three more hands to go before they bag and tag for the night.

Four players, including Sammy Farha, limped into the pot and saw a flop of . Farha bet 3,000 and got one caller. The turn brought the and Farha bet 6,000. He got called again. When Farha bet 10,000 at the on the river, his opponent looked at the board and asked, "Are you trying to buy the pot?" Sammy just smiled and his opponent called. When Sammy tabled , his opponent visibly winced and mucked his cards.

Juha Helppi woke up with pocket kings and did what most players would do: got all his money in preflop. Unfortunately for him, Eric Cloutier held a couple of rockets in the hole. The board ran out ten high to keep Cloutier's aces in the lead and bust Helppi. Cloutier was mistakenly placed as the chip leader at the beginning of the day because of a misprint on his bag. Well, from that pot he is now making a push for a possible chip leader as we roll into the final 20 minutes of play.

Over at Orange 63, the whole table has joined in on a round of beers. A few have also agreed that if anyone flops the nuts, that person will take a shot. With a half hour to go in the day, drinking a beer or two probably won't have much effect on the level of play.

A short-stacked player opened with a raise to 9,700, and the action came to C.K. Hua. He went into the tank for a bit and eventually asked, "Do you have tens?" When he got no response, Hua moved all in, and the short stack called all in for his last ~22,000 total. Hua tabled , and his opponent was in good shape to double with . When he saw the pocket eights, the player pumped his fist and let out several big cheers. He would do the same thing again when the board ran out clean for him: . With his jacks holding up, the shorty gets a double up to 52,000 at the expense of C.K. Hua

Action folded to Carlos Mortensen on the button. Mortensen put in a raise to 2,500 that was called by the big blind. Both players checked the flop. When the turn came , the big blind bet 2,000. Mortensen raised that bet the minimum, to 4,000, and earned himself a fold and the pot.

Shane Warne called the all in of a short stack player with , dominating his opponent's . The board came to give Warne the best hand with kings and eights. He eliminates his opponent and moves up to 175,000.

With a little over an hour left on the clock for the final level of the day, Jason Young announced to the table that everyone needs to decide towards the end of the level what shots they want to take. He requested that everyone on the table take a shot. "We all have to take shots. I don't care what it is, but we all have to take them. It's unlucky not to take them," he said. The table agreed and laughed. "Seriously, we all need to take shots. We take shots, the rail takes shots, and even the reporter can take a shot."

Pam Brunson doubles up to 135,000 after hitting a set of kings.

Dewey Tomko open-shoved for his remaining 17,000 and the small blind called. Tomko's was racing with , but his opponent flopped a set on the board to send Tomko home.

Jason Young raised to 2,500 and one player called from the small blind. The action was checked all the way to the river on a board of , when the small blind fired a bet of 2,000. Young tossed in the call. "Queen high," announced the player. Young rolled over for ace high and scooped the pot. He also let the reporter know about an earlier hand where a player raised to 3,000 and after a call or two and a reraise to 16,000, Young shipped in his entire stack of about 90,000 after looking down at two aces. Everyone got out of the way, giving Young the pot. He is currently sitting with around 130,000.

We're making some progress in breaking down the Day 2a Orange section. Orange has 39 tables in it. We're now down to 18, less than half of the original tables. As we walk through the remaining eighteen tables, it seems that Greg "FBT" Mueller is the chip leader on this side of the room. Mueller, who started the day with about 36,000 chips, hasn't faced much serious pressure from anyone at his table all day.

A player opened the pot for a 3,500 raise from early position and Dragan Galic reraised to 12,500. Fred Barat in the small blind then moved all in for 93,700. After a small amount of hesitation, the original raiser kicked it in. Galic then proceeded to go into the tank for what seemed to be over five minutes. A player at the table called for a clock and when the floorman got to the scene he informed Galic he would have a minute to act on his hand. With only five seconds left to go, Galic mucked his cards. Claiming to have pocket queens, the original raiser chimed in. "I had pocket queens too. Which ones did you have?" Galic refused to answer the question, and drops to 50,000.

Craig Gray got the rest of his chips in before the flop and got one caller. Fortunately for Gray, he held while his rather unfortunate opponent showed . Gray's opponent was instantly drawing dead when the flop came down making him quads. The inconsequential turn and river cards fell the and the as Gray doubled up to 53,000.

Sammy Farha and his opponent got all in on a board of Farha: Opponent: When the cards were shown, Farha's opponent was drawing dead and the on the river was just an unnecessary needle on his way out the door. Farha is up to 72,000.

After a 2,600 raise from the cut off, Eli Elezra moved all in for about 7,000 from the small blind. His opponent made the call. Elezra: Cut Off: The board came allowing Elezra to double up to 15,500.