Rapid Fire Eliminations to Start Off Day 3 of the $40K NL Hold’em Event #2

Posted by Dan on May 31, 2009

As predicted, the fireworks started early as soon as Day 3 got underway. In less than an hour and a half, the field was down to 18 poker players and it did not stop there. Play tightened up somewhat, but his crew showed that they were not afraid to sling chips regardless of what they were holding.

The two major stories of the day have to be Tony G and Isaac Haxton. Somehow, Tony G had managed to hang on despite being short stacked just about the whole way. When his luck ran out and he was eliminated in 10th place, you had to feel for the guy. He had fought so hard to get to the final table and had his dreams squashed when he only had a little over $200,000 left in front of him. He pushed with A7h and was called by Torelli who was holding onto J10h. Both players hit the board, unfortunately for Tony G., he only hit his 7 and was sent to the rail.

As incredible as Tony G.’s staying power had been, the run of Haxton has been even more incredible. He started the day off with only a little over 500,000 in chips and has managed to climb his way up to the top spot of the leader board with 5,520,000 in chips.

While Raymer has not had the climb that we anticipated, he has continued to play solid poker. Unfortunately for him, his cards have not held up as well as they did in prior sessions, but somehow he is managing to dodge some major bullets and has remained right around the count that he started the day off at.

Shocking or not is a decision that you will have to make, but Bonomo crashed and burned all day. As well as his young, aggressive style worked over the last couple of days, it came back to bite him in Day 3. He continued to dump chips and finds himself at the bottom tier of the final table with a huge target on his stack.

The final table has shaped up very nicely with a great mix of the new and the old, the amateurs and the pros. Tomorrow should be a great session, but my money is still on Raymer to hoist the bracelet and scoop the cash.

Here is your final table and chips counts:
1) Isaac Haxton 5,520,000
2) Vitaly Lunkin 4,565,000
3) Lex Veldhuis 3,805,000
4) Greg Raymer 3,345,000
5) Alec Torelli 2,340,000
6) Justin Bonomo 1,685,000
7) Dani Stern 1,300,000
8) Noah Schwartz 660,000
9) Ted Forrest 560,000

In other tournaments….
The Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better (Event #30 continues to move fast and furious. The top 10 is a definitive who’s who of the poker world. As of this posting, Eli Elezra continues to lead the way and looks absolutely unbeatable so far in this tournament. Other pros that are on top are Freddy Deeb, Layne Flack, Toto Leonidis, Chip Jett and the infamous Annie Duke. With only 90 players remaining, the remaining amateurs are going to have a tough time getting through to the final table.

Event #4 ($1,000 Stimulus NL Hold’em Event) stole the headlines early in the day as it was sold out (6,000 players) well before the tournament started. Players went flying out the door early and often and as of this posting, over 65% of the field was already gone. There were no chips counts posted as of yet, but we will have them for you as soon as they are available.

Sundays action should feature two final tables. The 40K event will be on its fourth and final day and the 3 day scheduled event #3 is also scheduled to finish up tomorrow. The question remains if they will be able to get the tournament down to that point in enough time to actually have the final table on Sunday. Day 2 of the 4 day Stimulus event will take place as well as Day 1 of the Champions Invitational. Monday is the beginning of the two a days with events 5 and 6 kicking off.