After 6 Days of Poker, 2 Days are Finally Over

Posted by pokerguru on July 11, 2009

Phil Ivey in WSOP 2009 No, you did not misread that. With day one having 4 sessions and day 2 having 2 sessions, it took 6 days to complete the first two days of the WSOP Main Event for 2009. While there were quite a few early exits from some of the superstars, there were just as many of them that flew to the top of the leader board and have put themselves in a premium position to make an honest run at the title.

The field has to be worried that three of the hottest players in this year’s WSOP are gathering chips in much the same fashion that they did on their way to bracelets already this year. Phil Ivey (376,000), Greg Mueller (287,300) and Jeff Lisandro (229,300) all have formidable stacks and they way that they have been playing this year, people have to be worried when they take a seat at their tables.

Friday marks the first time that all of the players will be sitting in the same room. The field got a rest day on Thursday and everyone comes back fresh for the big run at the final table. The overall chip leader will be Amir Lehavot (610,500) when they get started again. He has caught an amazing run of cards and has a 150,000 chip lead over the next closest player. That is quite amazing at this level of the tournament. It is actually reminiscent of the run that Jamie Gold put together when he won his championship. He continue to hold a huge lead throughout as nobody ever seemed to be able to put the hands together that could make a dent in his stack.

Other notable players that still have chips in front of them are Eric Cloutier (383,500), JC Tran (284,600), Kenny Tran (273,000), Justin Bonomo (223,300), Paul Wasicka (184,900), Dutch Boyd (163,600) and Phil Hellmuth (142,900).

Day 3 should see some decent movement as some of the newbies start to get antsy, especially when they are sitting at a table with one of the big name pros. If any of these players can catch a run of cards, their stack will get humongous as the amateurs seek to be the one that took them out. Someone like Hellmuth could walk out of the session with well over 1,000,000 in chips if the poker gods are looking down at him in a positive way.