David Williams grinded unassumingly for most of the day before charging up the chip counts late to take the chip lead with 500,000 at the end of Day 2 of Event #59: $3,000 Omaha Hi-Low. The man needs no introduction to most of the poker world: he finished second to Greg Raymer in the 2004 Main Event, kick-starting a career that's totaled more than $8.5 million in live cashes. Williams sits well clear of Joe Mitchell, who bagged 406,000 for second place.
Williams wasn't the only notable grinder who made the final 20. Matt Glantz (396,000), Brett Richey (249,000), Ismael Bojang (238,000), John D'Agostino (209,000), Justin Bonomo (137,000), Jordan Morgan (115,000), and Mike Leah (36,000), all survived the 10 level test today.
Additionally, Melissa Burr continued her astonishing run of excellence at the 2014 World Series of Poker, She locked up her fifth cash of the series, and the previous four were all top-10 finishes, including three final tables. She sits in the middle of the pack with 189,000.
Among the big names falling by the wayside in the money: Chino Rheem, Sergey Rybachenko, Amnon Filippi, Greg Jamison, Brandon Shack-Harris, Stephen Chidwick, and Brian Rast.
The last 20 runners will return on Wednesday at 2 p.m. to play out the rest of the tournament and crown the winner of this inaugural event. Don't miss the live coverage right here on PokerNews.
In the meantime, enjoy this episode of Ivey Stories where David "Devilfish" Ulliott talks about being at the table for Ivey's first gold bracelet win: