Paur Leads Final 14; Ivey Looking to Win First Hold'em Bracelet
It was quite a day in Event #18: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em . When the day started there were 163 players already well into the money, and the remaining players were looking up at the top prize of $340,260. After 10 levels of play, only 14 players advanced to Day 3, and Taylor Paur was leading the way with a commanding chip lead.
Paur grabbed the lead late in the night and will take 1,318,000 into the final day. Two of his closest competitors are Alex Barlow (792,000) and DJ MacKinnon (557,000). WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Idema is still in the mix with 400,000.
The big story, however, was the emergence of Phil Ivey. After securing his first cash of the series in this event, Ivey will try to earn his 10th bracelet when play resumes on Tuesday. Ivey will go into Day 3 with a below-average stack of 285,000, but the world's best player is always a favorite regardless of where he stands on the leaderboard. If he were to win the event, it would mark his first WSOP title in a hold'em tournament.
Players who did not have as much success on Day 2 were Nick Binger (113th), Men Nguyen (85th), Matt Affleck (66th), Luke Graham (28th), and Dominik Nitsche (16th).
Play will resume Tuesday at 1 p.m. PST and the remaining 14 will play until a winner is determined. PokerNews looks forward to providing continuing coverage of the Event #18, and make sure you tune in to see if Ivey or any other of the top pros can take down the $340,260 top prize.