Second Break of the Day: From the Chip Lead to Out, Moneymaker & More
What a difference a level can make. The difference between Level 1 and Level 2 for Terry Fleischer, who had eliminated Mehrdad Danialifar 22 minutes into play, was clearly night and day as he lost all those chips and then some to poker pro Micah Raskin. By the end of the level, the man who jumped out to an early chip lead was eliminated from the tournament.
It was also at the start of Level 2 that we spotted Dan Harrington, who won the 1995 WSOP Main Event and made back-to-back final tables in the 2003 and 2004 WSOP Main Events, in the field. Harrington, who gained quite a bit of notoriety through his acclaimed Harrington on Hold'em series, became one of five past Main Event champs in today's field alongside Doyle Brunson (1976 & 1977), Scotty Nguyen (1998), Chris Moneymaker (2003) and Greg Raymer (2004).
Speaking of Moneymaker, it's been ten years since his historic win. Despite his other successes, which includes winning his Invitational Rematch against Sammy Farha at the 2011 WSOP, Moneymaker is still looking for his second Main Event cash. A ten-year anniversary sounds like a pretty good time to do it. For more on Moneymaker and his thoughts on the Main Event a decade later, check out the interview he did with PokerNews just prior to the 2013 WSOP.
We'll be back in 20 minutes for another level of action.