At the same time William Reynolds was being eliminated at one table, a decent pot was brewing at another.
It began when Barry Hutter opened for 21,000 from the button and Rep Porter and Matt Salsberg called from the small and big blinds respectively. Two checks on the flop saw Hutter bet 32,000, and only Porter called to see the turn. Porter check-called a bet of 82,000 and then checked when the completed the board on the river. Hutter, who had the bigger stack, moved all in and Porter tanked for a bit before releasing his hand.
William Reynolds opened with a raise from the under-the-gun position and Chris Johnson called from the big blind.
The flop saw Reynolds get his last 180,000 or so in the pot holding , but his top pair was no good as Johnson held the . Neither the turn nor river helped Reynolds and he was eliminated in 19th place for $16,220.
Jamie Armstrong opened for 20,000 under the gun and Richard Kirsch called him from the small blind. The big got out of the way and it was heads-up action to the flop. Kirsch was first to act and wasted little time in moving all in for right around 135,000. Armstrong called.
Kirsch:
Armstrong:
Kirsch flopped a flush draw and decided to play it strong. Unfortunately for him it did pan out as the blanked on the turn followed by the on the river. Kirsch became the day's first casualty and will take home $16,220 for his 20th-place finish.
Matt Salsberg opened for 25,000 under the gun and cleared the field all the way around to Rep Porter, who defended from the big blind. Both players then checked the flop, and the dealer burned and turned the . Porter took a stab at the pot for 32,000 but folded when Salsberg popped it to 80,000.
Action has been slow here in the early goings, but there have been a couple shoves. In the most recent, Daniel Laming opened for 20,000 from the hijack and Justin Kindred three-bet all in for 265,000. Laming gave it some thought but ultimately folded.
Yong Lu opened for 23,000 from the hijack only to have Grayson Nichols moved all in for 151,000 from the small blind. The big blind folded, and then Lu did the same. Not much of a hand, but it does mark the first shove of the day.
Two days ago, Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em of the 2014 World Series of Poker began with 1,165 players, which created a prize pool of $2,650,375. Today just 20 of them remain in contention for the gold bracelet and $536,768 first-place prize.
The man best positioned to make a run at the title is Jamie Armstrong, who ended Day 2 with a tournament-leading stack of 765,000. Hot on Armstrong’s heels was Barry Hutter, who has been among the chip leaders since this tournament started. Hutter will begin Day 3 with 731,000 chips.
Other big stacks and notables included Chris Johnson (665,000), Sam Cohen (654,000), Rep Porter (463,000), Matt Salsberg (447,000), David Benefield, (355,000), Justin Oliver (284,000), and William Reynolds (223,000).
Action is set to get underway at 1 p.m. local time, which about an hour from now. The plan is to play down to a winner, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there every step of the way to bring you all the action and eliminations. Stay tuned to see who will be crowned the next bracelet winner of the 2014 WSOP!