Depa Leads Final 20
Twenty players survived the first full day of play here in Event #54: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low, and Jonathan Depa heads the chip counts with 442,000. The runners only played eight levels due to the massive Monster Stack field on Day 1, and 152 players returned for Day 2.
Depa is a relatively unknown Chicago native whose only six-figure score is for $127,669 in last October's Asia Championship of Poker in Macau. The top two payouts in this tournament would represent a career best for him.
Others bagging stacks included Fabrice Soulier (347,000), Florian Langmann (265,000), Ted Lawson (199,000), Lee Markholt (136,000), Eoghan O'Dea (96,000), and Paul Volpe (50,000). Toting the shortest stack into Day 3, Volpe will certainly have his work cut out for him.
Notables Tony Cousineau, George Danzer, Bart Hanson, Dylan Linde, Tom Koral, Day 2 chip leader Brett Shaffer, Brett Richey, and Andy Bloch all busted today but walked away with financial reward for their efforts, as they placed in the top 54. Melissa Burr, Tom Schneider, David "ODB" Baker, Rep Porter, Daniel Idema, Robert Mizrachi, David Bach, Dan Kelly, and Amnon Filippi fell short of the money.
The tournament will resume at 2 p.m. local time tomorrow, so be sure to tune back in to PokerNews for the relevant live updates and possible crowning of a champion.