Following the turn of a board with about 140,000 in the pot, Tommy Le was all in from the big blind for 115,000 and Konstantin Beylin tanked for a bit from the small blind before he called with for aces and sixes.
Le held a flush draw and straight draws with , but found no help from the river.
After a raise to 25,000 and two calls including Bogdan Capitan, Phil Galfond in the small blind raised the pot to 137,000 and that forced folds all the way to Capitan in the cutoff, who ended up as the only caller.
On the flop, Galfond moved all in for his last 220,000 and Capitan snap-called.
Phil Galfond:
Bogdan Capitan:
They only ran it once and Galfond was in need of an ace or running straight cards. The turn left Galfond drawing to an ace only, while the river was not enough. Despite improving to a runner-runner full house, Galfond was eliminated and Capitan jumped above one million in chips.
On the three-way flop of the action escalated between David Prociak, Joshua Ladines and Fraser MacIntyre. Prociak had check-raised out of the small blind before the chips of Ladines as shortest stack of the trio went in. MacIntyre jammed and Prociak called with the superior stack.
Joshua Ladines:
Fraser MacIntyre:
David Prociak:
MacIntyre's overpair needed to dodge a lot of outs and Ladines instantly spiked the magic turn to improve to a straight flush. The very same card left MacIntyre drawing dead for the side pot, while the meaningless on the river was a formality. Ladines tripled for 171,000 post flop and MacIntyre's remaining chips were sent over to Prociak.
Artem Babakhanyan limped in from early position and Ben Yu called in the small blind, Martin Kozlov checked his option in the big blind. On the flop, Yu checked and Kozlov bet 20,000 into 48,000, which both his opponents called.
After the turn, Yu and Kozlov checked and Babakhanyan made it 90,000 to go with 260,000 behind. Yu check-raised for the size of the pot, making it 378,000 to go, and Kozlov was sent into the think tank. After one minute, Kozlov let go and Babakhanyan now had a decision to make. After checking his stack carefully, the Russian called it off and the cards were tabled.
Artem Babakhanyan:
Ben Yu:
"Do you have a set?" Babakhanyan asked and Yu shrugged his head, he instead had a straight draw and the nut flush draw. The on the river improved Yu to a straight and Babakhanyan was eliminated before the money. One year ago, he made it all the way to the final table in this very event and finished 4th for $379,128.
"Did you fold a set?" Yu asked Kozlov while the table broke right after the hand was finished and Kozlov nodded, replied "I had fours."
Jacob Kalb raised to 55,000 from the hijack, Scotty Nguyen reraised the pot from the button, Bogdan Capitan four-bet the pot from the small blind, Kalb folded and Nguyen called all in for 571,000 with . Capitan tabled .
The board came down , giving Nguyen an ace-high flush to double through Capitan.
Jason Mercier raised to 58,000 from the cutoff, Jason Koon called from the small blind and Mike Leah called from the big blind.
The flop came down and action checked to Mercier who bet 83,000. Koon check-called, Leah check-raised allin for 110,000 and both Mercier and Koon called.
The turn was the , Koon checked, Mercier bet 401,000 and Koon folded.
Mercier showed for a set of sevens, but Leah had for a set of kings.
After a nearly 14-hour day, which included just shy of three hours of hand-for-hand play that spanned almost 50 hands, Day 2 of Event #42: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller is in the books. The bubble burst on the final hand of the night, leaving the remaining 35 players in the money when they return on Day 3.
Leading the way is Ben Yu with 3,695,000. Holding just 200,000 at the dinner break with 50 players remaining, Yu chipped up a bit before scoring two eliminations to up his stack to about 2,000,000. Just 38 players remained at that point, and hand-for-hand play was instituted at that time per the request of most of the players along with some slow action at some of the tables. Yu was among several big stacks who took full advantage of the prolonged bubble and hand-for-hand play, chipping up at will.
Rounding out the top five stacks are Jason Koon (2,540,000), Ryan Tosoc (2,220,000), Shaun Deeb (2,120,000) and Scotty Nguyen (2,010,000).
Registration remained open until two levels into Day 2 action, and that accounted for 38 more entries into the event on Day 2. The aforementioned Tosoc was one of them, and other Day 2 entries that are still in the mix include Erik Seidel (725,000) and Sam Soverel (380,000). In total, there were 181 unique players and 49 re-entries into the event.
Others who will be returning on Day 3 include Jason Mercier (1,905,000), Robert Mizrachi (1,005,000), defending champion James Calderaro (705,000), Mike Leah (660,000), recent bracelet winner Craig Varnell (625,000) and Paul Volpe (370,000).
Speaking of Varnell, he soared to the chip lead just as registration was closing when he eliminated Daniel Negreanu, who began the day third in chips. Others who failed to make the money include Anthony Zinno, Jens Kyllonen, JC Tran, Scott Seiver, Chris Ferguson and Michael Mizrachi.
The plan for Day 3 is for the field to play another 10 levels, which should get them to the final table. The action is expected to kick off furiously right off the bat, as several players have been left extremely short stacked by the prolonged bubble phase. When three tables remain, the action will be live streamed on PokerGO.
As always, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to provide live updates on all of the action. Play resumes at 2 p.m. on Friday, June 22, so be sure to tune in as the quest to crown the next PLO High Roller champion continues.