Hastings Leads With 20 Players Remaining in Event #29: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Another event of the 50th World Series of Poker is one step closer to crowning a champion, as Day 2 of Event #29: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship has come to a conclusion after seven 90-minute levels with 20 players remaining. The money bubble has already burst and the remaining contenders have $15,176 locked up so far, however, all eyes are set on the top prize of $425,347 and the coveted gold bracelet that comes along with it.
The registration for the event remained open until the cards went in the air at 3 p.m. local time and 11 players bought in to start with 60,000 chips to join the 83 Day 1 survivors to create a field of 172 entries and prize pool of $1,616,800. Around 12 hours later, only 20 mixed game enthusiasts bagged up chips and will be back after a good night's sleep to play down to the final six on the penultimate tournament day.
Brian Hastings was third in chips heading into Day 2 and narrowly beat Day 1 chip leader Daniel Ospina to the top spot this time after claiming 1,125,000 to his name. Ospina follows in joint-second place with Dario Sammartino, as both bagged up 1,120,000. They are the only chip millionaires so far, as Greg Mueller follows next on the leader board with 734,000.
Phil Galfond was one of the late entrants and advanced with 734,000, the same feat was also achieved by Matthew Gonzales (551,000) and Justin Bonomo (200,000).
Among the remaining 20 players are a total of 11 WSOP bracelet winners, which also includes Marco Johnson (631,000), David Brookshire (611,000), Tom Koral (425,000), Anthony Zinno (390,000), Scott Clements (343,000), and Jen Harman (126,000) all seek a repeat victory at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Clements comes fresh off his third bracelet win in Event #10 $1,500 Dealers Choice, while Zinno missed out on a second bracelet in Event #20 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud.
The list of casualties throughout Day 2 reads like the who-is-who of poker: Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Paul Volpe, Ian Johns, Daniel Idema, Gary Benson, Julien Martini, Brian Rast, defending champion John Hennigan, Chris Ferguson and Nick Schulman were just some of those that missed out on adding another WSOP cash to their resume.
Rast went runner-runner to beat the superior pocket pair of Nicholas Seiken in a Stud hand, but his fortune turned and he paired up twice in a Razz hand against Daniel Ospina to run out of chips. Negreanu had plenty of outs to secure a portion if not a full double with his short stack in an Omaha Hi-Lo hand when he flopped an open-ended straight draw, but turn and river bricked off to send the six-time WSOP bracelet winner to the rail without anything to show for.
Plenty of split pots, quarters and scoops in the five different game types followed and the money bubble burst in the penultimate level of the night. Randy Ohel lost with two pair against the better two pair of Phil Galfond in a Stud Hand and the set of tens of David "ODB" Baker ended up second-best to the set of kings of Yueqi Zhu moments later to avoid a time-consuming money bubble. Zhu had spiked the case king in the deck to deal the final blow.
Once the min-cash of $15,176 was secured, half a dozen hopefuls headed to the payout desk to collect their earnings including Daniel Alaei, Chris Vitch, Chip Jett, Yueqi Zhu, Tim Marsters, and Phillip Hui. For all remaining 20 players, the hope is still alive to become the next WSOP bracelet winner.
The action resumes on Thursday, June 13th, 2019, as of 3 p.m. local time in the Amazon Gold section and another long day of poker is expected to whittle down the field to the six-handed showdown. Be sure to tune back in, as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action.
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and Brookshire led out for 15,000. Marsters raised all in for his last 29,000 and Brookshire called.
and 
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. Zhu only caught the 
on seventh and was eliminated in 23rd place for $15,176.
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(folded on sixth)
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and Brookshire bet and Sammartino called.
for aces-up, and Schulman flashed his 
. The board came 
