$10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship Bags Up With 15 Remaining; Mike Lancaster in the Lead
The final 15 players of Event #72: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship have bagged their chips and will return on Thursday at 2 pm in Amazon Gold. Play will continue until a new champion is crowned.
It was Mike Lancaster (1,201,000) who ended the day as the big stack and only player over the one million mark. Lancaster finished third in the 2015 $1,500 Limit Hold'em and will try to catch his first gold bracelet when play resumes.
The other players still in the race include many notables and WSOP champions such as Juha Helppi (986,000), Josh Arieh (772,000), Kevin Song (744,000), Tommy Hang (527,000), John Racener (304,000) and four-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra (250,000).
The day started with 51 players returning to their seats and with late registration open until the start of the day, eight more players joined the Day 2 field. The bust outs were fast and the likes of Martin Kabrhel, Benny Glaser, Shaun Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Robert Mizrachi and Phil Hui joined the 44 other players that failed to make it to Day 3.
Day 2 Action
With 18 places paid, the bubble was reached during Level 16, with hand-for-hand only lasting a few minutes. Dan Shak was eliminated in 20th position, moving all in with pocket queens on an ace-high flop, only to see an ace in Hang’s hand. The turn and the river bricked and Shak was eliminated. He was followed shortly after by Oleg Chebotarev who burst the bubble, moving all in on a king-high flop with ace-high while Louis Hillman had hit a pair of sixes.
The action slowed down and after an hour of countless double ups. Antanas "Tony G" Guoga busted in 18th place for $15,128, the first player to cash in this event. Guoga lost the majority of his stack after a confrontation with Racener, who hit a straight on the river while Guoga had a set of eights on the turn. He lost the rest of his chips against Lancaster a few minutes later.
Racener spent plenty of time among the short stacks but managed to double up twice, first thanks to a flip against James Obst and again with a flopped pair of kings against Anthony Marsico who called Racener down on the three streets with an inferior hand.
During the last 20-minute of action, Matthew Schreiber was eliminated in 17th place ($15,128) by Robert Como and was joined in the rail soon after by James Obst in 16th place ($15,128), who felted with queens versus Elezra's aces.
The remaining 15 players are all guaranteed a minimum of $17,596 but are competing for the $306,622 first-place prize and one of the last WSOP gold bracelets of the summer.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to provide full live coverage throughout the day, so rejoin us on Thursday from 2 p.m.
and Obst check-raised Elezra's bet. The latter reraised, putting Obst at risk for his tournament, and Obst called. 
and the 
completed the board.
for them both to flop a pair but keep Como ahead.
which didn't change the situation.
for the deal to be sealed as Schreiber was sent to the payout desk to collect $15,128 for finishing in 17th place.
and Racener check-called Guoga's bet. The same action happened on the 
turn. Both checked on the 
on the turn and 
, Marsico bet again and Panayiotou called.
, Marsico bet again and Panayiotou called but slowly mucked when Marsico tabled 
for the trip tens. Panayiotou was left behind with 42,000 which he lost in the next hand to bring the field down to 19 players.
, Paez bet and Song raised. This upset Paez so much he got up from his chair and mumbled away, not believing what Song was doing. After a while, Paez reluctantly flicked in the chips for the call. Song tabled 
on the turn to the 
of Robinson.
