Long Ma Holds Commanding Lead of Final Five After Wild Day 2 of "The Reunion"
Day 2 of Event #4: $500 The Reunion No-Limit Hold’em was one for the memory banks as it produced wild action all day long with a starting field of 683 being cut all the way down to five in 17 hours of play.
As the dust settled at the end of the day it was Long Ma on top of the counts with a whopping 260,000,000 in chips. He stayed steady in the counts throughout the day until the final table where his stack really skyrocketed as he won three huge hands late in the night to take the commanding chip lead.
Guiliano Lentini finished the night second in chips with 133,900,000. Lentini was the short stack with nine players left but doubled twice and scored another knockout to catapult to his lofty finish.
Alex Vazquez ended with 114,600,000 which was good for third in chips as he maintained a big stack throughout the final table, holding the chip lead for much of it before tailing off slightly at the very end of the night.
The Reunion - Final Table Seating & Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Long Ma | United States | 260,100,000 | 87 |
| 2 | Michael Eddy | United States | 27,600,000 | 9 |
| 3 | Giuliano Lentini | United States | 133,900,000 | 45 |
| 4 | Max Tavepholjalern | United States | 114,300,000 | 38 |
| 5 | Alex Vazquez | United States | 114,600,000 | 38 |
The Reunion - Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $513,604 | ||
| 2 | $317,352 | ||
| 3 | $241,766 | ||
| 4 | $185,281 | ||
| 5 | $142,847 | ||
| 6 | Anthony Cass | United States | $110,794 |
| 7 | Jugal Daterao | United States | $86,462 |
| 8 | Derrick Stoebe | United States | $67,886 |
| 9 | Adrian Buckley | United States | $53,625 |
Just a smidge behind Vazquez was Max Tavepholjalern who finished with 114,300,000. He won a key triple-up hand just before the final table which set him up in a good position to make a run at the bracelet.
Ending the night as the short stack was Michael Eddy with 27,600,000, who held a big chip stack to start the final table but lost some key pots early to become a short stack. However, he was able to grind his short stack to the final five and again a few pay jumps in the process.
The day began with 683 players and players began to drop like flies right off the bat with the multitude of short stacks getting it in quickly. The eliminations came so quickly that play had to be halted twice within the first level so that the order of eliminations were made sure to be correct.
The breakneck pace would continue all day and several well-known players hit the rail including; Ryan Leng (248th place), Barry Greenstein (201st place), Ronnie Bardah (75th Place), Dave Alfa (46th place) and John Gorsuch (33rd place).
One of the last remaining big names, Ryan Laplante would hit the rail in 19th place. He had a roller-coaster day as he held the chip lead midway through the day but took a hit when he flopped a set vs a straight against Joakim Beaupre, which was the largest pot of the tournament to that point. He would recover however and end up making the deep run to the verge of the final two tables.
As the final two tables converged play got a bit more careful as the pay jumps became more significant. There were several big moves in the chip counts, the most dramatic of which being from Beaupre and Faisal Siddiqui, who went from dominating chip leaders to out in 11h and 10th place respectively.
It would take an hour and a half to break the ice on another elimination and send Adrian Buckley to the rail in ninth place. Derrick Stoebe went out next in eighth place in a bombastic hand which gave Ma his huge chip count.
Jugal Daterao was eliminated in seventh place and Ma scored the final knockout of the night as he took out Anthony Cass in sixth place.
Play will resume at 4 p.m local time as the final five will play down to a bracelet winner. PokerNews will have all of the coverage as well as an intro tomorrow that will shed light on a bio of each player in the final five.
and was looking to score a knockout but would need to come from behind against the 
of Cass.
to pair Ma but give Cass the nut flush draw.
and the river the 
to end the run for Cass and bring the night's festivities to an end.
.
and, despite flopping top pair on a 
board, improved no further and hit the rail in seventh place.
. 
fell on the river, Tavepholjalern reached for chips and Vazquez snap-folded.
and the action checked through. 
flop gave Vazquez a set and left Thompson looking for a miracle runner-runner to stay alive.
river completed the board.
