Day 2 of Event #63: $500 Salute to Warriors began with 169 players and when the dust settled after 12 hours of play at the end of the night only nine remained who are still alive for the grand prize of $102,465.
Leading the pack of the nine remaining as the night came to a close was Ohio's Bradley Rogoff with 8,800,000 in chips. Rogoff gathered a large stack toward the middle part of the day and remained among the chip leaders before re-gaining the pole position in the final level of the night. The chip leader has little poker resume to speak of thus far and will be looking to make a big splash in this event.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guy Hadas | 5,500,000 |
| 3 | Hlib Kovtunov | 3,475,000 |
| 4 | Marty Zabib | 2,700,000 |
| 5 | Anthony Mccurdy | 3,350,000 |
| 6 | Chulhan Choi | 3,900,000 |
| 7 | Christopher Corbo | 4,475,000 |
| 8 | Mitch Garshofsky | 4,475,000 |
| 9 | Eric Zhang | 7,175,000 |
| 10 | Bradley Rogoff | 8,800,000 |
Eric Zhang (7,175,000) had a roller-coaster day that ended on a high to place him in second place heading into the final table. He was very nearly out the door with a few tables remaining but hit runner-runner straight to crack a flopped set. From there he rode the momentum to a large stack until he was again whittled down to just a “lone ember” of a stack as he put it just before the final table. But he was again able to spin it back to finish the day in a strong position.
Guy Hadas finished third in chips, some distance behind with 5,500,000. He was a large stack for much of the day and coasted to the end after taking out several players.
Two-time WSOP Circuit Ring winner Mitch Garshofsky finished the day fourth in chips with 4,475,000. Garshofsky was the short stack close to the end of the night before spinning it up in the last level. He has amassed over $600,000 in career WSOP earnings so far and will be want to add the elusive bracelet to his poker collection.
Fifth in chips at the end was Christopher Corbo with 4,275,000. He held the chip lead late in the night but dropped a few preflop all-ins to sink to the middle of the chip counts before the bell rang for the night.
South Korea and Ukraine are represented at the final table with Chulhan Choi (3,900,000) and Hlib Kontunov (3,475,000) respectively. While Anthony Mccurdy (3,350,000) and Marty Zabib (2,700,000) round out the final table as the short stacks.
Day 2 Action
The eliminations came hot and heavy all day as the fast structure forced players to get their stacks in quickly and try to double up. Among those who hit the rail as the day went on were; Everett Carlton in 162nd, Jake Schwartz in 113th, and John Song in 39th.
Play quickly got down to the final three tables, where things would slow ever so slightly before the unofficial final table was reached late in the night, and Philip Sacks elimination in tenth place would bring the field to its official final table where the play would eventually be halted.
Play resumes Thursday at 12 p.m. noon local time and PokerNews will again pick up the coverage as a new WSOP Bracelet winner will be crowned.
, giving Kovtunov a pair of aces. The board completed with the 
on the turn and the 
on the river. Sacks was eliminated in 10th place while Kovtunov doubled through Zhang.
for his queens to hold and triple up through both players.
vs the 
of Bradley Rogoff.
and the field was down to the unofficial final table of ten.
board where Choi check-folded to a bet of 300,000 from Rogoff. 
for two pair but was shown the bad news when Rogoff showed 
. Balteriski was eliminated in 13th Place for $6,354.
to open a chop possibility with a flush on board but the river was the 
hit the river.
