2014 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Day 2: Hernandez Leads
On Tuesday, the 2014 $3 Million Guaranteed World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship kicked off its second day of play. Players from the two starting flights combined and filled the room as each of the 642 returnees were searching for the chance to become the next WPT champion. Laz Hernandez began the day as the chip leader and that was a title that he did not relinquish. Hernandez ran his stack up to an impressive 753,000 to once again bag up the biggest stack and put himself in the best possible position on the quest to a title.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laz Hernandez | 753,000 |
| 2 | Matthew Haugen | 735,500 |
| 3 | Tyler Patterson | 618,500 |
| 4 | Dan Heimiller | 556,000 |
| 5 | Robert "Uncle Krunk" Panitch | 540,500 |
| 6 | Frank Toscano | 540,500 |
| 7 | John D'Agostino | 501,000 |
| 8 | Harrison Gimbel | 496,000 |
| 9 | Chad Brown | 455,500 |
| 10 | Ramy Ibrahim | 422,500 |
Hernandez's impressive run continued throughout the day as many players relinquished their chips to his ever-growing stack. In a notable instance, Hernandez clashed with WPT commentator Mike Sexton and in the process sent the World Series of Poker bracelet winner to the rail.
On Sexton's final hand, he opened with a preflop raise to 15,000. Hernandez and another player called, leaving the trio to see a flop of Ax9x9x. Sexton announced an all-in bet of about 40,000 and Hernandez snapped him off, rolling over 9x9x for quad nines. The other player had folded. Sexton showed a meek AxKx and failed to improve on the subsequent streets.
Hernandez, of course, is just one of the 198 players who will return for play on Day 2. The first goal on each returning player's mind will be to make the money as the bubble will approach fairly quickly on Day 3. The top 120 players are guaranteed to cash with a min-cash worth $6,739.
Some notable faces returning to the felt include John Holley (415,500), Byron Kaverman (352,000), John D'Agostino (345,000), Faraz Jaka (340,000), Dan O'Brien (340,000), Mike Linster (260,000), Ronit Chamani (258,000), Jared Jaffee (238,000), Noah Schwartz (215,000), Matt Affleck (213,000), and Joe Serock (212,500), Amnon Filippi (204,500).
While those players all succeeded on making it through the second day of play, other familiar faces found themselves with no remaining chips before the day came to a close. Matt Salsberg, Matt Waxman, Tony Dunst, Steve Brecher, Ravi Raghavan, Erick Lindgren, Lee Childs, Darren Elias, Kathy Liebert, Jeff Madsen, and James Woods were just a few of those players who were unable to advance.
Play resumes as 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday as the final 198 return for Day 3 action. PokerNews will be on hand from the tournament floor to provide you with all of the latest updates as the field moves through the money bubble and beyond!
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