Rabichow Dominates Day 2 of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America Main Event
It was an action-packed Day 2 at the 2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America CA$10,000 Main Event that saw the field dwindle from 258 players down to just 67. Another 10 levels were completed and bagging up the largest stack of them all was Kevin Rabichow with 30,105,000 chips.
Rabichow, who hails from Chicago, Illinois, hasn't played much live poker in the past couple of years but it seems that the time off hasn't hurt his play. He has over $80,000 in career tournament winnings and a deep run in this event could see that number increase exponentially.
A large portion of Rabichow's chips came from a late elimination of Norson Shiniti Saho. Rabichow called a four-bet shove of over five million from Saho and had him crushed with pocket jacks against Saho's nines. Rabichow will enter Day 3 with over a nine million chip lead and have the perfect opportunity to pick up more chips as the money bubble approaches.
Some other top stacks include Armin Rezaei who was the only other player to bag up over 20 million chips. Rezaei threw 2,103,000 in his bag and will sit in second place for the second day in a row. Montreal native Francois Billard sits in third place with 19,795,000 followed closely by notables Dietrich Fast (18,895,000) and Maurice Hawkins (18,810,000).
Coming into the day, there were 258 hopefuls looking to battle their way through another 10 levels. Unfortunately, many of them were sent to the rail leaving just 67 players. With just 63 earning a spot in the money, the action seemed to slow quite a bit as the day drew to a close. In the last level of the night, the 30-second shot clock was introduced and that will carry forward until the end of the tournament.
There were quite a few partypoker team members that were looking to make deep runs. All but one of them were eliminated from the competition with only Joni Jouhkimainen still remaining. Jouhkimainen finished the day with 8,725,000 which came in large part due to a big double up with pocket kings. Some partypoker members to fall throughout the day include Mike Sexton, Kristen Bicknell, Ludovic Geilich, and Anatoly Filatov.
Entering Day 2, former Playground Poker Club dealer Sandy Lam held the chip lead. She had an up and down day that saw her stack diminish within the first couple of levels. She managed to battler her way back to a top-ten stack but then faltered late to finish with 6,030,000. Another interesting name to keep an eye out for is Mike McDonald. The poker phenom from a few years back has taken a hiatus on the felt to develop his own business but is showing no signs of any rust. McDonald spent the latter part of the day on the feature table and wound up with a stack of 10,995,000.
The action will resume at 12 p.m. local time on Friday, May 24 with just four eliminations needed to reach the money. A min-cash will be worth CA$20,000 so it is expected that many players will tighten up until the bubble bursts. The blinds will start off at 80,000/160,000 with a 160,000 big blind ante and the levels will be increased to 75 minutes for Day 3.
James Romero Leads After Day 1 in the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS High Roller
The first day of the 2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America CA$10,300 High Roller has now concluded after eight levels of play. A total of 52 registration slips were sold for the sixth event and it was James Romero who finished at the top of the field with his immense 4,320,000 stack.
Romero sat down during the sixth level of play and wasted no time stacking piles in front of him. He took down several small pots before finding his first big score of the day through Andrew Pantling who was holding three eights.
Romero turned over three snowmen as well but had the higher kicker to take down the pot for a complete double up. The Portland, Oregon native has over three million in live cashes and is in a prime position to add another large cash to his resume.
David Lopez took down a lot of pots during the last round of play and almost solidified the top stack of the night but fell just short as he ended with 4,300,000. Some other notable stacks headed into the second day include a regular at any Playgound Poker Club, Kahnawake in Lauren Roberts (3,630,000), Anton Morgenstern (3,000,000), and Derek Verrian (2,835,000) who round out the top five.
The tournament had a less than expected amount of players join throughout the first half of the day and it was not until the latter half that players really started to jump in. One of which was partypoker pro Philipp Gruissem who jumped in just after the last break of the day and managed to secure a birth into Day 2 with 1,075,000.
A lower than expected field brought in a just 52 on the first day of Event #6: CA$10,300 High Roller and when the last chance saloon had closed for business just 28 remained. Day 2 will have another four hours of the late registration and re-entry period open for anyone who wants to join in on the action. The tournament will be looking to sell at least 48 more entry slips in order to hit the one million guarantee that was set.
After a larger than expected field turned out for Day 1a, today was a bit slower since 151 players had already booked their spot in Day 2. When late registration closed after four levels, there were a total of 217 entries for the day. That brought the total number of entries to 521 for this event, surpassing the CA$5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Some other familier faces headed into the second day of the tournament include Alan Schein (2,565,000), Pierre-Paul Paulin (2,155,000), Maria Ho (2,135,000), Darren Elias (1,860,000), Govert Metaal (1,650,000), and Alexandru Papazian (1,125,000).
Many players took a shot on Day 1 but failed to make it the full eight levels and that list includes well-known pro Marc MacDonnell, Canadian Jeff Cormier, Richard Kirsch, and pro Andrew Pantling.
The action will resume on Friday, May 24 at 1 p.m. EST with the blinds resuming at 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante. The tournament will play another ten 60-minute levels before bagging up and moving onto the third and final day. There will be a break after every two levels of play and a 60-minute dinner break has been added at the end of level 14.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you all the action throughout the remainder of the Main Event and the High Roller so be sure to stay tuned.
