Player of the Year Frontrunners Negreanu and Obst Into Day 2 of Event #44
Level 10
: 1,200/2,400, 300 ante
Daniel Negreanu (5th) and James Obst (1st) are both in the top five of the World Series of Poker Player of the Year race. Both players have had a great series already and have now made Day 2 of Event #44. They will join the 154 other players in Day 2, starting at 2 p.m. Friday.
Negreanu and Obst both joined around level four and Negreanu bagged 44,900, while Obst bagged 62,100.
Andre Akkari bagged the unofficial chip lead with 110,100. He went on a roll after busting Paul Volpe and gained about 50,000 in the last level of play.
Phil Hellmuth bagged 36,100 in his quest for the so-far elusive bracelet number 15. Ben Yu has had a solid couple days since winning his second bracelet in the $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw tournament and finishing fourth in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship. He also finished 40th in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max Championship right before registering for this event. He bagged 44,900.
Jason Mercier (76,400) and Natasha Mercier (21,000) each bagged as well. Jason fell short early, getting to half of the starting stack in the early levels, but managed to bag one of the bigger stacks in the remaining field.
Brandon Shack-Harris also had trouble early, but he was unable to run it back up and was eliminated early in play today. James Woods, Esther Taylor, and Jared Bleznick all fired today and missed the Day 2 cut.
You can follow all the Day 2 action right here on PokerNews as Negreanu, Obst, and the rest of this star-studded field compete for a spot in Day 3 and take another step closer to WSOP gold.
| Room | table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 65 | 1 | Adam Friedman | United States | 45,100 |
| Amazon | 65 | 2 | Dmitry Chop | Ukraine | 78,000 |
| Amazon | 65 | 3 | Phil Hellmuth | United States | 36,100 |
| Amazon | 65 | 4 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 44,900 |
| Amazon | 65 | 5 | Hal Rotholz | United States | 46,400 |
| Amazon | 65 | 6 | Eric Buchman | United States | 32,100 |
| Amazon | 65 | 7 | Brian Scholl | United States | 23,000 |
| Amazon | 65 | 8 | Christopher Sensoli | United States | 91,200 |
| Amazon | 66 | 1 | Kurt Wildin | United States | 32,500 |
| Amazon | 66 | 2 | Konstantin Puchkov | Russia | 27,600 |
| Amazon | 66 | 3 | Blair Rodman | United States | 9,000 |
| Amazon | 66 | 4 | Chris Bjorin | Sweden | 61,100 |
| Amazon | 66 | 5 | Christopher Korent | United States | 36,300 |
| Amazon | 66 | 6 | Tom McCormick | United States | 59,300 |
| Amazon | 66 | 7 | Todd Bui | United States | 23,000 |
| Amazon | 66 | 8 | Tom Schneider | United States | 10,300 |
| Amazon | 67 | 1 | Matthew Davidow | United States | 63,600 |
| Amazon | 67 | 2 | Shawn Buchanan | Canada | 47,100 |
| Amazon | 67 | 3 | Mark Klecan | Brantford, ON, CA | 17,400 |
| Amazon | 67 | 4 | Cole Jackson | United States | 57,300 |
| Amazon | 67 | 5 | Aaron Steury | United States | 50,000 |
| Amazon | 67 | 6 | Usman Siddique | United Kingdom | 31,000 |
| Amazon | 67 | 7 | Bruno Fitoussi | France | 36,900 |
| Amazon | 67 | 8 | Hani Awad | United States | 85,400 |
| Amazon | 68 | 1 | Bradley Snider | United States | 29,700 |
| Amazon | 68 | 2 | David Benyamine | United States | 31,000 |
| Amazon | 68 | 3 | Alexander Lukyanov | Russia | 28,300 |
| Amazon | 68 | 4 | Aditya Prasetyo | United States | 43,400 |
| Amazon | 68 | 5 | Shannon Petluck | United States | 23,000 |
| Amazon | 68 | 6 | Mike Matusow | United States | 50,000 |
| Amazon | 68 | 7 | Toma Kalaj | United States | 18,200 |
| Amazon | 68 | 8 | David Levi | United States | 15,300 |
| Amazon | 69 | 1 | Jean Gaspard | United States | 29,400 |
| Amazon | 69 | 2 | Al Barbieri | United States | 26,700 |
| Amazon | 69 | 3 | Matthew Schreiber | United States | 9,700 |
| Amazon | 69 | 4 | Joe Tehan | United States | 49,300 |
| Amazon | 69 | 5 | Michael Ma | Canada | 33,500 |
| Amazon | 69 | 6 | Dustin Lee | United States | 9,900 |
| Amazon | 69 | 7 | Ryan Miller | United States | 72,200 |
| Amazon | 69 | 8 | Brendan Taylor | United States | 73,900 |
| Amazon | 73 | 1 | Gina Hecht | United States | 3,500 |
| Amazon | 73 | 2 | Mike Puskarich | United States | 8,200 |
| Amazon | 73 | 3 | Brock Parker | United States | 41,400 |
| Amazon | 73 | 4 | Gary Benson | Australia | 47,200 |
| Amazon | 73 | 5 | Phillip Hui | United States | 30,000 |
| Amazon | 73 | 6 | Chris Klodnicki | United States | 27,200 |
| Amazon | 73 | 7 | Mikhail Tulchinskiy | Russia | 35,300 |
| Amazon | 73 | 8 | Joe Aronesty | United States | 9,000 |
| Amazon | 74 | 2 | Ryan Himes | United States | 13,100 |
| Amazon | 74 | 3 | James Mcwhorter | United States | 11,800 |
| Amazon | 74 | 4 | Brian Brubaker | United States | 26,400 |
| Amazon | 74 | 5 | John Cernuto | United States | 38,700 |
| Amazon | 74 | 7 | Jyri Merivirta | Finland | 19,000 |
| Amazon | 74 | 8 | Ylon Schwartz | United States | 37,800 |
| Amazon | 75 | 1 | Arash Ghaneian | United States | 52,400 |
| Amazon | 75 | 2 | Christopher Vitch | United States | 17,700 |
| Amazon | 75 | 3 | Don Zewin | United States | 42,400 |
| Amazon | 75 | 4 | Justin Vold | United States | 57,900 |
| Amazon | 75 | 5 | Matthew Schultz | United States | 40,300 |
| Amazon | 75 | 6 | Peter Levine | United States | 16,800 |
| Amazon | 75 | 7 | Jim Balestrere | United States | 27,500 |
| Amazon | 75 | 8 | Thomas Hammers | United States | 33,200 |
| Amazon | 76 | 1 | Matthew Honig | United States | 88,000 |
| Amazon | 76 | 2 | Kevin Iacofano | United States | 45,700 |
| Amazon | 76 | 3 | Dave Stann | United States | 16,100 |
| Amazon | 76 | 4 | Valentin Vornicu | United States | 32,100 |
| Amazon | 76 | 5 | Robert Slezak | United States | 16,500 |
| Amazon | 76 | 6 | Jason Berilgen | United States | 32,100 |
| Amazon | 76 | 7 | Ben Yu | United States | 44,300 |
| Amazon | 76 | 8 | Matthew Smith | United States | 64,100 |
| Amazon | 77 | 1 | Scotty Nguyen | United States | 84,300 |
| Amazon | 77 | 2 | Joseph Couden | United States | 23,300 |
| Amazon | 77 | 3 | Justin Bonomo | United States | 21,400 |
| Amazon | 77 | 4 | Christopher Chung | United States | 31,200 |
| Amazon | 77 | 5 | Pascal Leyo | United States | 19,200 |
| Amazon | 77 | 6 | Cary Aronson | United States | 43,500 |
| Amazon | 77 | 7 | Steven Albini | United States | 32,700 |
| Amazon | 77 | 8 | John Urpsis | United States | 32,300 |
| Amazon | 81 | 1 | Jean Montury | France | 29,000 |
| Amazon | 81 | 2 | Steve Sung | United States | 47,900 |
| Amazon | 81 | 3 | Lamont Davis | United States | 20,400 |
| Amazon | 81 | 4 | Seamus Cahill | Ireland | 26,800 |
| Amazon | 81 | 5 | Scott Horowitz | United States | 39,300 |
| Amazon | 81 | 6 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russia | 2,200 |
| Amazon | 81 | 7 | DJ Buckley | United States | 60,000 |
| Amazon | 81 | 8 | Christian Pereira | Argentina | 32,400 |
| Amazon | 82 | 1 | Tommy Hang | United States | 45,000 |
| Amazon | 82 | 2 | Alex Livingston | Canada | 39,500 |
| Amazon | 82 | 3 | Jason Mercier | United States | 76,400 |
| Amazon | 82 | 4 | Jesse Sylvia | United States | 1 |
| Amazon | 82 | 5 | Gennady Shimelfarb | United States | 32,600 |
| Amazon | 82 | 6 | Shaun Deeb | United States | 43,000 |
| Amazon | 82 | 7 | Filippos Stavrakis | United States | 15,900 |
| Amazon | 82 | 8 | Paul Sokoloff | Canada | 45,600 |
| Amazon | 83 | 1 | Gabe Paul | United States | 32,400 |
| Amazon | 83 | 2 | Marcus Mizzi | Canada | 83,200 |
| Amazon | 83 | 3 | Greg Raymer | United States | 41,200 |
| Amazon | 83 | 4 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 45,300 |
| Amazon | 83 | 5 | Thao Thiem | United States | 28,100 |
| Amazon | 83 | 6 | John Crisp | United States | 64,600 |
| Amazon | 83 | 7 | Jason Riesenberg | United States | 2,900 |
| Amazon | 83 | 8 | Harold Klein | United States | 24,100 |
| Amazon | 84 | 1 | Christian Nolte | Austria | 39,400 |
| Amazon | 84 | 2 | DID NOT REPORT 1 | United States | 1 |
| Amazon | 84 | 3 | Nick Schulman | United States | 15,700 |
| Amazon | 84 | 4 | Joseph Weinberger | United States | 37,000 |
| Amazon | 84 | 5 | Alexey Makarov | Russia | 81,100 |
| Amazon | 84 | 6 | Barry Levy | United States | 17,500 |
| Amazon | 84 | 7 | Richard Bai | United States | 42,000 |
| Amazon | 84 | 8 | Tom Chambers | United States | 28,400 |
| Amazon | 85 | 1 | Long Tran | United States | 34,000 |
| Amazon | 85 | 2 | Cory Zeidman | United States | 25,600 |
| Amazon | 85 | 3 | Frank Digiorgio | United States | 24,800 |
| Amazon | 85 | 4 | Daniel Lowe | United States | 24,600 |
| Amazon | 85 | 5 | James Obst | Australia | 62,100 |
| Amazon | 85 | 6 | Nikolay Fal | Russia | 90,500 |
| Amazon | 85 | 7 | Christopher McHugh | United States | 30,700 |
| Amazon | 85 | 8 | Scott Bohlman | United States | 37,600 |
| Amazon | 89 | 1 | Jesse Simonelli | United States | 63,700 |
| Amazon | 89 | 2 | David Wells | United States | 71,500 |
| Amazon | 89 | 3 | Natasha Mercier | United States | 21,200 |
| Amazon | 89 | 4 | Luis Velador | United States | 29,500 |
| Amazon | 89 | 5 | Yong Wang | United States | 29,900 |
| Amazon | 89 | 6 | Brandon Cantu | United States | 48,000 |
| Amazon | 89 | 7 | Marcel Luske | Netherlands | 8,400 |
| Amazon | 89 | 8 | Matheus Mendes | Brazil | 26,800 |
| Amazon | 90 | 1 | Mark Gregorich | United States | 82,500 |
| Amazon | 90 | 2 | Tony Ma | United States | 23,800 |
| Amazon | 90 | 3 | Daniel Ratigan | United States | 35,300 |
| Amazon | 90 | 5 | George Rechnitzer | United States | 29,200 |
| Amazon | 90 | 6 | Steven Loube | United States | 4,000 |
| Amazon | 90 | 7 | Kyle Welsh | United States | 27,200 |
| Amazon | 90 | 8 | Josh Arieh | United States | 72,200 |
| Amazon | 91 | 1 | Mike Schneider (MN) | United States | 11,500 |
| Amazon | 91 | 2 | Tyler Groth | United States | 31,500 |
| Amazon | 91 | 3 | Ralph Perry | United States | 16,700 |
| Amazon | 91 | 4 | Michael Krasienko | United States | 9,300 |
| Amazon | 91 | 5 | Tom Koral | United States | 24,500 |
| Amazon | 91 | 6 | Ronald Schiffman | United States | 69,300 |
| Amazon | 91 | 7 | Jeff Madsen | United States | 81,700 |
| Amazon | 91 | 8 | Per Hildebrand | Sweden | 54,100 |
| Amazon | 92 | 1 | David Steicke | Hong Kong | 35,600 |
| Amazon | 92 | 3 | Ismael Bojang | Germany | 20,200 |
| Amazon | 92 | 4 | Ryan Hughes | United States | 29,300 |
| Amazon | 92 | 5 | Andy Black | Ireland | 59,100 |
| Amazon | 92 | 6 | Ernst Stoller | Switzerland | 36,300 |
| Amazon | 92 | 7 | Norman Chad | United States | 33,000 |
| Amazon | 92 | 8 | Matt Vengrin | United States | 29,100 |
| Amazon | 93 | 1 | John Monnette | United States | 36,000 |
| Amazon | 93 | 2 | Tom West | United States | 63,300 |
| Amazon | 93 | 3 | Ashish Gupta | Australia | 42,800 |
| Amazon | 93 | 4 | Andre Akkari | Brazil | 110,100 |
| Amazon | 93 | 5 | John Holley | United States | 42,900 |
| Amazon | 93 | 6 | Anthony Macnamara | Australia | 39,600 |
| Amazon | 93 | 7 | Frank Athey | United States | 28,800 |
| Amazon | 93 | 8 | Jim Collopy | United States | 58,700 |