On Monday, there were 2,031 players who had made it past Days 1A and 1C to come together to play Day 2A. Play featured quite a few big names out of the 2,031 players, and also featured some big eliminations out of those names. At the end of the day it was Aleksandr Mozhnyakov who was at the top of the leader board with 478,600 chips. There were a total of 3 other players who finished the day with over 400k in chips, Tuan Vo (434,500), Guillaume Darcourt (410,500), and Stephane Albertini (400,100). All four of these players are of course in a great spot heading into Day 3.
Out of the other big names remaining, Day 1A leader Fred Berger began Day 2A with a little more than 209k in chips, and ended the day with 205,400. A few other notable names with pretty good sized stacks are Shaun Deeb (294,700), Sebastian Ruthenberg (289,400), and Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander (167,000). Other players such as Daniel Negreanu (114,100), Annette Obrestad (90,500), Shannon Shorr (110,500), Sorel Mizzi (108,400), Ted Forrest (112,600), Adam Junglen (131,600), and Lee Childs (110,300) were all still alive at the end of the day, and sitting in fairly good position to make a push in Day 3. Brad Garrett from the hit TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond” also made it through to Day 3, with 67,000 chips.
While big names and former Main Event champions Dan Harrington, Jonathan Duhamel, Johnny Chan, and Scotty Nguyen were eliminated; Jamie Gold and Robert Varkonyi both moved on. The big story of the day though was 11 time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.
Hellmuth didn’t show up for over an hour when Mike Matusow noticed, and sent security to find him. Hellmuth was in his hotel room, and had forgotten that he was supposed to play on Monday in Day 2A and not Tuesday Day 2B. He started the day with 11,800 in chips, but by the time he showed up he had been blinded down to 6,975 chips and had quite a bit of work to do. Hellmuth was indeed able to come back though, and ended the day with a solid 64,900 chips. While this won’t put him in the drivers seat by any means for the remainder of the event, he is definitely still alive. 819 players have moved on from Day 2A to Day 3, and will now be met up by the players who make it through Day 2B.