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Day 2 of the Shooting Stars began with the combination of the two separate
flights that had come before it into a single field. For the first time, those
who played on Day 1A would meet up with those who played on Day 1B, leading to
plenty of interesting matchups as the players had to readjust the strategies
that had gotten them through the first 10 levels of play. The other factor
that led to the adjustment of strategies on the first day - namely, the
Shooting Star designation dropped on top of the head of 50 big names - was
also still in play. Eleven of the 50 were still in action as Day Two began.
"Action" Dan Harrington, Allen Cunningham, Layne Flack, Salim Batshon, David
Williams, Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen, "Miami" John Cernuto, Jennifer Tilly,
Joanne "JJ" Liu, and of course the living legend himself, Doyle Brunson,
remained on their guard as the rest of the field put them in their sights.
Two of the Stars were involved in the action from the start. "Action" Dan
Harrington, one of the greatest living tournament players in the game today,
moved all-in within minutes of beginning play. His opponent apparently didn't
give him credit for K-K, and Harrington doubled his $23,600 starting stack.
David Williams also got involved, moving all-in with 6-6 and getting a call
from Stephan Ovepyan's A-Q of hearts. Williams celebrated with a fist pump and
a quick "Yes!" as he raked in the chips. He would win two more races before
finding a comfortable spot to settle into.
The first big elimination of the day was Texas Dolly. Todd Arnold bet enough
to put Brunson all-in on a jack-high flop, and doing his best imitation of
Rodin's "The Thinker" Brunson made the call with K-J. He'd run into Arnold's
A-A, and without any further help from the board he was eliminated before the
money. The crowd gave Brunson two ovations, demonstrating their appreciation
for all he's done for poker. It's no stretch to say that without him we'd be
living in a much different world than we do today.
Carlos Mortensen and David Williams both played the role of suckout artist
through the middle of the day, but a major confrontation between the two could
only leave one survivor. Mortensen survived twice after getting his money in
with the worst of it, and Williams had come from behind the wall of domination
on a few occasions. Mortensen finally got all his money in against Williams
with A-K, only to run face-first into a pair of aces. Williams also eliminated
Cunningham shortly thereafter, and by the end of the day he had claimed three
bounties to put himself into the black before counting any prize money from
the tournament.
The big story of the day, at least as far as the card in play were concerned,
was the losing record of Big Slick when it came to crunch time. Over and over
as players lost big pots, A-K was involved in the hand. Carlos Mortensen,
Jennifer Tilly, Daniel Lubkan, Joanne "JJ" Liu, David Williams, Todd Arnold,
and Layne Flack all lost important pots with the world's favorite drawing hand
- and several of them were to dominated hands such as A-Q or K-Q. For those
new to the game who think that a big favorite should always hold up, these
pros' experiences should be a lesson that sometimes the other 25% (or less)
really does come home.
With 57 players remaining, only 4 Shooting Stars remained in the field: David
Williams, Layne Flack, Salim Batshon, and "Action" Dan Harrington. The chances
of all of them surviving were slim from the beginning, but when play reached
its conclusion for the day with 35 players left in the field three of them
still remained. Layne Flack was the last Shooting Star to miss out on the
money, when he was eliminated on the bubble by Brad "Yukon" Booth.
Play is scheduled to resume on Thursday at 12 PM PST with five tables of six
and one table of five.
End of Day 2 Chip Counts
1. Harry Thomas 395,500
2. Chad Brown 377,500
3. Stuart Fahmy 310,500
4. Robert Mizrachi 286,500
5. Jeff Kimber 272,000
6. Ravi Udayakumar 237,500
7. Tony Sin 236,000
8. Brian Hua 233,500
9. Fabrice Soulier 211,000
10. Farzad Bonyadi 204,500
11. An-Nan Chen 185,500
12. Randy Gil 168,000
13. Kent Lin 152,500
14. Nam Le 148,500
15. Bob Slezak 143,000
16. Bruce Feldman 140,000
17. Danny Smith 140,000
18. Kyle Tapp 123,000
19. "Action" Dan Harrington 121,500
20. David Stamm 118,500
21. Chip Reese 112,000
22. Mickey Seagle 107,500
23. Salim Batshon 97,500
24. David Williams 81,000
25. Stephan Ovepyan 81,000
26. Larry Elliott 64,500
27. Allen Kessler 61,500
28. Joe Sebok 57,500
29. Steve Kwak 55,500
30. William Gustafik 52,500
31. Ralph Macri 52,500
32. Ben Sarnoff 47,000
33. Brad "Yukon" Booth 40,000
34. Bill Derego 35,000
35. Amnon Filippi 32,000
Day 2 Money Winners (all $15,000 unless otherwise noted)
Luong Trinh
Kelly Zoudo
Vineet Sharma
Geoffrey Wright
Tony Nguyen
Christian Kruel
Jeff Stone
Gabriel Thaler
Kirk Morrison ($20,000)
Chris Grigorian ($20,000)
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