With the last of the three starting flights – Day 1c – now in the record books with 2,571 survivors, there are now 4,504 main event competitors still active and plenty of poker ahead.
On Tuesday the 1,933 survivors of the first two starting flights on days 1a and 1b were back at the tables in Las Vegas to compete in Day 2 a/b, which consisted of five 120-minute levels.
When the chips were bagged just 700 survivors remained, with Tim Stansifer holding the lead on 481,500, well ahead of closest adversary Tom Cannuli on 407,800.
The day saw many of the mighty falling, including former world champ Greg Merson, along with Josh Arieh, Mike Sexton, Dennis Phillips, Michiel Brummelhuis, Yevgeny Timoshenko, Venessa Selbst, Annett Obrestad, Igor Kurganov, Brandoin Shack-Harris and George Danzer…all without cashing.
The more positive news of notable names who survived the carnage and move on to Day 3 is that this list includes the chip leader at the start of the day, Swedish ace Martin Jacobson, who is still among the top stacks, along with Antonio Esfandiari, Abe Mosseri, Eric Cloutier, former champs Chris Moneymaker, Huck Seed and current champ Ryan Reiss.
Also surviving to Day 3 are Faraz Jaka, Ole Schemion, Marvin Rettenmeier, Erik Seidel and Allen Cunningham.
Thursday will see the 700 survivors from Day 2a/b combine in Day 3 with the survivors of today’s (Wednesday’s) Day 2c clash, which see the departure of many of the 2,571 players still standing from Day 1c.