Another long day of poker at the 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Atlantic City Main Event saw the field move through the second of three days for the $1,675 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament. Two hundred and ninety-nine players from the 540 entries returned at noon for Sunday’s Day 2, and more than 14 hours later Joseph McKeehen of Pennsylvania lead the 19 survivors.
Day 2 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joseph McKeehen | 1,904,000 |
| 2 | Raymond Morgan | 1,257,000 |
| 3 | Dennis Thurman | 1,157,000 |
| 4 | Dave Fox | 1,033,000 |
| 5 | Hend Matthews | 717,000 |
| 6 | Gregory Masters | 547,000 |
| 7 | John Holley | 514,000 |
| 8 | Ido Ashkenazi | 504,000 |
| 9 | Leo Walker | 495,000 |
| 10 | Thomas Sheets | 466,000 |
| 11 | Robert Panitch | 453,000 |
| 12 | Gregory Burns | 378,000 |
| 13 | Sai Wang | 299,000 |
| 14 | Tony Sinishtaj | 226,000 |
| 15 | Jay Robinson | 210,000 |
| 16 | Allie Prescott | 186,000 |
| 17 | Joseph Steur | 179,000 |
| 18 | Scott Cosagrande | 146,000 |
| 19 | Tom Dobrilovic | 135,000 |
Those 540 entries created a total prize pool of $810,000, with the top 54 finishers dividing those riches. It took until well after the dinner break for the 299 returners to play down to the bubble, with Mike Sica, Carter Phillips, Nick Frangos, Micah Raskin, Lee Childs, Scott Baumstein, Christopher Leong (winner of two rings at this year’s WSOP Circuit Caesars Atlantic City series) and start-of-Day-2 chip leader Benedetto Bianco among those unable to last into the cash.
When the bubble burst, two eliminations occurred on the same hand, enabling Lana O’Brien and Patrick Chan to split 54th-place prize money ($3,110) and at least earn back almost the price of the buy-in.
Following those two to the rail as the night wore on were Timothy Finne (42nd – $3,394), David Inselberg (36th, $3 -750), Christian Harder (36th – $3,750), Patrick Houchins (34th – $3,750) and Matt Glantz (27th – $5,427).
Meanwhile, Norman Michalek found himself battling for and claiming the top spot in the counts for a time as the final three tables played out. Then came a huge hand between Michalek and McKeehen, in which a series of preflop raises saw Michalek five-bet shove his big stack and McKeehen instantly calling.
Michalek had the 
, but he’d run into McKeehen’s 
, and when the board came 10-high Michalek suddenly went from challenging for the lead to hitting the rail in 25th place ($5,427).
Then on the very next hand, McKeehen picked up the 
yet again, this time against Jeffery West, who, unfortunately, committed the last of his stack on a 
with the 
. When the turn and river didn’t improve West’s hand, he was knocked out in 24th ($6,302).
That wild sequence catapulted McKeehen up to about 1.8 million chips at a time when no one else had even 1 million. He maintained first position while adding more chips as the last level of the night played out, with Randy Nelson (23rd – $6,302), Xiofeng Hu (22nd – $2,302), Matthew DeLuca (21st – $7,412) and Jia Liu (20th – $7,412) all falling before play concluded.
McKeehen ended the night with 1,904,000, enjoying a healthy lead over Raymond Morgan with 1,257,000, Dennis Thurman with 1,157,000 and Dave Fox with 1,033,000. Right behind them is the last woman in the tournament, Hend Matthews, currently in fifth position with 717,000.
Play resumes at Caesars Atlantic City at noon and will continue until the next WSOP Circuit Main Event Champion is crowned. Be sure to check back then for live updates on PokerNews.
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