LIVE EVENTS

The High Roller has come to an end for Day 2 with 12 players finding a bag for Day 3 that takes place tomorrow at 1:00pm when they will play down to a champion for $75,000 and the WSPOP-C Playground champion ring.

The field was made up of both solid local and out of town players who battled it out through 13 levels of 45 minutes. The top 23 players made it into the money and it took quite some time for the bubble to bust. Donald Cowie had the early lead and then it moved over to Edward Hislop who was in the lead for half of the day, but when it came down to the crunch, it was WPT Champion and local Playground player Eric Afriat who stepped it up and put himself into the driver’s seat. Afriat finished the night bagging the lead with 2,705,000 chips, more than 600,000 ahead of the second place runner and Day 1 chip leader Tu Kham Tran, who bagged 2,065,000.

The cards will be in the air for day 3 at 1:00pm tomorrow, join us here to follow the action as they play down to a champion.

Here are the chip counts of the final 12 players:

The players are now in level 21 which is the last level of play. Eric Afriat is still leading but there are other big stacks in play as well so it is still anyone’s game.

Here are the recent bustouts and corresponding payouts:

Chip leader Eric Afriat:

Here are the chip counts that were updated during the last break once all the remaining players were in the money:

Chip leader: Eric Afriat

It took the better part of one hour but finally the High Roller is in the money! Most of the players had decent stacks but it was Jeffrey Cormier who was unfortunately feeling the pressure. He was able to pick up the blinds and antes after shoving quite a few times and he showed some hands when no one had called where he wanted a call, hands such as AK where he was prepared to flip but George James was the only player who had a pair and they were deuces and he decided to avoid the risk.

The fatal hand came when Cormier once again picked up a hand, , and he put his chips into the middle, but this time George James made the call holding a stronger hand than deuces: he had .

The flop came and Cormier picked up a couple of extra outs. The turn was the which didn’t help him out at all, and the river was a brick, the . After the dealer counted the stacks Cormier was still left with 5,000 chips which he put in the very next hand after only having seen one card. Eric Afriat raised it up to 75,000 and everyone else folded.

Cormier:
Afriat:

The flop came and Afriat paired up with his four. The turn and river were of no help to Cormier and he exited the room, just shy of the money.

The players have gone on break and it will give us a chance to update the full chip counts after the break.

The bubble hand:

As the money bubble is slowly approaching now that only 30 players are left in the field, Xiaoming Su just hit the river to make a huge double up against Tu Kham Tran.

With the blinds at 6,000/12,000, Kham had opened for 35,000 only to be met by a shove of 322,000 from Su. After a moment or so of thought, Tran made the call and the hands were opened:

Su:
Tran:

The flop was clean with the hitting the board. The turn was also a blank, however the on the river changed it all and Su had a huge and badly needed double up.

Tran was heard saying “it wouldn’t be as bad if the queen was on the flop, but, on the river?”. Poker can be brutal at times.

Looking over at Tran’s stack, he still seems to be sitting on 1 million plus chips so although the blow hurt, he is still in good shape.

Xiaoming Su

With a total of 177 entries, the $250,000 prize pool was surpassed and it grew to $343,380. The top 23 players will be in the money, with a min-cash in 23rd paying $4,000, and the top prize in first place paying out $75,000 plus the WSOP-C Playground champion’s ring.

Here is the list of payouts:

The players have just finished their dinner break and we were able to put together the full chip counts of all of the players. There are officially three millionaires in the filed right now, and Edward Hislop is still in the lead with 1,405,000 chips. He is followed in second place by Roger Lima with 1,275,000 and in third by Alexander Villa with 1,006,000.

Players will be playing six more levels of 45 minutes before the remaining players bag for the night and continue on to Day 3 at 1:00pm tomorrow.

Here are the full chip counts from the break:

Chip leader: Edward Hislop

The players in the High Roller are now on a 45 minute dinner break which will allow them time to re-energize while it will allow us time to update the leaderboard.

The prize pool has just been announced; the top 23 places will be paid, with a min-cash worth $4,000 and a top prize of $75,0000. Stay tuned as the full prize pool will also be published shortly.

Arriving at table 65, the flop was already out and showed . Giuliano Lentini was all in for 69,500, and was re-raised by Danny Freitas seated directly on his left who bumped it up to 180,000. When action folded to Edward Hislop, he pushed forward a stack of 25K chips while announcing that he was all in. That sent Freitas deep into the tank until finally Hislop called the clock on him. Once the tournament director arrived at the table Freitas was given 30 seconds to act. He finally folded as the clock ticked down. Lentini and Hislop opened up their hands:

Lentini:
Hislop:

Lentini had a gut shot straight draw with two over cards and Hislop had the nut flush draw with two overs, ace high.

The turn paired the board with the and the river was a blank, the , with the chips moving to Hislop and sending Lentini to the rail.

Freitas was heard saying that he had a double gutty and it was a really tough decision for him but ultimately it was a good fold.

Hislop’s stack just keeps growing and growing.

The players have just had their second break of the day and that means that the late registration and re-entry period has now come to a close. The official numbers for the High Roller are: 177 entries (including 40 re-entries), which takes the prize pool north of $340,000 and way above the $250,000 guarantee. As soon as the prize pool is announced we will publish it here on the blog.

With blinds now at 2,500/5,000, and the average chip stack sitting at 236,600. Edward Hislop has put together a stack of 685,000 to jump into the lead. He is followed by the first break chip leader, Donald Cowie who has 666,000. Tu Kham Tran is still in contention however for the time being he has dropped off of the leaderboard. None the less, the current leaderboard only contains stacks of 500,000+, so there are still plenty of players with decent chip stacks who are still in contention.

Here is the leaderboard from the second break:

Second break chip leader: Edward Hislop

High Roller: The players have just returned from their first break of the day and with an average chip stack sitting at 200,000, Donald Cowie has jumped way ahead of the pack and has taken a commanding lead with 615,500 chips. Edward Hislop follows in second with 519,500, and Day 1 chip leader To Kham Tran is in third with 518,000.

With 158 players in the field the tournament has smashed the $250,000 guaranteed prize pool so the payouts are sure to be juicy in this event. There is still over one hour to to go in the late registration and re-entry period which ends at the start of level 13 at 4:30pm, and with a starting stack of 100,000 and blinds currently at only 1,500/3,000, you would still be entering with over 33 big blinds if you were to jump in and join the action right now!

Here is the first leaderboard of the day:

Chip leader: Donald Cowie

The High roller now has 145 total entries (with 22 re-entries) which means that it has well surpassed the $250,000 guarantee. There is still another two hours+ remaining in the late registration and re-entry period so if you were still thinking of joining the action, you would still be entering with just over 40 big blinds.

There will be a break coming up shortly at which time we will look for the Day 2 leaders and make the first leaderboard of the day.

Here are some of the players in the field today: