The Poker Lab Rat

With over 2,000 players qualifying from Day 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d, the organisers at the Rio decided to have two second days - affectionately known as 2a and 2b.

Day 2a consisted of all the qualifiers from Days 1a and 1b and there were 1,037 player who returned to the Amazon Room at the Rio Casino on Tuesday.

The pace was hot and heavy though and the play finished earlier than expected when the number of players remaining hit 350 - because the floor staff do not want to risk hitting the money bubble of 621st place without having everyone in playing at the same time.

Play on Day 2B will now stop at exactly the same point in the level so that no-one is disadvantaged. Phew the hassles in arranging a world championship eh?

So who went out today ? ** WARNING SPOILER ALERT **

Dan Harrington busted out when his AQ came up against AK - while last years runner-up Paul Wasicka departed after his pocket 8’s could not match AJh wehn a flop of AAQ arrived.

2005 World Champion Joe Hachem is no more, neither is Aussie Tony G after running into pocket Aces, while 2007 player of the year Tom Schneider is also on the rails when his pocket 9’s couldn’t match pocket Kings.

The Day 2A field was ended with Jeff ‘Mr. Rain’ Banghart on top, with Kenny Tran, Alex Melnikow, Conor Tate and Cory Carroll all in the top ten, which is as follows:

Jeff Banghart — 570,100
Jeff Weiss — 550,000
Jon Monves — 549,800
Bradley Ellis — 509,400
Yuan-I Hsieh — 489,900
Kenny Tran — 484,900
Alex Melnikow — 480,100
Conor Tate — 440,000
Cory Carroll — 419,900
Jerry Yang — 415,500

Onto day 2b …