The 2023 World Poker Tour(WPT) World Championship’s Day 2 played on Saturday. Players battled it out till night before bursting the money bubble assuring more than 450 participants at a prize of at least $18,700. Alessandro Siena led the field late in Day 2 and advanced to Day 3 with an over 3 million stack.
How Did the Day Start?
The WPT World Championship had four flights on Day 1. Yet,1,375 players proceeded to Day 2, each hoping to reach the final table.
Unfortunately, most of them went home empty-handed as only 480 entrants reached the money bracket and would get a share of the $40 million prize pool. Kyle Ho was the stack leader early in the day with 1,211,000 chips and Chance Kornuth followed closely with 1,130,000 chips.
Reports indicate that 300 entrants were busted before the day’s first break most of whom were Day 1’s short stacks. The chip standings changed shortly before the second break. Chris Moorman collected Vlad Darie’s chips after he tried to bluff him on the A-3-2-8-2 board.
Darie fired almost 600,000 chips and remained with 25,000 chips. He had to use 10-9 to bluff Moorman’s A-J. The player’s move increased Moorman stack to more than 1,300,000.
Kiat Lee, Alex Papazian and Artur Martiroysan led the field with 1,969,000 chips, 1,740,000 chips and 1,545,000 chips respectively. Kyna England, Mike Matusow and Alex Livingston got busted before the day’s second break.
The Day’s Late Stages
Players resumed playing after the break and competed on five levels without taking a dinner break.the field drastically reduced from 900 to 528 entrants when the third level ended. Nevertheless, no one knew how the tournament would unfold once players burst the money bubble.
Generally, WPT turns on its Action Clock once an event's last three tables are set after the finalists bust the bubble.it prompts them to use “Time Bank” chips to get an extra thirty seconds or to decide within thirty seconds.
David Kitai spent some Time Bank chips as he wasn't familiar with the clock. He expected the dealer to announce when the clock would start running.
Even so, Kitai reached the money bracket despite the confusion. The felt had four all-ins when four hands remained. Three of them eventually became double-ups and the fourth one busted the bubble.
Tyler Hirschfield’s stack faced Maryline Valente on a J-4-4 flop. The latter’s pocket jacks beat the former’s pocket aces hence making him to urgently require an ace in the deck or to dominate Valente’s full house after running fours.
Runner-runner quads had slim chances due to a seven on the turn. Valente knocked out Hirschfeld in the 481st position.
The remaining players were scheduled to resume playing on Sunday. The day would have six, one-hour levels and its survivors would compete on Monday to form the final table.
