Paul Snead Swaps the Top Spot with Defending Champion Raj Patel

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, Day 2 Recap By BJ Nemeth When Day 1 of the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic ended, defending champion Raj Patel held the top spot on the leaderboard, followed by Paul Snead. Twenty-four hours later, Day 2 ended with the same names in reverse -- Snead now leads the field with 472,700, followed by Patel's 393,700. Joining them near the top of the leaderboard is Ted Forrest, in fourth place with 339,100, and Season V WPT titleholder Joe Tehan in eighth place with 287,300. The event began on Friday with 346 players, and while Day 1 only shrank the field to 218, Day 2 took it all the way down to 75. The prizepool is worth $3,230,014, and the top 40 players will finish in the money, presumably on Day 3 (Sunday). First prize is a few thousand dollars short of $1 million, and the top six who reach Wednesday's televised WPT final table are all guaranteed more than $100,000. Patel's path through Day 2 was accompanied by a bit of luck. Early in the day, he outflopped pocket aces with J-10 suited to take him up to the 400,000 mark. A short while after that, a player with pocket aces was eager to make a big dent in Patel's stack -- until Patel showed the other two aces, and the pot was chopped. Several players commented on Patel's fortunate cards, and when a floorperson arrived with chip racks, Hoyt Corkins (seated to Patel's right) seemed happy to get away from the table. Hoyt thanked her for breaking the table and said, "If you knew how this table was going ..." (Unfortunately, Corkins would be eliminated later in the day.) Ted Forrest's key hand was a big one that also attracted a lot of attention. Shane Schleger was all in with 88 and Mike Martin was all in with JJ. Ted Forrest had them both covered, and his AA were in the lead. A crowd gathered, and gasped when they saw a jack in the window. But when the flop was rolled out, an ace appeared to give the lead back to Forrest. Schleger picked up a gutshot straight draw on the turn with the board showing AQJ10, and a king would chop the pot three ways. But the 3 on the river clinched the pot for Forrest. Schleger and Martin were both eliminated, and that pot pushed Forrest over the 300,000 mark. With 75 players remaining at the end of the day, the average stack is 138,400. Here are the top five, plus some of the notables still in action: 1. Paul Snead - 472,700 2. Raj Patel - 393,700 3. Eddie Ting - 388,200 4. Ted Forrest - 339,100 5. David Stefanski - 337,000 8. Joe Tehan - 287,300 21. Paul Darden - 175,200 30. Kathy Liebert - 138,300 31. Barry Greenstein - 135,600 33. Alan Goehring - 130,800 41. Erik Seidel - 104,100 47. Erick Lindgren - 93,500 58. Nam Le - 56,200 66. John Juanda - 48,400 Day 3 begins at 12:00 noon ET tomorrow (Sunday), and the field is expected to burst the money bubble. We'll continue to provide complete live coverage, with updates, chip counts, photos, and video interviews with Kimberly Lansing.

Early Look at the Official Chip Counts

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

The tournament staff is compiling the list of official chip counts, and they show 75 players left in the tournament. In our sweep of the room at the end of the day, we were able to get 74 -- so we missed someone. As soon as the official numbers are released, we'll update this list. Here are the official end of Day 2 chip counts: 1. Paul Snead - 472,700 2. Raj Patel - 393,700 3. Eddie Ting - 388,200 4. Ted Forrest - 339,100 5. David Stefanski - 337,000 6. Michael Farris - 317,300 7. Daniel Woolson - 293,900 8. Joe Tehan - 287,300 9. Mike Santoro - 273,300 10. Jim Silva - 259,500 11. Randy Spain - 250,600 12. Svetlana Gromenkova - 243,200 13. Brock Parker - 231,800 14. John Gordon - 222,000 15. Rich Meli - 216,300 16. Joe Simmons - 213,500 17. Chris Dombrowski - 212,700 18. Adam Katz - 190,900 19. Daniel Pelletier - 185,000 20. Alan Bari - 177,700 21. Paul Darden - 175,200 22. Matt Wolf - 172,800 23. Chris McCormack - 170,000 24. Ken Adams - 169,900 25. Vinny Napolitano - 167,000 26. Alex Kamberis - 160,400 27. Eddie Gravalese - 149,500 28. Ben Zamani - 145,700 29. Kathy Liebert - 138,300 30. Barry Greenstein - 135,600 31. Robert Richardson - 132,700 32. Alan Goehring - 130,800 33. Kenny Chanthamala - 127,700 34. James Petrillo - 120,600 35. Joanne Monteavaro - 120,500 36. David Dicken - 110,700 37. Itai Benosh - 109,800 38. Jeff Lavender - 104,700 39. Paul Spitzberg - 104,500 40. Erik Seidel - 104,100 41. Natale Kvey - 101,000 42. Frank Cieri - 99,300 43. Matt Woodards - 97,800 44. Stephen Ladowsky - 97,700 45. Phil Bodey - 96,000 46. Erick Lindgren - 93,500 47. Steve Weinstein - 86,700 48. Andrew Banta - 75,800 49. Matthew Ehrlich - 75,300 50. Emil Patel - 75,000 51. James Martin - 71,300 52. Jason Suh - 71,100 53. Vincent Procopio - 70,000 54. Frederick Hood - 67,800 55. Matt Brady - 67,600 56. Kevin Mason - 63,800 57. Nam Le - 56,200 58. John Sandberg - 55,800 59. Young Phan - 55,600 60. Laurie Hilton - 55,200 61. Joe Przybycien - 54,300 62. Dick Carson - 53,900 63. Scott Blackman - 52,100 64. Vinny Pahuja - 51,400 65. John Juanda - 48,400 66. Amanda Johnson - 46,000 67. Matthew Crawley - 42,300 68. Paul Matteo - 38,200 69. Joe DiMartino - 36,500 70. John Spadavecchia - 34,300 71. Pey Lee - 33,200 72. Jesse Martin - 29,000 73. "Action" Bob Hwang - 27,100 74. Will "The Thrill" Failla - 14,000 Day 3 begins tomorrow (Sunday) at 12:00 noon ET. Once again, we'll be providing complete live coverage, with hand updates, chip counts, photos, and video interviews with Kimberly Lansing.

Day 2 of the Foxwoods Poker Classic

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

Two days of action have shrank the tournament field close to the money bubble here at the 2008 Foxwoods Poker Classic. This World Poker Tour event was scheduled for six days, but the small number of entrants have made for a much shorter affair. Only 75 players remain, leaving us just a few levels away from payday for the top 40 players. The day started out the way day 1 ended, with a flurry of bustouts as the 218 remaining players quickly whittled themselves down to 170 players by the end of the first level. Among the notables to hit the rail were Phil Ivey, Joe Brooks, Bill Gazes, Chris Reslock and Beth Shak. The next level was more of the same as the players continued to drop at an alarming rate considering the relatively low blinds and the 30,000 starting stacks. Defending champion Raj Patel continued were he left off the night before, taking chips off of one of the more stacked tables in the room. Patel raised from late position to 4,000 and Paul Spitzberg called on the button. Elmer Lynn reraised to 15,500 from the small blind and only Patel made the call. The flop came J103 and Lynn bet 30,000. Patel announced all in having Lynn remaining 100,000 easily covered and Lynn called almost immediately with pocket aces. Patel turned over J10 for two pair and the boards bricked out for Lynn giving Patel nearly 400,000 after the massive pot was counted down. Patel ended the day with 393,700, enough for second place in the chip counts. The top players continued to bust as Men Nguyen, Joe Sebok, Bill Edler, JC Tran, Hevad Khan and Victor Ramdin were all sent home prematurely in the chaos that surrounded the second and third levels of the day. While Patel was busy adding to his stack, another familiar face from last year's final table took quick strides to catch up. Tony “bagels” Cavezza, who finished third in last year's contest, spent the early part of the day chipping up and terrorizing his table to amass a stack of over 250,000. Unfortunately, Cavezza faltered down the stretch and was eliminated when his opponent rivered jacks full against his unseen hand. Ted Forrest was much more fortunate when he got his stack all in against Shane Schleger and another unknown at the table. Schleger showed pocket eights, the unknown showed pocket jacks and Forrest turned over pocket aces. The flop gave Forrest a set of aces and the massive pot was shipped his way, having both players covered. Forrest ended the day with 339,100, good for fourth place. Other notables to survive the day included Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, Hoyt Corkins, John Juanda, Nam Le, Erik Seidel and Paul Darden. The top 10 chip counts are listed below: 1. Paul Snead – 472,700 2. Raj Patel – 393,700 3. Eddie Ting – 388,200 4. Ted Forrest – 339,100 5. Dave Stefanski – 337,000 6. Michael Ferris – 317,300 7. Daniel Woolsen – 293,900 8. Joe Tehan – 287,300 9. Mike Santoro – 273,300 10. Jim Silva – 259,500

Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day - Paul Snead

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

Day 2 Ends

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

The second day of play has come to a close and the players are bagging up their chips. Play will resume tomorrow at noon EDT. The tournament board read that 75 players remained as time expired. Stay tuned for official chip counts and the daily recap, which are coming soon.

Raj Patel Luckily Misses His Flush Against Matt Brady

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

With the final board showing 107388, Raj Patel checks from the big blind, and Matt Brady bets 27,000 from late position. Patel thinks for a while before he finally calls, showing 74 for a pair of sevens and a missed club flush draw. Brady mucks his hand, and jokingly says, "A nine or a club and I win this tournament," implying that he had a higher flush draw that included the jack of clubs or the six of clubs. Either way, Raj Patel wins the pot, increasing his stack to about 365,000, while Matt Brady drops down to 85,000.

Table 3: Erik Seidel vs. Chris Dombrowski

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

Erik Seidel raises from the button preflop, and Chris Dombrowski calls from the big blind. The flop comes A92, Dombrowski bets 12,000, Seidel raises to about 27,500, and Dombrowski reraises to about 85,000. Seidel goes into the tank for several minutes. He finally removes the chip from the top of the cards, and acts like he's going to flick his cards into the muck. But he pauses. Is he waiting for a reaction from Dombrowski? Dombrowski remains stoic, and after another 15 seconds or so, Seidel folds, leaving himself 98,000 in chips. Dombrowski takes the pot, increasing his stack to about 218,000.

Field Update

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

There are currently 82 players remaining at nine, nine-handed tables in the waning moments of day 2.

Hoyt Corkins Eliminated by Rich Meli

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

After a flop of KQ8, Hoyt Corkins checks from the small blind, Rich Meli bets 12,000, Corkins moves all in for about 78,000, and Meli calls with AA. Corkins shows J10 for an open-ended straight draw, and he'll need to improve to stay alive. The turn is the 5, the river is the J, and Rich Meli wins the pot, increasing his stack to about 211,000. Hoyt Corkins is eliminated from the tournament.

Joe Tehan Makes The Call

Level 27: 60,000-120,000, 15,000 ante

On a flop of 822, Joe Tehan bets 20,000, and his opponent in seat 7 moves all in for 57,900 more. Tehan thinks for a moment and decides to make the call. They then turn up their hands: Tehan: A8 Seat 7: AQ Turn and River: 95 Tehan wins the hand with a pair of eights and also nearly doubles up after eliminating his opponent.