Jonathan Jaffe Leads a Wide-Open Field at Foxwoods

Level 11: 1,200-2,400, 300 ante

WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Day 2 Recap By BJ Nemeth As the WPT World Poker Finals finished its second day at Foxwoods, Jonathan Jaffe distanced himself from the field by building his stack up to 522,000 -- 41% more than the second-place player. While that's a solid lead, history tells us that the chipleader with 91 players left rarely wins the tournament. A glance at the leaderboard reveals another potential advantage for Jaffe, as there are no major players among the top ten in chip counts. However, looking a little deeper, there are some heavy hitters who might still be considered favorites in this tournament with above-average stacks: Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Freddy Deeb, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Gavin Smith, and Kevin "BelowAbove" Saul. Here's a look at the top five, along with the notables who are above the average of 131,000: 1. Jonathan Jaffe - 522,000 2. Larry Greenberg - 370,200 3. Arthur Azen - 350,000 4. Adam Lippert - 338,200 5. Charles Marchese - 322,700 12. Freddy Deeb - 258,400 13. Chris Ferguson - 239,800 19. Kevin "BelowAbove" Saul - 199,700 24. Phil Ivey - 187,900 25. Gavin Smith - 187,800 32. Daniel Negreanu - 148,900 Day 3 action begins tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:00 noon ET. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for complete live coverage, including chip counts, photos, and video interviews with Amanda Leatherman.

Official Seating & Chip Counts For Day 3

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

The official seating assignments and chip counts for Day 3 have been released by the casino. Action resumes tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:00 noon ET. With 91 players remaining, the average chip count is about 135,000. Day 3 begins with blinds at 1,200-2,400 and a 300 ante. Here are the top 10 players: 1. Jonathan Jaffe - 522,000 2. Larry Greenberg - 370,200 3. Arther Azen - 350,000 4. Adam Lippert - 338,200 5. Charlie Marchese - 322,700 6. Tom Nguyen - 315,000 7. Jack Schanbacher - 310,000 8. Richard Dabal - 299,000 9. Jing Tian - 290,300 10. Dimitri Haskaris - 290,000 Day 3 Seating Assignments: TABLE 1 1. Jing Tian - 290,300 2. Herb Montalbano - 40,400 3. Raj Patel - 119,300 4. 5. Richard Wallace - 121,400 6. Daniel Shiff - 196,800 7. Vadim Trincher - 260,800 8. Jeff King - 165,300 9. Joe Ebanks - 78,200 TABLE 2 1. Dominic Staniscia - 110,300 2. Ying Pan - 168,700 3. Phil Ivey - 187,900 4. Shawn Cunix - 164,400 5. Doug Mandeville - 67,000 6. Tom Nguyen - 315,000 7. Bill Parker - 191,900 8. Natale Kuey - 54,200 9. Greg Breiner - 59,800 TABLE 3 1. Andrew Sackett - 43,000 2. Ronnie "Ron Nasty" Bardah - 52,700 3. Svetlana Gromenkova - 120,700 4. Gavin Smith - 187,800 5. Jon Friedberg - 103,400 6. Michael Carroll - 111,600 7. Bill Rothstein - 12,600 8. Bob Lauria - 89,300 9. TABLE 4 1. Freddy Deeb - 258,400 2. Ray Lynn - 224,100 3. David Weisberger - 64,900 4. Michael Binger 84,500 5. Alex Bolotin - 105,200 6. Anna Wroblewski - 54,500 7. Dan Heimiller - 34,500 8. Thomas Renault - 235,800 9. Victor Ramdin - 81,500 TABLE 5 1. Dieu Ly - 71,400 2. 3. Larry Greenberg - 370,200 4. Jonathan Jaffe - 522,000 5. Jared Rubin - 75,700 6. Paul Snead - 87,800 7. Haroon Sakhizadah - 68,400 8. Charlie Marchese - 322,700 9. Joshua Flamm - 175,100 TABLE 6 1. Arthur Azen - 350,000 2. Jonathan Little - 85,900 3. Chris O'Rourke - 84,400 4. Alfonso "Aliwak" Cammarota - 51,500 5. 6. Joe Cappello - 140,900 7. Curt Kohlberg - 51,100 8. Daniel Negreanu - 148,900 9. Randy Haddox - 43,500 TABLE 7 1. Bill Gazes - 101,400 2. Richard Dabal - 299,000 3. Rafael Camejo - 109,000 4. 5. Luke Vrabel - 70,000 6. Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler - 43,600 7. Akash Seth - 45,400 8. Will "The Thrill" Failla - 169,000 9. Ron Kirsh - 227,600 TABLE 8 1. Patrick Kelly - 37,000 2. Duane Hunton - 85,300 3. Eric Buchamn - 37,000 4. Christian "Charder" Harder - 188,900 5. Steven Levy - 65,900 6. Adam Lippert - 338,200 7. Matt Lefkowitz - 33,300 8. Rodney Legendre - 101,200 9. Ryan Young - 203,800 TABLE 9 1. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - 239,800 2. Kevin "BelowAbove" Saul - 199,700 3. Anthony Newman - 81,800 4. Chris MacNeil - 154,300 5. Fred Machholz - 58,800 6. 7. Blake Purvis - 141,600 8. David "The Dragon" Pham - 123,200 9. Lou Giampa - 58,900 TABLE 10 1. Alexander Wilson - 57,600 2. Jack Schanbacher - 310,000 3. Michael Omelchuk - 62,900 4. 5. Daniel Grubbs - 199,100 6. Carl Restifo - 121,800 7. Michael Judge - 100,500 8. Erik Seidel - 114,000 9. Heney Doiban - 143,700 TABLE 11 1. Toto Leonidas - 214,200 2. 3. Jeffrey Hakim - 57,900 4. Dimitri "Jim Dawgs" Haskaris - 290,000 5. Sam Bernstein - 63,900 6. Poorya Nazari - 131,600 7. Noel Shankey - 38,900 8. Mike Matusow - 77,200 9. Ryan Hughes - 10,100

Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Dude of the Day - Ali Nejad

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

Top of the Leaderboard - Unofficial

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

We scanned the field for everyone at the end of the day with more than 200,000, and we only found nine: 1. Jonathan Jaffe - 522,000 2. Larry Greenberg - 370,200 3. Arthur Azen - 350,000 4. Charles Marchese - 322,700 5. Freddy Deeb - 258,400 6. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - 239,800 7. Ron Kirsch - 227,600 8. Ray Lynn - 224,100 9. Toto Leonidas - 214,200 Jonathan Jaffe had the lead for the entire last level of the day, and pulled way ahead shortly before play ended. The full list of chip counts will be posted later tonight, once they are released by the casino.

Day 2 Comes to an End

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

Day 2 comes to an end with about 90 players. The players are bagging and tagging their chips, and we will scan the field to find the chipleaders and post them in the next 15 minutes or so. The full list of chip counts will be posted later tonight when they are released by the casino.

It's Official - Carlos Mortensen Is Eliminated

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

|:img:6389,R:|A player opens the pot for 6,500 and Carlos Mortensen reraises to 25,000. A player in the big blind moves all in. The original player folds and Carlos makes the call for his tournament life with AK. His opponent shows 1010. The board comes A95710 giving Mortensen's opponent a set of tens on the river. Mortensen makes his exit from today's action.

Carlos Mortensen Eliminated

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

Carlos Mortensen has just been eliminated from the tournament. Honest. We received confirmation from no less than five people. Details of the hand will be posted soon.

Matusow Bluffs Three Players

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

Mike Matusow opens the pot for a 5,700 chip raise and gets three callers. The flop comes J98 and all four players check. The turn brings a 10 and the blinds check it over to Matusow who bets 8,800. Everyone folds and he flips over A3 saying "That's how you bluff three players!"

Chip Confusion

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

At Freddy Deeb's table, there was some confusion over the chip colors, and it almost affected the action. The purple (500) chips are very difficult to distinguish from the grey (5,000) chips. Apparently, a player put out four grey chips and a purple chip, and the dealer mis-announced the amount as lower than the 20,500 it actually was. There was some debate over what would have happened if Deeb had called the incorrect amount announced by the dealer, and a floorperson was called over to answer a bunch of hypothetical situations. It was never satisfactorily resolved, especially since there was no actual situation to discuss. But the moral of the story? The 5,000 chips are easily mistaken for the 500 chips, and it makes chip counts (by the media and the players) difficult.

Jonathan Jaffe, Chipleader

Level 10: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

|:img:6387,R:|Jonathan Jaffe has picked up another pot, increasing his chip-leading stack to 421,000.