Playing down from 143 to the final 36 players seemed like a tall order at the start of Day 2 at the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, but the speed of play was brisk and the field played down to hand-for-hand play on the money bubble before midnight. The toughest elimination proved to be the bubble once again though, and after nearly two hours of play the bubble finally burst when John DiBella left the field in 37th place around 2 a.m. Every player remaining will now take home at least $7,795 in prize money tomorrow when play begins at 1 p.m. ET.
The chip leader when cards get back into the air will be Hayden Fortini with 946,000. Other huge stacks are Tony Ruberto (835,000), and Evan Teitelbaum (814,500). Notables still in the hunt include Matt Giannetti, Joe Serock, Danny Shiff, Vinny Spadavecchia, Lily Kiletto, Marsha Wolak, Mike Beasley, Larry Sharp, Darryll Fish, Matt Salsberg, and Justin Zaki. One of the chip leaders, Ben Tarzia, was named ClubWPT Player of the Day, check out his video interview with WPT Live Updates below.
Notables that missed the money today include WPT Champions Club members Noah Schwartz, Matt Waxman, Tommy Vedes, Victor Ramdin, Steve Brecher, Ravi Raghavan, Jonathan Roy, Jonathan Little, and Dwyte Pilgrim. Other big names that made an exit on Day 2 were Kathy Liebert, Amanda Musumeci, Dan O’Brien, Allen Kessler, Adam Levy, Leo Margets, Tony Cousineau, and Matt Stout.
Tune back in tomorrow to follow the poker action as the field plays from the final 36 all the way down to the WPT final table of six here at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in South Florida.