A fast Day 2 has sliced the returning field of 119 all the way down to 20 players at the World Poker Tour Fallsview Poker Classic in Niagara Falls. The pace started fast thanks to one-hour levels, and once the money bubble burst when 54 players remained it ensured a consistent rate of eliminations for the late stages of the day.
The chip leader at the end of play tonight is Corey Hochman (pictured) with 1,766,000. He is joined at the top of the chip counts in the millionaire’s club by Henry Tran (1,450,000), Matthew Parry (1,184,000), Mark Bailey (1,182,000), Erik Cajelais (1,136,000), and Darren Elias (1,023,000).
Here is a look at the full chip counts for the start of play on Day 3.
Corey Hochman – 1,766,000
Henry Tran – 1,450,000
Matthew Parry – 1,184,000
Mark Bailey – 1,182,000
Erik Cajelais – 1,136,000
Darren Elias – 1,023,000
Anthony Zinno – 790,000
Ivan Mamuzic – 478,000
Jimmy Arora – 434,000
Jeremy Halaska – 434,000
David Cloutier – 420,000
Emanuele Carpignano – 390,000
Lu Zhang – 383,000
John Boulougouris – 349,000
George Caragiorgas – 293,000
Jack Duong – 248,000
Mike Watson – 241,000
Scott Davies – 235,000
Jiachen Gong – 185,000
During the flurry of eliminations today we lost a lot of notables before the money bubble burst. WPT Champions Club members Marvin Rettenmaier, Dylan Wilkerson, Ben Hamnett, Victor Ramdin, Jared Jaffee, and Andy Frankenberger, along with partypoker Qualifiers Kenneth Kull and Wesley Wyvill, all busted before the prize money.
Taj Alakoozi took a bad beat to bust on the money bubble when his pocket kings fell against the pocket queens of Matthew Parry after a queen spiked on the flop. Alakoozi took his leave and then there were a number of big names that scored a cash tonight. That list included Garrett Greer (48th), Jason Duval (44th), Jonathan Duhamel (43rd), WPT Alpha8 Commentator Olivier Busquet (32nd), Shannon Shorr (30th), and Christian Harder (25th). The big prize money awaits tomorrow, and every player reamining is guaranteed to make at least CAD $17,016.
Tune back in at noon ET on Sunday to follow the live coverage as the field plays down to the WPT televised final table of six in Canada.