For the second day in a row, Joe Ferrier (pictured) leads the Season XVI WPT Fallsview Poker Classic C$5,000 Main Event at the completion of play. This time it’s for Day 2 of the record-breaking tournament, and Ferrier topped the final 20 competitors with a stack of 1.975 million.
Ferrier narrowly edged out David Eldridge’s 1.85 million. Helping to secure him with the overnight chip lead was a hand late on Day 2 that saw Ferrier bust Josh Platz in 23rd place. On the 
flop, Platz was all in for about 340,000 with the 
. His flush draw was against the 
for Ferrier, who also had a heart flush draw was was in the lead with top pair. The turn and river were blanks for Platz and he was eliminated.
Sitting in third behind Ferrier and Eldridge was Mike Leah with 1.235 million. A player with more than $6.6 million in live tournament earnings, according to HendonMob.com, Leah needs little introduction. The one thing his résumé is missing though is a World Poker Tour title. Leah placed second in the Season XIII WPT L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Championship for $701,350 in his only official World Poker Tour final table. He’ll have a chance to make it final table number two on Monday, plus go for his first WPT title.
Day 2 had 174 players return to action in the Season XVI WPT Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event that drew a record-breaking field of 517 entries. Only 65 of them would make the money, though. On the chaotic money bubble that had chips flying left and right, Alex MacNab, Nail Odisho, and Blair Hinkle were all eliminated to send the field into the money. The went out on three separate tables and wound up splitting 65th-place prize money of C$8,054 to take home C$2,684 each.
Into the money the field went and with it came a flurry of bustouts as players headed to the payout desk. WPT Champions Club member Victor Ramdin fell in 26th place, and before him we saw Chris Bell hit the rail in 32nd. The elimination of Ramdin was of particular importance because it left Maxime Heroux as the only WPT Champions Club member left in the field.
Heroux won the Season XVI WPT Montreal C$3,850 Main Event back in November and bagged 388,000 heading into Day 3 here at Fallsview Casino Resort. Should Heroux find himself in the winner’s circle of this event, he would join Art Papazyan as a two-time WPT champion from Season XVI.
Also advancing to Day 3 was Griffin Benger. Benger’s stack of 229,000 in chips put him second to last heading into Day 3, but the Canadian player has plenty of experience to fight off the short stack and make a run at the title.
The final 20 players will return to action at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, February 12, to battle for the C$451,821 top prize and $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions. The final 20 players are guaranteed C$19,604 in prize money.
Be sure to stay tuned right here to WPT.com for continued coverage of the Season XVI WPT Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event.
Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com
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