In what was a day that saw notable faces emerge, the tournament bubble burst, and the field size well, Jake Schwartz finished atop the remaining 40 players with 875,000 in chips in the World Poker Tour® Maryland Live! Casino Main Event.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
1. Jake Schwartz – 875,000
2. Phong Vip Nguyen – 831,000
3. Mike Liang – 785,000
4. Brian Altman – 769,000
5. Zachary Smiley – 692,000
6. Ryan Belz – 666,000
7. Andjelko Andrejevic – 660,000
8. John McCoy – 649,000
9. Samuel Ganzfried – 622,000
10. Mike O’Brien – 595,000
Registration for the event remained open until the start of Day 2, and that allowed the field size to grow to 554 entries. Not only did that number blow by the 337 entries generated in last year’s inaugural WPT Maryland Live! event, but it also eclipsed the $1.5 million guarantee with a prize pool of $1.773 million. The top 63 spots were set to reach the money, with a min-cash earning a player $6,504 and the winner walking away with a hefty chunk of cash at $356,536.
As the day wore on, plenty of players fell by the wayside before the money, including Anthony Zinno, Darvin Moon, and Mike Del Vecchio. As the field approached the money bubble, Andy Spears, who finished atop the opening starting flight with the chip lead, fell in 65th place.
Then, Donald Bonn hit the rail in 64th as the last player to go home empty handed. He was eliminated by Cate Hall, who went on to finish the day with 137,000 in chips and continue her quest to reach back-to-back WPT Maryland Live! final tables after her fifth-place result last year.
After the bubble burst, players began to hit the rail and the line at the payout desk. Included in those to fall was last year’s champion, Aaron Mermelstein. He went out in 46th place for $7,734, paving the way for a new champion of the event. Mermelstein was eliminated by Rich Herbet when his pocket fours couldn’t hold up against the 
for Herbet.
Towards the end of play on Day 2, Ben Zamani, who is the current Hublot WPT Player of the Year leader, doubled up through Brian Green. Zamani had two aces against the pocket tens of Green and they held to help him finish on 511,000 in chips. Zamani currently holds a comfortable lead in the race thanks to three cashes and two runner-up finishes. Now that he’s made it into the money in the WPT Maryland Live! Main Event, Zamani has secured at least another 50 points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.
Click here for more information on the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.
Other notables to keep an eye on for Tuesday’s Day 3 are WPT Champions Club members Brian Altman (769,000), Andjelko Andrejevic (660,000), Darren Elias (585,000), and Taylor von Kriegenbergh (540,000).
Day 3 will take place starting at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 4, and you can follow along with the coverage of the event right here on WPT.com.