Charalampos Lappas Leads Final 10 in WSOP Event #47

British-based Greek Charalampos Lappas leads the final 10 for the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better event #47 of the World Series of Poker.

The 30-year-old – who lives in south coast of England city Brighton – timed his run to the top of the leaderboard, on 994,000 chips, perfectly by winning the very last hand of Day 2 as the field was cut down from 149 survivors to just 10 in the Pavilion Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Lappas and Russian Viatcheslav Ortynskiy had all their chips in the middle on a 6♥ Q♦ 10♦ flop, with the former holding A♠ J♦ 3♦ 10♠ and the latter tabling two aces, a king and an eight. The J♠ turn gave Ortynskiy a Broadway straight, only for the J♣ to arrive on the river to hand Lappas a full house.

Viatcheslav Ortynskiy in Trouble

That hand saw Ortynskiy chopped down to only 27,000 chips, while Lappas took over at the top in Las Vegas – just 47,000 ahead of second placed Steven Loube (947,000), of Georgia.

Day 2 saw another 10 levels played out, with Loube also zooming up the charts late in the day. One hand saw Denver’s Noomis Jones all-in on a flop of Q♦ A♥ K♦ while holding Q♠ Q♣ 9♠ 8♣ for trip queens. However, Jones was in deep trouble as Loube showed A♠ A♦ 7♠ 5♠ for a set of aces. The 3♥ turn and 4♠ river were no good to Jones, who exited in 14th for $12,094, while Loube became the first player to break the one million-chip barrier.

Brit Neil McFayden is Bubble Boy

However, well before the final 10 players were known, Day 2 started with every competitor aiming to make the money and share in the $1,320,300 prize pool, before considering the winner’s cheque of $267,345.

Of course, that meant losing 24 more players as only 117 would be paid – and that was particularly bad news for the extremely unfortunate money bubble boy Neil McFayden.

The London player re-raised all-in for about 16,000 after fellow Brit Steve Jelinek had initially raised. Birmingham’s Jelinek called to show 8♦ 7♣ 5♣ 2♣ while McFayden revealed A♠ A♦ 9♦ 6♥. The board came down 8♠ A♣ 4♦ 6♠, catching McFayden slightly by surprised as the realisation quickly hit home that he was out as his trip aces had lost to Jelinek’s straight.

Terrence Chan Notches Ninth Cash

But this was great news for Vancouver’s Terrence Chan, who managed to hold on long enough with just 800 chips to hit the rail in 117th place for $2,509 – which ties him on nine cashes this series with Russian Konstantin Puchkov and American Joe Tehan as the trio chase the late Nikolay Evdakov’s record of 10 cashes at the 2008 WSOP.

Other well-known players to cash fairly early in the day included James ‘Flushy’ Dempsey (50th for $4,872), Sean Getzwiller (55th for $4,212), Kevin Iacofano (58th for $4,212), Warren Oberman (67th for $3,697), Tony Cousineau (70th for $3,697), Allen Kessler (71st for $3,697), Tehan (79th for $3,288), Jelinek (80th for $3,288), David Bach (92nd for $2,720), Andy Frankenberger (97th for $2,720), Matt Vengrin (104th for $2,509), Doug ‘Rico’ Carli (108th for $2,509) and Alexander Kuzmin (111th for $2,509).

Alex Gomes Falls From High to Low

However, start-of-day chip leader Alex Gomes became a surprise casualty just ahead of the dinner break as Lappas made his move towards topping the Day 2 leaderboard.

With Gomes all-in, he held top two pair, tens and sevens, on the flop while Lappas had a pair of aces and the nut low draw. A three arrived on the turn to keep Gomes ahead on the high hand while Lappas still hadn’t made a low. However, a deuce on the river paired the board to hand Lappas the top high hand and send the disappointed Brazilian to the rail in 46th place for $4,872.

Barry Greenstein Cashes in 32nd

Over 30 more players hit the rail after returning from dinner, with the likes of Dario Alioto (17th for $9,823), Lee Watkinson (25th for $8,080), Dan Heimiller (26th for $8,080), Adam Kornuth (30th for $6,747), Barry Greenstein (32nd for $6,747), Chip Jett (35th for $6,747) and Justin Young (44th for $5,704) cashing but unable to make Day 3.

Loube, Roche Cousineau (third), Cameron Mckinley (fourth), Tim Finne (fifth), Sonu Sharma (sixth), Kyle Carlston (seventh), Paul Ewen (eighth), Paul Taylor (ninth) and Ortynskiy (10th) will join Lappas at the final table.

But spare a thought for the Russian as, with just 27,000 chips, he is in danger of hitting the rail within the first few hands as the blinds will kick off at 8,000/16,000 in level 21.

WSOP 2012 Event #47 Final 10

1. Charalampos Lappas (Greece) – 994,000 (seat eight)

2. Steven Loube (USA) – 947,000 (seat four)

3. Roch Cousineau (Canada) – 505,000 (seat one)

4. Cameron Mckinley (Canada) – 477,000 (seat nine)

5. Tim Finne (USA) – 455,000 (seat five)

6. Sonu Sharma (Canada) – 300,000 (seat 10)

7. Kyle Carlston (USA) – 277,000 (seat two)

8. Paul Ewen (USA) – 234,000 (seat six)

9. Paul Taylor (USA) – 180,000 (seat three)

10. Viatcheslav Ortynskiy (Russia) – 27,000 (seat seven)