Hugh Henderson Tops WSOP Event #53 Day 2

South Carolina’s Hugh Henderson tops the leaderboard after Day 2 of the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event #53 at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Henderson holds 1,168,000 chips to just sit ahead of second placed Randy Ashe, of Canada, on 1,150,000, while New York State’s Bryan Piccioli is the only other player to break through the million-chip barrier on 1,097,000 after 11 levels of play on Day 2.

A total of 348 players made it out of Day 1 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino from an original field of 3,166 – who created a prize pool of $4,274,100 – but only 28 will start today’s Day 3 in contention for the top prize of $737,248.

Vicky Coren Bags Up in Fourth

British player Vicky Coren – who is probably best known for becoming the first woman to take down a European Poker Tour (EPT) event – is also in with a great shout of adding a WSOP bracelet to her resume after bagging up in fourth place on 934,000 chips.

However, even with the attraction of the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop event #55, numerous big-name pros signed up for event #53 in the Amazon Room of the Rio, although the likes of 2011 champ Athanasios Polychronopoulos (88th for $5,856), Brock Parker (85th for $5,856), Rupert Elder (108th for $4,445), Brett Jungblut (288th for $2,864), Martin Staszko (183rd for $3,932), Matt Affleck (146th for $3,932), Steve Dannenmann (89th for $5,856), Cherish Andrews (187th for $3,932) and David ‘Doc’ Sands (237th for $3,163) cashed before exiting.

Lee Childs Ends Day 2 in 12th

Virginia’s Lee Childs – who exploded on to the poker scene in 2007 by finishing seventh in the main event – is one of the better-known pros to survive Day 2 after bagging up in 12th place on 501,000.

Childs picked up much of his chips when moving all-in with Q♦ J♦ against his unnamed opponent’s Q♠ J♥ on a 5♠ K♥ 10♦ A♦ board. It appeared likely that the pot would be chopped, but the 8♦ river gave Childs a diamond flush to see him almost double up and score a knockout.

James Woods Exits on Day 1

Day 1 ended just 24 places short of the money as 348 players survived the opening skirmishes, with the likes of actor James Woods, Lex Veldhuis, Dutch Boyd, Ana Marquez, Jeff Lisandro, David Benyamine, Bill Chen, Lauren Kling, Erik Cajelais, Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen, Allen Kessler, Dwyte Pilgrim, Nam Le, Barry Shulman, Darryll Fish, Huck Seed, Faraz Jaka, Guillaume Darcourt, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, Phil Collins, Ebony Kenney, Angel Guillen, Xuan Liu, David Vamplew, Erika Moutinho, Melanie Weisner, Matt Matros, Dwyte Pilgrim, Scott Fischman, Bryan Devonshire and Allen Kessler all failing to cash.

WSOP 2012 Event #53 Day 2 Top 10

1. Hugh Henderson (USA) – 1,168,000
2. Randy Ashe (Canada) – 1,150,000
3. Bryan Piccioli (USA) – 1,097,000
4. Victoria Coren (UK) – 934,000
5. Ryan Hughes (USA) – 832,000
6. Vladimir Mefodichev (Russia) – 802,000
7. Neil Willerson (USA) – 671,000
8. Frederic Soria (USA) – 653,000
9. Marcio Cid (Brazil) – 572,000
10. Hai Chu (Australia) – 565,000