Joseph Couden Leads WSOP Event #37 After Day 2

Ohio’s Joseph Couden leads the final 27 players in the $2,500 buy-in Eight-Game Mix event #37 of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

Couden tops the chips leaderboard on 303,300 to hold a healthy advantage of 66,100 over second placed Rep Porter (237,200), of Washington State, after 10 levels of play on Day 2 saw the 209 survivors cut back once again from the original 477-player field at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Day 2 started out slowly, although defending champ John Monnette did hit the rail early and also failed to cash. There were other big-name pros who missed out on the money, too, including Cyndy Violette, Brett Richey, Stephen Chidwick, Andy Bloch, Dan Kelly, Eugene Katchalov, Tommy Vedes, Marco Traniello, Greg Raymer, Allen Bari, Chris Moorman, Bryn Kenney, Victor Ramdin, Stuart Rutter, John Hennigan, Kevin Nettles, Tony Ma, Chris Klodnicki, Sorel Mizzi, Dario Alioto, Ryan Tepen, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Vitaly Lunkin, Ian Johns, John Kim, Jesse Martin, Charles Young, Jason Schwartz, Bryce Yockey, Scotty Nguyen, Scott Fischman, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, David Chiu, Tommy Chen, Felipe Ramos, Anton Makiievskyi and Jon Turner. Phew!

Matt Glantz is the Bubble Boy

The money bubble came and went very quickly, with Philadelphia’s Matt Glantz the unfortunate bubble boy in 49th place. Glantz, who had been left crippled with only 500 chips from minutes before, was all-in on his big blind, but his K♥-J♦-6♠-3♣ failed to overcome the Q♥-Q♠-6♥-4♣ of one-time bracelet winner Francesco Barbaro, of Chicago, on a board of 7♥-2♥-2♠-5♦-9♥ during a round of Pot-Limit Omaha.

The deflated Glantz mumbled: Just bad luck as he left the event without collecting a payout slip. Italy’s Jeff Lisandro benefited from Glantz’s exit as he pocketed $4,763 as the first player to cash in 48th place.

Connecticut’s Jerrod Ankenman also came very close to exiting without cashing, but stayed tough during a difficult spell to then enjoy an extreme heater. Ankenman – who took down this event back in 2009 for $241,654 – will be thrilled to have a shot at glory by starting today in third place on 215,900.

Ylon Schwartz Busts Out in 40th

New Yorker Ylon Schwartz – who won the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event #27 this year for $267,081 – made the money for a second successive year in this tournament, but couldn’t add a second bracelet when busting out in 40th place for $5,599.

Other well-known pros cashed but didn’t survive Day 2, including Chris Bjorin (42nd for $4,763), Noah Schwartz (39th for $5,599), Bruno Fitoussi (37th for $5,599), John D’Agostino (36th for $5,599), Max Pescatori (33rd for $5,599), Gavin Griffin (29th for $6,587) and Daniel Idema (28th for $6,587).

Barry Greenstein Has Eye on Fourth Bracelet

However, there are 16 bracelet winners still in with a shout of adding to their collections – as well as pocketing a first prize of $271,312 – with Barry Greenstein (18th on 103,600) eyeing up number four, while Jennifer Harman (fourth on 204,300), Greg Mueller (10th on 163,600), Freddy Deeb (11th on 156,900), Jeff Madsen (17th on 106,300), Steve Zolotow (16th on 115,000) and Porter trying to grab their third.

Meanwhile, Ankenman, Chris Viox (12th on 245,000), Steve Sung (21st on 79,300), Michael Chow (26th on 48,000), Konstantin Puchkov (27th on 35,400), Cory Zeidman (23rd on 53,400), Scott Seiver (seventh on 169,000), Donnacha O’Dea (sixth on 170,200) and Matt Hawrilenko (15th on 123,800) all have one title and will be looking to make it two today.

Doyle Brunson Leaves Day 1 With Chest Pains

Day 1 featured an incredible field that was stacked with top-class pros. Unfortunately, we had to lose many of them as the field was reduced to 209 players.

Poker legend Doyle Brunson was unable to make it into Day 2, but only because he chose to leave his table after suffering some chest pains.

‘The Texas Dolly’ signed on to his Twitter account to write:

Felt a little flutter in my chest at the poker tournament so I got up and left. Can’t play cash and tourneys. Too long.

Of course, we hope the 78-year-old 10-time bracelet winner will fully recover and be back at the Rio’s tables very soon.

Andy Frankenberger and Robert Williamson III hit the rail very early on Day 1, but were soon joined on the casualty list by the likes of Isaac Haxton, Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, John Juanda, Phil Hellmuth, Shawn Buchanan, Ben ‘milkybarkid’ Grundy, Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero, Galen Hall, Chad Brown, Justin Young, Jason Mercier, Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen, Kirk Morrison, Erik Seidel, David ‘Doc’ Sands, Jonathan Duhamel and Ali Eslami.

Shaun Deeb fails to Make Day 2

However, many more top-class players also found Day 1 too tough, including Brian Rast, Cary Katz, Eli Elezra, Owais Ahmed, Eric Baldwin, Shaun Deeb, Josh Arieh, Xuan Liu, Erick Lindgren, Martin Staszko, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, George Danzer, Bill Chen, David Bach, Steve Landfish, Dan Shak, Brandon Cantu, Pat Pezzin, Abe Mosseri, Jimmy Fricke, David Williams, Bret Jungblut, David Singer, Jon Aguiar, Vincent van der Fluit, Noah Boeken, Alexander Kravchenko, Marcel Luske, John Racener, Maria Mayrinck, Bryan Devonshire, George Lind III, Scott Clements, Dan O’Brien, Max Martinez, Frank Kassela and Amnon Filippi.

Incidentally, the Eight-Game Mix is made up of Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better, Seven-Card Razz, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball.

WSOP 2012 Event #37 Day 2 Top 10

1. Joseph Couden (USA) – 303,300
2. Rep Porter (USA) – 237,200
3. Jerrod Ankenman (USA) – 215,900
4. Jennifer Harman (USA) – 204,300
5. Calvin Anderson (USA) – 183,500
6. Donnacha O’Dea (Ireland) – 170,200
7. Scott Seiver (USA) – 169,000
8. Mikal Blomlie (Norway) – 167,000
9. Johannes Holstege (Germany) – 166,400
10. Greg Mueller (Canada) – 163,600