Perry Lin Leads Day 2 of the WSOP 2011 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

New Jersey’s Perry Lin is the only player to hit seven figures at the end of day two in event #38, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, in the Amazon Room of the Rio.

The Hoboken native moved to 1,054,000 in chips to open up a healthy lead over Staten Island’s Michael Blanovsky (757,000) and Britain’s Paul Nash (736,000), who –like Thomas Middleton in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event – received incredible backing from a sometimes too noisy rail.

With Middleton already finished, the Brits’ Barmy Army moved across to give Nash their support, although not everyone was pleased with this mass arrival as play was almost brought to an early conclusion with last three hands still remaining as the 23 survivors from an original field of 2,192 chase the $540,136 winner’s cheque.

Day two began with 298 players, but it was Lin who emerged as the front-runner for the gold bracelet among all the chaos, although he’ll have to be wary of other big chip stacks such as Blanovsky, Minnesota’s Ryan Laplante (701,000), Jonathan Spinks (688,000), of Exeter in England, and Arizona’s Matthew Lupton (555,000).

Houston’s Melanie Weisner bagged up on 549,000 chips in seventh place to be the final woman in the event after playing some powerful poker during the day – and could well be a player to keep a close eye on this evening as she strives to become not just the first female to secure a bracelet at this year’s WSOP, but the first since 2008 when Vanessa Selbst took the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event.

With a prize pool of $2,959,200, the money was reached when the 216th spot was reached for $3,018, although the 23 survivors are guaranteed at least $15,950.

Top 10 chip stacks after day two of the WSOP 2011 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event:

1. Perry Lin (USA) – 1,054,000

2. Michael Blanovsky (USA) – 757,000

3. Paul Nash (UK) – 736,000

4. Ryan Laplante (USA) – 701,000

5. Jonathan Spinks (UK) – 688,000

6. Matthew Lupton (USA) – 555,000

7. Melanie Weisner (USA) – 549,000

8. Daniel Bobick (USA) – 481,000

9. Randolph Lanosga (USA) – 441,000

10. Pietermichae Degoede (Netherlands) – 420,000