Day 2 of the $3,500 BetMGM Poker Championship returned 595 players back to ARIA Resort & Casino. The surviving 65 players spent ten, 60-minute levels at the tables and Jim Farrelly topped the field with 4.4 million.
Lars Kamphues finished second in chips by only three individual chips with 4.345 million. They have a million-chip gap on the chase group of Pavels Spirins, Valentino Konachiev and Eric Shwarcer.
Michael Rossitto (1.9m), Joao Simao (1.4m), Andrew Moreno (1.29m) and Shannon Shorr (1.15m) are legends in their own right, with the latter three on particularly hot runs.
From the Floor
Since January this year, Shorr’s cashed for $1.5 million at ARIA alone. “My day was pretty good, I started with 275,00 and ended with 1.15 million,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of work on myself mentally to get ready to play. It’s quite the grind to play full time, so to be in the best physical shape and make good decisions all the time is my perfect combination.”
Moreno had a roller coaster day, returning below average, was one of the leaders at the money bubble and finished behind the curve. “It was pretty smooth sailing for most of the day,” he said. “Things were working well and the table responded well to my aggression. I had a good feel for today.”
“I think anytime you get a good structure with a large field, I feel pretty comfortable navigating some of the more exploitative sides of the game,” Moreno added. “Those types of adjustments work well in large fields.”
BetMGM Poker Ambassador Darren Elias made a deep run into the money but did not secure a bag to advance to Wednesday. Above the Felt and Faded Spade founder Tom Wheaton, Joe Serock, Eric Baldwin, Patrick Leonard, Bin Weng and Davidi Kitai also cashed but hit the rail during play.
The Never-Ending Money Bubble
All returning players eyed making the money, but only 231 stopped at the cage. The money bubble lasted for nearly 90 minutes of real time before Jimmy Tran busted, a staple of Las Vegas poker for decades.
While he was all in and at risk, another table on the far side of the room finished a hand first. While waiting to table his hand, Tran casually answered a phone call and we heard him say, “I’m all in against aces…Some guy called me. Lots of cameras here now, everybody’s looking at me,” drawing laughter from three tables around him.
A floor supervisor stepped in and made him end the call. The person on the other end of the call didn’t get to see Michael Renna’s two black aces, out-flop Tran’s Tc 5c, catch a four-flush and eliminate Tran.
History-Making Event
Normally, Day 2 is the first time the field is in the same room at once, but the returning field was so large that for the start of play a dozen tables were drafted into action from the PokerGO Studio. It wasn’t until the field approached the money bubble that all players were seated in the tournament area.
Action began at noon with controlled chaos, seating nearly 600 players spread across three different gaming areas with players eager to get cards in the air. The mood shifted to electric as the field hit the money bubble. As the sun set and the field dropped below 100 players, the mood turned serious.
The white noise of shuffled chips and intense stare-downs replaced laughter and table chatter from earlier. Play slowed down and the field created a quiet bubble on ARIA’s gaming floor.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
- Jim Farrelly – 4,400,000
- Lars Kamphues – 4,345,000
- Pavels Spirins – 3,235,000
- Valentino Konakchiev – 3,085,000
- Eric Shwarcer – 2,915,000
- Chris Gilks – 2,560,000
- Diego Sanchez Serrano – 2,640,000
- Yaniv Peretz – 2,560,000
- Francis Cruz – 2,505,000
- Nguyen Le – 2,160,000
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