There are just 16 players remaining in the Horseshoe Cincinnati Circuit Main Event. They are all looking for the elusive ring, but for one player, it would be yet another piece of jewelry to go along with something no one else in the field possesses: a gold bracelet. Aaron Steury, who won a bracelet in HORSE back in 2011 has had close calls on the Circuit before. He’s finished as high as third in a preliminary ring event before. The same year he won his bracelet, he almost added a Main Event ring just weeks later. Instead, Steury had to settle for second in the 2011/2012 Horseshoe Hammond Main Event, finishing runner-up to Robert Chow.
This is Steury’s latest chance at Circuit success as he heads into the third and final day of play with an above average stack and just a few eliminations to go before the final table is set. Stuery faces some tough competition though, including another player familiar with Horseshoe Hammond success, reigning Horseshoe Hammond Circuit Main Event champ Josh Williams. Unlike Steury, who will return with the fourth biggest stack, Williams will be in the middle of the pack with 783,000.
Leading the charge is Greg Kolo, who played several gigantic pots during the late stages of Day 2 play to rocket up the counts. A massive double up through Rex Clinkscales helped to propel Kolo up near the top. Then, on one of the last hands of the evening, Kolo eliminated fellow big stack James Frisby when Frisby ran jacks into Kolo’s kings. That pot put Kolo at 2.46 million. He will be the only player bringing back a stack north of 2 million when play resumes at 1pm ET on Monday.
The first-ever Horseshoe Cincinnati Circuit Main Event ended up drawing 740 entries, including around a dozen Day 2 last minute registrations. That put the prize pool for this event at just over $1.1 million with first place earning $221,994 in addition to the ring and the seat in the 2014 WSOP National Championship in Atlantic City.
The top 81 players finished in the money, which meant the majority of the more than 250 players who began Day 2 play with a stack left empty-handed. It took just a few hours to get down to the money bubble in the event, with hand-for-hand lasting just a few hands before Landond Long made a winning straight to put the players into the money.
Some of the notables who notched a payday in this event include bracelet winner Robert Cheung (71st), Joe Kuether (62nd), Matt Sterling (54th), Yossi Azulay (53rd), Blake Barousse (42nd), Aaron Massey (38th), Justin Truesdell (32nd), Maurice Hawkins (25th), and Rex Clinkscales (22nd).
Another notable who made the money was Sam Panzica. The 21 year old has already won two rings here at Horseshoe Cincinnati, bringing his career total to three. He is the current frontrunner in the Casino Champion contest here on the property with the 100 points he earned from the two wins and the ten points he picked up for his 30th place Main Event finish.
The final 15 will return to the tables at 1pm ET on Monday and play down to a winner. As usual, we will have all of the live updates right here on WSOP.com.
Here is a look at the chip counts headed into Day 3 of play. When play resumes, blinds will be up to 10,000/20,000 ante 3,000:
1. Gregory Kolo – 2,460,000
2. Brad Albrinck – 1,716,000
3. David Kash – 1,368,000
4. Aaron Steury – 1,300,000
5. Kevin McColgan – 1,267,000
6. Kim Dae – 1,006,000
7. Ray Attiyah – 932,000
8. Viet Vo – 860,000
9. Matt Nicholson – 845,000
10. Josh Williams – 783,000
11. Chris Lillie – 727,000
12. Jian Zhang – 484,000
13. Chaz Deshayes – 355,000
14. Ryan Tepen – 331,000
15. Rory Monahan – 306,000