JONATHAN GAVIAO GOES FOR SECOND MAIN EVENT TITLE ON MONDAY
Day 2 of the Main Event at Caesars Palace Las Vegas Circuit stop is in the books. The action started on Sunday with 129 players returning from two starting flights. After ten levels of play, only 14 remain. They’ll return on Monday for Day 3 to play down to a winner.

The chip leader heading into Day 3 is Michael Ma, who bagged up 2,715,000 in chips. He has almost double the stack of closest competitor, Jesse Wilke, who finished with 1,445,000. Three other players are above the million-chip mark, Yu Sheng Lin (1,285,000), Joseph Elia (1,190,000), and Andrew Sapiro (1,020,000).

Only 72 places were paid, so 57 of the players who took their seats on Sunday went home empty handed. The tournament reached the money bubble shortly after the first break of the day. Hand-for-hand play on the bubble lasted quite awhile, as no one wanted to miss out on a payday and the short stacks were able to cling to life, surviving time and again. Eventually, Yevgen Chernenko busted Danny Alvarez in 73rd place when his    made a straight against Alvarez’s pocket tens. After the bubble burst, eliminations came fast and furious, and about one third of the remaining players had busted within the next hour.

The two starting flights of this event garnered a total of 697 entries – 303 on Day 1A and 394 on Day 2B. The field generated a prize pool of over $1 million. Everyone who made the money earned at least $2,927. The winner will walk away with the lion’s share of the prize pool, $214,322, as well as a WSOP Circuit ring and a free entry into the National Championship in Atlantic City in May.

Chris Lindh started the day with the chip lead, having finished Day 1A with a massive stack of 418,500. Lindh captured the attention of the poker world with his deep run in the Main Event at the World Series of Poker last summer, and he looked poised for another deep run here. He got off to a rough start, quickly losing chips. But whenever he appeared to be in real danger, he had the best of it, and he’ll be among the 14 players returning for Day 3.

Lindh will be joined on Day 3 by several ring winners: Ben Keeline, Nancy Birnbaum, and Jonathan Gaviao, who recently won the Main Event at the Harrah’s Tunica Circuit stop.

Four World Series bracelet winners made the money, but failed to advance to Day 3: Brandon Cantu (18th), Arkadiy Tsinis (24th), Brent Hanks (32nd), and Josh Pollock (58th). Also among the money winner is Daniel Pappalardo, who won his seat in this Main Event in an online satellite on WSOP.com. Pappalardo finished in 57th place for $3,189.

Other notables who made the money include Brett Schwertley (67th), Brian Ali (46th), BJ McBrayer (42nd), David Nicholson (38th), and Jesse Bryant (26th).

Here are the seat assignments and chip counts for the final 14 players heading into Day 3, and a full list of payouts is available on WSOP.com.

Table 1
Seat 1: Michael Ma - 2,715,000
Seat 2: Christian Pham - 445,000
Seat 3: Joseph Elia - 1,190,000
Seat 5: Andrew Sapiro - 1,020,000
Seat 7: Ben Keeline - 470,000
Seat 8: Jesse Wilke - 1,445,000
Seat 9: Chris Lindh - 775,000

Table 2
Seat 1: William Chao - 635,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Gaviao - 850,000
Seat 3: Chris Bonita - 795,000
Seat 4: Ofer Akerman - 630,000
Seat 6: Nancy Birnbaum - 800,000
Seat 7: Yu Sheng Lin - 1,285,000
Seat 8: Philip Woerner - 895,000