JOSH TURNER HEADLINES MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE AT LUMIERE PLACE
Josh Turner ended Sunday exactly where he began it—with an overwhelming chip lead in the latest World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event.

Day 2 of the Main Event at Lumiere Place in St. Louis began Sunday with 80 players returning from a field of 415 entries. Turner had 400,500 in chips to start the day, well ahead of Byron Hubert, who was in second place with 261,000. In fact, there were only five players who had more than half Turner’s stack. About 10 hours and 71 eliminations later, and Turner was in familiar territory—atop the leaderboard, now with 2,129,000 in chips.

Turner is no stranger to deep runs on the WSOP Circuit. He’s been on fire this entire Circuit season, scoring 10 cashes, including six final tables and a ring. He currently sits in 2nd place in the season leaderboard. One accomplishment that has eluded him so far this season, though, is a deep run in a Main Event. That changed today, as he made the final table, and put himself in prime position to finish in one of the top spots.

Play got off to a fast and furious start on Day 2, and the tournament maintained that pace throughout virtually the entire day. After only about two hours and 15 minutes, the 80 returnees had been whittled down to 46, and the tables played hand-for-hand until the money bubble burst. The bubble ended up being the only part of the day when play slowed significantly, and it took over an hour until the next elimination. Eventually, though Frank Patti was eliminated by William Byrnes in 46th place, and all remaining players were in the money.

After the bubble finally burst, the action picked up again. By the second break, after four levels of play, there were only 29 players left. And by dinner break, after six levels, there only 18 players. After returning from dinner, it took less than two hours to lose another nine players and set the final table. At that point, play was halted for the night, and the final tablists will return Monday at 1 p.m. to determine a winner.

It was a highly accomplished field that returned for Day 2. Bracelet winners Kyle Cartwright and Chris Tryba advanced to Day 2, but did not cash. In-the-money finishers include Tom Franklin (43rd Place, $2,814), Yuval Bronshtein (41st place, $2,814), Yossi Azulay (29th place, $3,897), Michael Sanders (28th place, $3,897), three-time Circuit ring winner Josh Reichard (25th place, $4,451), and Chris Conrad (19th, $6,032). Full results are available here.

Here are the final table chip counts:
1 – Josh Turner – 2,129,000
2 – John Longowa – 1,676,000
3 – Ben Beighle – 1,600,000
4 – Zac Campbell – 663,000
5 – Javier Zarco – 645,000
6 – David Lee – 572,000
7 – Jesse Watson – 469,000
8 – Scott Vettner – 306,000
9 – Michael Rieck – 243,000