February 28, 2017 (Las Vegas) - Day 2 of the $1,675 World Series of Poker Rio Circuit Main Event has just wrapped up for the night. A total of 188 players returned to play Day 2, and after ten hours of play, only 19 remain.
Jeremy Joseph leads the pack, having ended the day with 2,890,000. Rounding out the top four are: Jett Schencker (2,180,000), Nikolai Sears (2,015,000), and Cody Pack (1,670,000). Pack seemed to be at or near the top of the chip counts for most of the day. Pack won a key hand after the money bubble burst when he eliminated Daniel Needleman from play in a nearly 900,000 chip pot. Pack then crossed over the million chip mark when his aces held against Cory Smith’s pocket kings, resulting in the elimination of Smith in 46th place ($4,451).
Robert Hankins took an early day lead when he eliminated Atrayon Trevino from play before the money bubble burst, but after doubling two players up on the bubble, Hankins was ultimately eliminated in 63rd place ($4,054).
A full list of all 19 advancing players can be found on the Reports page.
Ari Engel is one of the most familiar faces left in the field. Engel is looking to win his 9th Circuit ring, to tie with Maurice Hawkins and Alex Masek for most rings won. Engel is coming into Day 3 with 355,000.
A few notables that finished in the money but failed to survive the day included: Jesse Capps, Nancy Nguyen, Steve Gross, Allen Kessler, Ben Keeline, Jeff Fielder, Mike Azzaro, Nick Pupillo, Matt Emmel, Alex Greenblatt, Erick Lindgren, Dennis Phillips, and Ravi Raghavan.
The final 19 players will return Tuesday at 2pm to play down to a new Champion. The winner will take home a diamond-studded ring, just under $270,000, and a seat into the 2017 Global Casino Championship.
Here are the top ten chip counts heading into Day 3:
1. Jeremy Joseph - 2,890,000
2. Jett Schencker - 2,180,000
3. Nikolai Sears - 2,015,000
4. Cody Pack - 1,670,000
5. Muruz Yohannes - 1,380,000
6. Daniel Engels - 1,245,000
7. Dylan Wilkerson - 975,000
8. Martin Zamani - 970,000
9. Ryan Jones - 885,000
10. Thomas Haury - 765,000