WSOP Event #35: Trader Falls On Day 2

For Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event, Trader had high expectations. He came back with a stack of 131,000 and took his seat at quite an "easy" table in such a high-roller field.

He was seated next to John O'Shea, Bruno Fitoussi ($50k H.O.R.S.E. tournament runner-up in 2007, and a figure of Aviation Club de France), Steve Sarrafzadeh, David Ewing, Justin Smith, Petter Jetten and Jeppe Nielsen.

The field was shrunk to 64 players, with 36 going into the money. But none of the players wanted to wait endlessly and, whereas some big names did not show up on time at 2 p.m. for start of Day 2, the others tangled quickly with each other, with chips flying over the tables.
Even though trader was the chip leader at his table, he soon found himself dangerously low on chips.

Right at the beginning of the day, trader fell down to 80,000 chips after his continuation bets and bluff-raises on a dry board backfired.

A few hands later and trader was down to his last 25,000. He held in the big blind and was up against Bruno Fitoussi and Justin Smith. The flop came , Fitoussi bet 6,000, Smith raised to 21,500 and got called by trader who moved all-in.

Smith turned over and the action was down to the two final cards. The turn brought and the river came , which meant trader was busted in 58th place.

Many notable names were busted long before the bubble was burst and the main cause for that was Rifat Palevic. Incredibly, Palevic managed to knock out Chris Ferguson, Nam Le, Padraig Parkinson and Bruno Fitoussi. He gained over 150,000 in chips during the first few levels of play and his good run continued until the end of the night.

The bubble was finally burst when Tex Barch moved all-in against Richard Austin on a board of . Barch turned over for a made straight with a flush draw and Austin showed for a lower straight and a heart flush draw. The river came to give Austin a straight flush and Barch was eliminated on the bubble.

Richard Tatalovich was the last one to fall before the play was stopped for the day. He raised to 56,000, Rifat Palevic re-raised pot and Tatalovich called all-in, turning over . Palevic revealed and the board came to give Palevic a flush and send Tatalovich home in 12th place.

With just 11 players remaining, Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha had come to a close. Sorel Mizzi will return on Day 3 as the chip leader with 969,000, followed closely behind by Rifat Palevic with 949,000. Below are the top 10 chip stacks after the second play day: