WSOP Event #45: Allanon Makes His First WSOP Money Finish

The whole Team PokerStrategy.com - including team manager RobbieV - had high expectations for the second day of the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em World Championship.

Indeed, the two Team PokerStrategy.com players - Nazgul and Allanon85 - had both survived Day 1 and they started day 2 expecting great things, even though most of the 85 remaining players were gifted pros: Kathy Liebert, Juha Helppi, Matt Brady, Lee Markholt, Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, Bertrand Grospellier, defending champion Nenad Medic, Alex Jacob, David Steicke, Isaac Haxton, Erik Seidel, David Pham, and many more.

At table 60, Nazgul had some strong opponents: sitting in seat 3, he could play either against Elky (seat 6) or Isaac Haxton (seat 9), who had a very good start in this year's WSOP. A few tables away, Allanon (seat 1) was sitting with 150k chips next to Tony Cousineau (seat 3, short stacked), Chino Rheem (seat 5, very short stacked), Alex Jacob (seat 7, very very short stacked) and Nenad Medic (seat 9). Not a fishy table, to say the least.

Nazgul (pictured left) had a bad start today. After having lost some of his chips during the first levels, he busted just after the first break.

"I had 8-6 suited and I was on the cut-off. I raised 9,500 chips, and I got called by the button. Flop came 3-8-Q with a flush draw for me. I bet, he raised me and I pushed all-in. He called me with pocket aces, but I’m still ahead, like 55%. Anyway, his pair holds and I’m busted so early, in the 60th place or so…"

Nazgul had lost his usual smile for a moment after that elimination...

Unfortunately, Nazgul was indeed eliminated somewhere around the 60th place - 57th to be exact - and was thus unable to cash in this event; only the first 27 players will split the $2,585,000 prize pool, with $633,335 of the money going to the winner.

Nevertheless, his two cashes in one week are a nice achievement, which is why we wish him the best of luck in the upcoming events - he clearly showed he can do well over there.

Allanon85 (pictured right) struggled throughout the whole day to keep his chip stack at a reasonable level, avoiding big coinflips most of the times.

Right after the 28th player hit the rail, the bubble burst and Allanon knew he had to double up quickly in order to stay alive and eventually reach the final table.

However, Allanon busted when he lost his remaining 30,000 chips to John Kabbaj. First in, he pushed for 30,000 chips and was called by both John Kabbaj from the cut-off and chip leader Bryn Kenney. The flop came and Kenney bet 40,000, with Kabbaj making the call. The turn brought the and both players checked. When the river showed the , Kenney bet 66,000 and Kabbaj again called. Kenney showed for triple eights, but he was no match for Kabbaj, who held for a king-high flush.

Unfortunately, Allanon couldn't show a better hand, so he simply mucked his , wished his table good luck and went to the cashout desk. Finishing 26th he had just made it to his first WSOP cash - earning $24,066 for his efforts. Congratulations to him and best of luck in the next tournaments - with a bit of luck, he should be able to cash again.
Two other Pokerstrategists, Florian  FA_Morgoth Langmann and Niklas Ragen Heinecker could also be seen at the tables, but their tournament lives ended on the second day, too.

Ragen managed to hang on a bit longer than Nazgul, but he was still sent to the rail before the bubble, ending his tournament in 53rd place.

However, FA_Morgoth (on the left) held on and performed extremely well, finishing on 16th place. Langmann's final hand saw him raising pot from the hijack with , with Billy Kopp and John Kabbaj both making the call. He then pushed postflop for his remaining 29,000, Kopp re-raised to 100,000 and Kabbaj folded.

Kopp showed and Langmann was in need of help from the board but he didn't hit on the board and was thus sent to the rail. Nevertheless, a good finish for Langmann, who earned $32,209 for this feat. Congratulations!

The second day came to an end and 14 players will return to the tables tomorrow. Here are the top 10 chip stacks:

World Series Of Poker Event #45 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	John Kabbaj	2,026,000
2nd	JC Alvarado	924,000
3rd	Billy Kopp	772,000
4th	Eric Baldwin	713,000
5th	Isaac Haxton	660,000
6th	Davidi Kitai	581,000
7th	Kirill Gerasimov	550,000
8th	Ken Lennaard	467,000
9th	Darryll Fish	368,000
10th	Eugene Todd	351,000