WSOP Event #52: No More Mr. Magician After Day 2

James Van Alstyne was seen at multiple final tables in this year's WSOP, including the Event #31 which he won, thus securing himself a WSOP bracelet. However, he will not get a chance to crown his great performance with another final table appearance since he was busted in the early stages of play on Day 2 of the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Triple Chance Event.

Besides Alstyne, many more players were also struggling with short stacks and trying to grab some chips whenever possible. Jeff Lisandro called an all-in of one of such short-stacked players but it didn't quite work out as planned for him. Lisandro had racing against his opponent's A-J. With the first four cards missing him, the all-in player was ready to walk away from the table but then a jack hit the river and he was back in the game. Lisandro wasn't too stressed with the outcome of this hand, shipping 20,000 or so chips to his opponent.

Giving chips to others usually results in your own stack getting dangerously low. Lisandro's stack took a much greater blow in a hand against Nenad Medic. After some bets exchanged between the two until the river card was revealed, Lisandro moved all-in on a board. Medic called and revealed for a king-high straight and Lisandro's for a flopped set of kings was crumbled by that queen on the river. Medic climbed up to 75,000 in chips while Lisandro was down to 46,000.

As the play progressed, likes of John Juanda were sent to the rail just short of the money. The bubble was finally burst when a player with pocket aces had to pack his bags. It was a four-way pot with lots of action pre-flop and one player moving all-in, but then the action was just checked down to the river. The board read . The all-in player showed pocket aces but one of his opponents tabled for a straight and thus the bubble boy turned out to be the player who was so close to boosting his stack.

While Lisandro was having a bad day, which resulted in him eventually being eliminated, Antonio Esfandiari was making his way through the day, busting a few players along the way. Esfandiari was not the only one having fun, over at the table with Kathy Liebert and Peter Feldman (pictured left) action was anything but missing. Feldman asked Liebert if she remembered when he called the clock on her at the Borgata and Liebert replied, "I knew I didn't like you, but I couldn't remember why." Joe McGowan added, "Nice of you to remind her."

Even though she was putting up a fight, Liebert eventually had to join the list of those who would not be returning for the next play day. Her lost against her opponent's , asthe board came . Meanwhile, Esfandiari was still unstoppable, rising up to 260,000 in chips.

Karga Holt opened with a raise to 20,000, Alexander Jung moved all-in for 42,000, Esdandiari moved all-in for 109,000 and Holt made the call. Jung showed , Holt revealed and Esfandiari tabled . The flop came and Esfandiari was standing on his chair, waiting for the next card to show up and of all the cards in the deck, the spiked on the turn. The river came and Esfandiari celebrated his victory with a yell loud enough for everyone in the room to be aware of the fact that "The Magician" was still in the tournament. By winning this hand, Esfandiari climbed up to 260,000 in chips while Holt went down to 107,000 and Jung was eliminated.

No magical ace came for Esfandiari (pictured right) towards the end of the night when he found himself in another tricky situation. Wet Watson raised, Esfandiari moved all-in and Watson snap-called with . Esfandiari was in bad shape with and with the board revealing , Esfandiari was out in 24th place. With the new chips added, Watson's stack went up to 370,000.

A total of 149 players entered Day 2 and only 16 of them secured their tickets for Day 3. Lee Markholt, Jeff Lisandro, Mike Caro and others were just some of the notable casualties. Meanwhile, Jason Dewitt has fought his way through the tough field to secure himself the chip lead and if his good run continues, he should at least make it to the final table.

Here are the top 10 chip stacks entering Day 3:

World Series Of Poker Event #52 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Jason Dewitt	1,599,000
2nd	Alex Millar	1,006,000
3rd	Karga Holt	715,000
4th	Michael Noda	641,000
5th	Joe Patrick	538,000
6th	Jorg Peisert	477,000
7th	Benjamin Gilbert	421,000
8th	Michael Katz	356,000
9th	Wes Watson	320,000
10th	Jason Somerville	320,000