WSOP Event #29: Final Eight Players Decided

Only 64 of the starting field of 256 players returned for Day 2 of the
$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Heads-up event. The play kicked off with each
player receiving a stack of 120,000 in chips and unlike Day 1, if a
player was absent then he or she would be blinded off.

The dealers were
instructed to deal even if one player was missing, meaning a player was
free to raise his opponent and take down the pots until the missing
player came to the table.

Scott Fischman was missing his opponent, supposedly Yevgeniy
Timoshenko, and he couldn't complain much about courageously shoving
his stack at the empty seat in front of him to pick up the blinds in
every round. The biggest problem, however, was on Table 251 - both
Matthew Woodward and Justin Filtz were missing in action, which made it
rather difficult for either of them to take the lead. The dealer was
alone there, doing his job as much as it was possible when you've got
no players to deal the cards to.

Jason Senti decided to be noble and quietly wait for his opponent Erik
Seidel to show up - there is honour in poker after all. While Senti was
waiting for the action at his table to start, Dario Minieri and
Jonathan Jaffe decided to put on a blind straddle! The two decided to
raise the stakes on their own, agreeing to play with a blind 2,500
button straddle.

Dmitry Lesnoy was the first player who reached the money by advancing
to Round 4 at the cost of Antonion Esfandiari. Meanwhile, Senti started
to grind Seidel down and took down some nice pots which made Seidel
lose roughly half of his stack.

Jonathan Jaffe and Dario Minieri (pictured left) continued their little game with a straddle and the one who got the best of it was Jaffe. Even though he was down to just 29,000, Jaffe managed to double up when his won against Minieri's . The board came to give Jaffe a set of sixes and the pot. Jaffe climbed up to 58,000 but Minieri was still way ahead with 182,000.

After an intense back and forth battle, Jaffe managed to take the chip lead against Minieri and the final hand of their heads-up match soon approached. Jaffe raised to 4,000, Minieri moved all-in for 34,000 with and Jaffe called with . Nothing but blanks came to the board and Dario Minieri was eliminated from the tournament.

Brock Parker knocked out his opponent Braden Hampton when he flopped two pair with against Hampton's top pair with . With this victory, Parker has secured himself his fifth cash of this year's World Series of Poker.

David Pham was struggling for most of the day and eventually, he had to admit defeat and watch Leo Wolpert ride into Round 4. Meanwhile, Jason Mercier eliminated his opponent Michael Pesek.

Tom "durrrr" Dwan almost busted his nemesis for the day, Roberto Romanello. Romanello opened with a raise to 5,100 and Dwan called. The flop came and Dwan check-called a 4,100 bet from Romanello. The turn brought , Dwan check-called again, though this time Romanello bet 12,200. The river came , Dwan checked, Romanello moved all-in for 62,000 and Dwan folded, leaving himself with roughly 135,000.

Romanello continued to work his way up and won another pot against the young gun who usually smacks down A-K with 6-8 for breakfast. Action began with Dwan limping in, Romanello raising to 7,100 and Dwan making the call. The flop came . Both players checked and the turn brought . Romanello bet 4,000 and Dwan called. The river came . Romanello bet 4,000 again and Dwan called. Romanello turned over and it was good enough to take the pot down, as Dwan mucked his cards. With this pot, Romanello took the lead with 135,000 in chips while Dwan was now at 105,000.

While Dwan was battling with Romanello, Yevgeniy Timoshenko was trying to find a way to bust Scott Fischman (pictured right). Apparently, pocket kings were not good enough to bust Fischman as his pocket sevens improved on the flop when another seven showed up. This miraculous  recovery boosted Fischman's stack to 79,000, but he was still behind as Timoshenko held 161,000.

The too kind sir Jason Senti was rewarded for his patience earlier in the day, when he waited for around 10 minutes until Erik Seidel showed up, and he managed to defeat Seidel in a fair and square battle. Their last hand featured Senti holding and Seidel put his last hopes in . The flop came and then the turn card removed any doubts of who was going to take down the pot since Senti made the full house.

Chris Ferguson also couldn't make it through the day, losing his match against Ben Tollerene. Tom "durrrr" Dwan joined him on his way out, since he lost his match against Roberto Romanello. In the last hand, Dwan went all-in with against J-9 and the board helped Romanello, giving him another nine.

Even though it took longer than the tournament staff expected, everything was set for Round 4 to begin with Dragan Galic, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Mike Caro and a few more notable names joining the list of those who made it into the top 32.

It took about two hours more to narrow the field down to just 8 players. The last round for the day saw Jason Mercier (pictured left) stumbling upon Nathan Doudney, the latter proved to be the better player for the day and moved on into Day 3. Mike Caro also couldn't pass Round 4, same as Alec Torelli, Yevgeniy Rimoshenko and Roberto Romanello.

Action on Day 3 will feature Leo Wolpert against Dustin Woolf, Jasmin Stokes against Johnny Chan, Nathan Doudney against Bryan Pellegrino and John Duthie against Steve O'Dwyer.