Event 1 (Day 2)
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 35 (150,000/300,000/40,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 13
Average Stack: 9,800,000
Claude Petroy (Pittsburgh, PA)
After getting cut down and crippled by Edward O’Brien, Claude Petroy was more or less in the danger zone. He had just a few big blinds left to his name and eventually, he moved his 1,800,000 chip stack all-in from early position and Joseph Curcio, who was to his immediate left, called.
The table folded to Rohit Hukmani, who was in the big blind, and he then announced himself “all-in”. Hukmani had Curcio covered and eventually, the latter folded to see the bigger stack table {As}{Qh}. Petroy had just three immediate outs and after the {8h}{4s}{3s} flop, his {Ah}{7h} was two cards from the rail.
He paired up on the {Ad} turn but it was the wrong pair, as Hukmani’s kicker played after the {Kc} completed the board. Petroy will make just over $14,000 for his deep run and Rohit Hukmani is now playing close to 17,000,000.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 33 (100,000/200,000/30,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 20
Average Stack: 6,300,000
Jason Lochers is now playing the biggest stack in the room, after crippling Sean Shah in a massive pot on Table 3. Loehrs is now over 13,000,000 and pacing this field to the final two table redraw.
Sean Shah was stacking prior to the last break but he just got stacked in the biggest pot of the tournament, one that has moved Jason Loehrs to the top of the leaderboard. He’s now playing 13,100,000 after crippling Shah in a huge cooler.
The action on the streets were missed but on a board reading {Ah}{Ad}{8s}{7d}{Qc}, the cards were on their back with Shah having {As}{10h} tabled in front of him and Loehrs holding {Ac}{Qs}. When the chips got in isn’t known but what we do know is that Loehrs is now playing the biggest stack in the room as this field continues to play through to the final two tables.
Shah was crippled and eliminated a few hands later, good for a nearly $8,500 score. It should be noted that a complete redraw will take place when 18 players remain and that we expect to hit that number before the next break, which is in 30 minutes.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Returning to Level 30: Blinds 50,000/100,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 48
Average Stack: 2,657,000 (27 big blinds)
The final 48 players will return at 12 noon Saturday for Day 3 of the $2 Million GTD Winter Poker Open event. A redraw will take place overnight and the new seating and chip counts will be posted before play resumes.
Dave Banerjee leads the field with nearly 6.5 million (65 big blinds). Here are some of the other players returning for Day 3.
Michael Wojcieszek (S Windsor, CT) – 4th in chips
Wayne Lewis (Galloway, NJ) – 5th in chips
WSOP bracelet holder Justin Liberto (Fallston, MD) – 7th in chips
Keon Sample (Laurel, MD) – 10th in chips
Rohit Hukmani (Hicksville, NY) – 12th in chips
Cindy ‘Poker Peach’ Albert (Germantown, MD) is one of only two women remaining in this event.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 29 (40,000/80,000/10,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 48
Average Stack: 2,656,770
Just in the last couple hands, we have ourselves a new chip leader. That person is named Dave Banerjee, who has 6,475,000 in chips thanks to busting a player with kings versus queens, then taking another million off a player thanks to a re-raise. Here’s the top players that follow close behind Dave as we head into Day 3 action.
Greg Weber 5,755,000
Bill Johnson 4,875,000
Michael Wojcieszek 4,850,000
Wayne Lewis 4,725,000
Claude Petroy 4,695,000
Justin Liberto 4,390,000
Jia Liu 4,335,000
Satish Surapaneni 3,815,000
Keon Sample 3,790,000
Sean Shah 3,700,000
Rohit Hukmani 3,650,000
Edward O’Brien 3,630,000
Joseph Currio 3,615,000
A full list of players with official chip counts will be posted when available. Restart for Day 3 is noon Saturday.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 29: Blinds 40,000/80,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 50
Average Stack: 2,550,000
As the end of Day 2 approaches, the remaining Event 1 players are making their desperation shoves.
Chin Du (Belleville NJ) did just that, getting his last chips in holding pocket 8s. He ran smack into the pocket 9s of Michael Marder.
The board came K 5 Q 2 A and was not what Chin needed to survive. He hit the rail in 51st place, earning $5,566. He’s got a couple of prior small cashes here at Borgata, but this is his largest.
Only 50 players remain with about 15 minutes left in the final level of the night.
Mike Miller (Okahoma)
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 29 (40,000/80,000/10,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 56
Average Stack: 2,277,232
Mike Miller tells us that this is his first big poker event. He hails from the great state of Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain. His Stetson hat has a Jack Daniels sticker on it, and he tells us that Jack Daniels is one of the sponsors for his day job — wrangling bulls from place to place for bull-riding events. So far this event, he’s been wrangling chips instead, as he’s sitting on about three million, above the average stack. Not a bad run for a greenhorn, especially one that’s been at the same table as Justin Liberto all day long.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 29 (40,000/80,000/10,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 59
Average Stack: 2,161,441
Here are some updated chip counts as players climb the millions and their towers and stacks of checks become difficult to see over. It appears Justin Liberto has re-taken the chip lead with over six million.
Bill Johnson 4,250,000
Jeffrey Gross 750,000
Randy Itwaru 700,000
Vinny Pahuja 700,000
Je Wook Oh 950,000
Justin Liberto 6,200,000
Cindy Albert 1,200,000
Christopher Mikil 4,500,000
Greg Weber 5,400,000
Mike Wojewski 4,500,000
Mike Miller 3,000,000
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
End of Level 28 (30,000/60,000/5,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 59
Average Stack: 2,161,440
We are heading into a 15-minute break; when we get back, we’ll play our last level of the night before bagging up for Day 3!
Christopher Mikil (Flushing, NY)
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 28 (30,000/60,000/5,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 78
Average Stack: 1,634,936
It appears that Christopher Mikil is our new chip leader with 5,500,000. It looks like he’s running over his table.
Other stacks we see:
Randy Itwaru 825,000
Brian Mooney 800,000
Justin Liberto 4,900,000
Cindy Albert 1,310,000
Michael Marder 1,250,000
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 27 (25,000/50,000/5,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 85
Average Stack: 1,500,294
Asher Conniff (Brooklyn, NY)
Asher Coniiff is another player we’ve been keeping an eye on as we move to our final ten tables, and he has 3,500,000 in chips. Asher is best known for winning two events at the Spring Poker Open back in April: Event #1 here for $203,231 and the main event for a staggering $973,683.