WSOP – Valentin Vornicu tops Main Event field by 760 advances | poker news

After the chaos and crowds on Monday’s Day 1C, a relative apparently came to the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for Day 2AB of the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The massive crush of humanity, which saw 4,240 players crammed into three different huge rooms, was gone, replaced by a group of 1,847 that made up less than half the number that will return from Day 1C on Wednesday.

That’s not to say there wasn’t exciting action and tremendous pace in the Amazon and Brasilia rooms (and more on that later) as stacks grew and one player in particular distanced himself from the pack in the later stages of the day



Valentin Vornicu, the eight-time WSOP Circuit Ring winner, was having a fairly stable day until his stack exploded in the closing hours of Tuesday’s play. He ended up more than doubling his already healthy stack in this stretch, finishing with 838,600 and the overall chip lead between days 2A and 2B – putting him more than 250,000 ahead of his closest competitor.

One of the most impressive parts of this run? Vornicu didn’t play a single pot with more than 80,000 chips

“I’m happy, I played well I think, I called well and bet well and the cards came to me,” Vornicu said. “It turned out great, but there’s only one day in it [a string of] many days that will hopefully still come.”

Vornicu’s methodical style worked in his favor as most of the players at his table, rather than avoiding contact with the big stack and hoping for a better draw on Day 3, decided to play him regularly. Almost everything seemed to be going well for Vornicu on Tuesday, with the brief exception of a drink that was spilled due to the lack of a cup holder – a minor inconvenience compared to the tremendous success he enjoyed on Day 2 A/B

“Of course I’m excited and I feel good, but I’m not making any progress here,” said Vornicu.

Having decided to play Day 2B, Vornicu now has the luxury of enjoying a second day off during his Main Event run.

“It will be great to restart,” Vornicu said of the day off he will have on Wednesday. “This is my second day off in a month and a half, so I’ll sleep in and take my time – relax a bit, enjoy the pool.

“If we make it further in the tournament, there will be no rest days,” said Vornicu. “That’s the benefit of playing one of the earlier flights, as you get two days off while the last starting flight only gives you one.”

As the schedule stands, those who sacked Tuesday night have a huge advantage over any players who make it through Day 1C; Those bagging Wednesday night will have the very difficult time playing until just before 1am only to turn back and play Day 3 at 11am Thursday morning.

The pace of the game increases dramatically on Day 2

Almost 74 percent of players who attended either Day 1A or Day 1B made it to their respective Day 2 (1,847 out of 2,497), but the survival rate dropped sharply from Day 2 to Day 3, as only 760 players (41.1 percent ) of those who survived Day 1 were allowed to bag a second time on Wednesday evening.

While Vornicu was certainly the biggest beneficiary of the rapid changes in chip counts, he was far from the only one. Chad Power, who finished 25th in the 2015 WSOP Main Event, returns early in 2016 to bag the fifth-biggest stack of the night; Former 10th-place finisher Gaelle Baumann finished the night in ninth in chips with 504,600 and Maria Ho cracked the top 20 with 435,000.

Other notable figures well above average include Marc-Andre Ladouceur (410,500), Alexander Kostritsyn (388,900), Owen Crowe (385,000), Richard Lee (363,600), Brandon Adams (342,400) and Matthew Ashton (342,100).

Top 10 Stacks after Day 2A/B

1. Valentin Vornicu (San Diego, California, USA) – 838,600
2. Jamie Shaevel (Santa Monica, California, USA) – 586,000
3. Alvaro Lopez (Tucson, Arizona, USA) – 573,200
4. Ramin Hajiyev (Baku, Azerbaijan) – 558,400
5. Chad Power (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) – 546,800
6. Petr Bartagov (Moscow, Russia) – 546,000
7. Ronnie Pease (Las Vegas, NV, USA) – 518,100
8. Jonas Lauck (Primstal, Germany) – 510,000
9. Gaelle Baumann (Strasbourg, France) – 504,600
10. Eric Afriat (Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada) – 501,000

Full chip counts

Small blinds

• The first of three days of launch sessions in the $1,111 Little One for One Drop began at 3pm on Tuesday and attracted a total of 754 participants. 120 players were bagged by the end of the evening, with Israel’s Yaron Zeev Malki leading with 278,900 and Barry Hutter in second place with 189,600. Notable figures already through include 2015 November Niner Pat Chan (109,700), Terrence Chan, Kelly Minkin, Max Pescatori, John Racener, David Bach and Jared Jaffee.
• Two winners were officially honored during the final bracelet ceremony scheduled for the 2016 WSOP. Clayton Maguire was first and received his WSOP gold bracelet for winning the $1,000 WSOP.com online No Limit Hold’em event. Next was Fedor Holz, who at the age of 22 has won over $10 million over the past six weeks and nearly $5 million (along with the bracelet) for winning the $111,111 One Drop High Roller. took dollars home.
• Former NFL defenseman Richard Seymour was among more than 58 percent of the field sent home on Day 2A/B.

What’s next: Day 1C of the 2015 WSOP Main Event begins at 11:00 am PT. The second of three starting sessions in the $1,111 Little One for One Drop begins at 3pm PT.