Action folded to Matthew Dames in the small blind who raised before Anthony Le Chuga put in a three-bet from the big blind. Dames called to see a flop of 9♥6♣A♣.
Dames checked from the small blind before facing a bet from Le Chuga. Dames then raised for the rest of Le Chuga's chips. Le Chuga called, putting his tournament life at risk.
Anthony Le Chuga: A♥J♣
Matthew Dames: A♦Q♥
Dames needed help from the turn or river but neither the 6♠ or the 5♥ provided any, sending him to the rail in 20th place for $4,843.
Five-time WSOP bracelet winner Adam Friedman raised in early position as a short stack at his table, but Vadim Shlez reraised enough from the button to put Friedman all in.
Friedman called and the players tabled their hands.
Friedman: A♣6♦
Shlez: J♥J♦
The runout did not provide Friedman any help to overtake Shlez’s pocket pair. Friedman was sent to the rail in 18th place for $4,483.
Big-name players fell to the wayside on Day 2 of Event #7: $1,500 Limit Hold'em at the 2023 World Series of Poker. However, David "ODB" Baker, winner of two WSOP bracelets including the 2019 World Series of Poker $1,500 Limit Hold'em bracelet, and relative unknown Jason Duong, slowly but inexorably built chip stacks to put them in great shape to make the final table when play resumes on Day 3.
Baker flew under the radar for much of Day 2, but seemed to tip the poker table toward him, causing all his opponents' chips to slide into his stack. One memorable hand of the day involved Baker in a huge pot where he rivered trip fours, besting Lonnie Price's flopped aces.
Day 2 began at 2:00 p.m. local time with 169 returning players. They were playing for a piece of the $703,545 prize pool, paid to the top 80 finishers.
Fellow WSOP bracelet winner, Jason Gola, will join Baker on Day 3, while Day 1 chip leader Raul Celaya maintained a top ten stack. Another compelling story on the day was when Rostyslav Sabishchenko, who recently finished third in the WSOP online Limit Hold'em Championship, embodied the classic poker saying "a chip and a chair," turning one big blind into 27 (1,075,000).
Also moving on to Day 3 is Kerry Welsh, who has cashed in this event three out of four years, Matthew Dames, who has five WSOP limit cashes, and WSOP veterans Scott Eskenazi, John Armbrust, Chairud Vangchailued, and WSOP.com online pro Omar Mehmood.
The field proved extremely competitive with many well-known names cashing, including 2015 WSOP Main Event winner Joe McKeehen and WSOP bracelet winners Nick Schulman, Patrick Leonard, Justin Pechie, Japanese mixed-game specialist Ruiko Mamiya, and Yueqi Zhu, who finished third in this event last year.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Bets
1
Jason Duong
Canada
1,615,200
20
2
David "ODB" Baker
United States
1,260,000
16
3
John Mullaney
United States
1,225,000
15
4
Kerry Welsh
United States
1,185,000
15
5
Matthew Dames
United States
1,175,000
15
6
Rostyslav Sabishchenko
Ukraine
1,075,000
13
7
Raul Celaya
United States
900,000
11
8
Scott Eskenazi
United States
785,000
10
9
Paul Dockal
United States
775,000
10
10
John Armbrust
United States
735,000
9
The remaining 17 players have locked up at least $4,843, but all eyes will be on the $146,835 top prize and the coveted WSOP bracelet when play resumes. Players will return at 1 p.m. PDT for the finale and play down to the final table, which will be streamed on PokerGO's YouTube channel starting at 5pm.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the updates from Day 3 of the $1,500 Limit Hold'em event, when a new WSOP champion will be crowned at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.