WPT World Championship Still Displaying Stacked Field After Day 2

Bodog poker pro Josh Arieh is sitting in the middle of a stacked field after Day 2 of the WPT World Championship. (Bodog Beat Image)

To say that the field for Day 2 of the WPT World Championship featured some of the biggest names in the poker world would be an understatement. There were so many well-known poker pros among the 421 that started the day they were sitting about five deep at every nine-handed table, not a pleasant prospect for the amateur who found himself staring at that kind of talent from horizon to horizon.

After five levels of play, the field distilled from a fairly strong liquor to home-brewed moonshine as the relative talent of the remaining pool of players grew throughout the day. There aren't many names among the 188 that survived Day 2 that aren't recognizable at some level, making it easier to list those who didn't survive than to try and list those that did.

So, notable bustouts from Day 2 include Layne Flack, Shannon Shorr, Erick Lindgren, Freddy Deeb, David “The Dragon” Pham, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari (who will not become at "WPT Poker-Made Millionaire" this season, despite being the face of that campaign), Erica Schoenberg, and Phil Hellmuth.

Here are a couple of quick notes about the field as it stands going into Day 3. Team Bodog poker pro Josh Arieh is sitting well above average and is joined by Bodog regular online poker player Johnathan "UFPokerStar" Westra in the top third of the field. Defending champion Carlos Mortensen is still in fifth place after a day of play and looks like he will be making a serious run at a repeat title.

Here are the top ten with chip counts:

1. Robert Mizrachi - 523,200
2. Bryan Devonshire - 393,400
3. Cory Carroll - 384,700
4. John Celii - 376,800
5. Carlos Mortensen - 371,600
6. Kenny Tran - 367,400
7. Michael Gracz - 364,800
8. Marcel Luske - 325,200
9. Steve Wong - 306,600
10. Saifuddin Ahmad - 306,500

Play resumes at the Bellagio in a few hours and the players will plow through another five blind levels of play as the make their way toward the money bubble, which bursts with 100 players remaining, and eventually the $3,389,140 first-place prize. So, stay tuned to the Beat for more updates because we've got a lot of poker still left to play and this could be good...really, really, good.

Charles Simmons is regular contributor of poker news to the Bodog Beat and an adequate lister of names.