WPT Championship Top Ten before Day 3

April 21st, 2009 | 2:54 pm

The WPT Championship Day 2 is done with a new man leading the way; the runner-up on 2009 European Poker Tour Highroller Event Jean-Noel Thorel. Other top survivors were Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Steve Billirakis, Dan Heimiller and Justin Young, all with a great day behind them manning the top of the leaderboard.

The WPT Championship Day 2 is done with a new man leading the tournament; the runner-up on 2009 EPT Highroller Event Jean-Noel Thorel. Other top survivors joining the Frenchman in the leaderboard were Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis, Dan Heimiller and Justin "robert07" Young with great day behind them.

Top 10 after day 2:

1  Jean Noel Thorel   743,500  in chips 
2  Bertrand Grospellier 678,300       
3  Steve Billirakis  672,400       
4  Dan Heimiller  655,700       
5  Justin Young  621,800       
6  Fred Berger  598,500       
7  Jimmy Fricke  583,800       
8  Steve Sung  529,300       
9  Joseph Parker  505,500 

Level 10: 1,000-2,000 ante 300
Average stack size: 200,595
Players Remaining after Day 2: 162 of 337

Justin Young, the runner-up in the WPT Five Diamond at Bellagio this December, took the chip lead in level 7 after winning a huge pot against Amnon Filippi, also interestingly on final table at WPT Five Diamond. Young held his lead with a straight against Filippi's lower straight as he did the chip lead for most of the day. Filippi eliminated Phil Hellmuth on Monday in 15 minutes after Hellmuth showed up late.

Widely known poker names still playing in the event: Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Erica Schoenberg, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Mark Seif, Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Steve Zolotow, Shaun Deeb and Mike Matusow.

The full list of survivors on WPT live updates. Day 3 action begins on Tuesday, 21 April  at 12.00 Pacific Time.

Notable Eliminations:

Tuan Le; eliminated by Joseph Parker
Cliff "Johnny Bax" Josephy; eliminated by J.C. Tran
Vanessa Rousso; eliminated by Mike Matusow
Jonathan Little
Michael Watson
Erik Seidel; eliminated by Phil Ivey
Scott Clements
Todd Brunson
David "Devilfish"Ulliot
Zachary Clark
Steve Wong
Thor Hansen
Steven Levy
Antonio Esfandiari
Brian Powell
Barry Greenstein; eliminated by Francois Safieddine