WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship Day 2 – Daut Looking for Second Title

The final World Poker Tour event before the World Series of Poker (the two will actually overlap) is moving along at a brisk pace.  On Day 1, over 100 players were eliminated.  On Wednesday, approximately 80 more were shown the door, leaving 33 to come back on Thursday.  With the tournament paying out to 27 places, expect to see some cautious play at the outset of Day 3. 

Ryan Daut ended the day as the chip leader with 322,300, the only player who eclipsed the 300,000 mark.  Shawn Buchanan, while falling out of the lead, stayed strong in second place.  Other notables still fighting for the championship are John Juanda (6^th), Barry Greenstein (9^th), Michael Mizrachi (12^th), Billy Baxter (21^st), Chau Giang (25^th), and Alan Goehring (27^th). 

Phil Laak was eliminated on the final hand of the second day when he moved all-in with middle pair on a Qd-6d-2s and was called by John Juanda, who had two diamonds for a flush draw.  Juanda hit his flush on the river to not only send Laak home, but to give his stack a nice boost. 

The seventh player knocked out on Thursday will receive $13,115, a far cry from the first place purse of $768,775.

1. Ryan Daut -- 322,300
2. Shawn Buchanan -- 278,500
3. Timothy Hebert -- 277,300
4. Chris Bell -- 267,400
5. Juan Carlos "J.C." Alvarado -- 229,500
6. John Juanda -- 227,300
7. David Levi -- 224,800
8. Chantel McNulty -- 215,300
9. Barry Greenstein -- 213,000
10. John Gordon -- 193,000
11. Alexander Kravchenko -- 189,100
12. Michael Mizrachi -- 188,000
13. Thayer Rasmussen -- 144,000
14. Mark Cole -- 137,500
15. Lex Veldhuis -- 133,500
16. Cyrus Pirasteh -- 128,300
17. Danny Wong -- 126,700
18. Ryan Hesser -- 122,700
19. David Haddad -- 120,300
20. Jared Hamby -- 92,800
21. Billy Baxter -- 88,300
22. Steve Sung -- 85,300
23. Edward Forlani -- 80,900
24. Gioi Luong -- 79,000
25. Chau Giang -- 70,600
26. Matthew Graham -- 63,700
27. Alan Goehring -- 49,100
28. Benjamin Sabrin -- 48,100
29. Eugene Todd -- 45,800
30. Thomas Wahlroos -- 42,200
31. John Racener -- 35,100
32. Alan Engel -- 32,200
33. Jim McCrink -- 22,000