Rule Brittania!: WSOPE Main Event Day 2 Recap

It was business as usual for some of the biggest names in poker as Day 2 of the Betfair Poker 2008 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event presented merely a bump in the road for many top professionals.

On the whole, however, the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, London, was substantially quieter than in days past, with the early elimination of one of poker's biggest and brashest resulting in a relaxed, almost congenial atmosphere for the rest of the 179 players who survived Days 1a and 1b and returned to the tables for five more levels of action on Monday.

Those returnees all took to their tables somewhere in the bowels of the Empire Casino in search of a piece of a £3,620,000 prize pool, with fully 143 of their number needing to be eliminated before anyone got a taste.

Most ballingest for one more year at least.

All told, 362 players bought in to the Main Event this year, a remarkable number considering it's exactly the same as bought in last year. It's the second time this year that the number of entries in 2008 has mirrored the previous year's numbers, with both Pot-Limit Omaha events attracting 165 runners.

Despite the identical field sizes, there will be no million-pound payout for first place in this year's event, meaning Annette Obrestad can sit pretty atop her record-making remuneration even as she watches from the sidelines as a new champion is crowned.

This year's prize pool, devoid of any topping-up by sponsors Betfair Poker, will award £868,800 to first place, with second place earning £533,950, or about £36,000 less than 2007 runner-up John Tabatabai pocketed. The differences are similar all the way down the 36-player strong payment plan, with all those who cash set to earn at least £25,340 for their time.

Couldn't be faded!

Interestingly, this year will see the top eight finishers guaranteed six figures for their efforts, an improvement over last year's model, wherein only the top seven cracked that superballin' tax bracket.

Into that maze of numbers and best-laid dreams came the survivors, led by chip leaders Justin Smith and Daniel Negreanu with their $155k+ stacks. It would be a good day for Kid Poker, as the Team PokerStars pro talked the talk and walked the walk throughout the proceedings, matching wits with the likes of Jamie "Chronic420" Rosen and Mike Matusow on his way to a $203,700 Day 2 finish.

It would not, however, be a good day for former Main Event winners. Among the former World Champions to return to the baize for the start of play on Monday were the likes of Joe Hachem, Chris Ferguson, Doyle Brunson, Scotty Nguyen and of course, Phil Hellmuth, as foul-tempered as ever.

The Greatest of All Time?

The Poker Brat has been on a particularly severe case of donktilt ever since the second day of the WSOPE H.O.R.S.E. event, where long hours, cold cards and an elimination at the hands of Hellmuth-professed "worst player in the world" (and eventual champion) Sherkhan Farnood resulted in a tantrum of epic proportions, involving tears, profanity and the kind of expensive champagne and cigars only a guilty conscience can produce.

The Poker Gods, it seems, are not without a sense of irony, as they put Farnood on Hellmuth's table to start play on Day 2 and then sat back to watch the fireworks unfold. Short-stacked, Hellmuth played professor to a table full of students that included Brandon Adams, Yuval Bronshtein and Steve Zolotow, spending the majority of his time dispensing bon mots and free advice to the extent that he forgot to monitor the state of his own holdings.

Worst player ever?

Such was the great man's bombast that his stack had dwindled to next to nothing by the time he tried to slow-play pocket kings against Farnood's pocket fives. The flop came 8-5-2 and the Hellmuthian one wasted no time shipping all-in, only to see his lesser-skilled adversary table the set and, come fifth street, the winning hand. Time to move up to where they respect your raises, Phil.

The day wouldn't go much better for the other World Champions, with none of Hachem, Ferguson, Brunson or Nguyen surviving to the dinner break.

On the flip side of the elimination coin, however, were the likes of Brandon Adams, John Juanda and Brian Townsend. Adams, who as far as this reporter can tell played every pot at his table after Hellmuth's departure, built a substantial stack without any earth-shattering altercations to end the day at $190,000.

Ya big bully!

Meanwhile, Juanda played the bully at his own table, smacking around Juha Helppi and Surinder Sunar in early confrontations and then taking on the big show himself, Texas Dolly. Juanda warned the living legend not to "do anything crazy" from the big blind in response to the Full Tilter's cut-off raise, telling Brunson "I'll try my best not to bust you" after the big guy made the call.

Juanda wouldn't get the last of Brunson's chips, but he'd get the best of a few other players and would build his own stack to the north of the $250k mark by day's end.

Meanwhile, Townsend, who has battled downswings and a multi-accounting mini-scandal in recent months but appears to be back on his feet with a lost dog found, a new girlfriend and a move to Monaco in the works, won the biggest pot of the evening.

He flopped top set with a pair of aces and doubled through Martin Vallo to the tune of approximately $250,000 after Vallo forced the issue with top pair, top kicker during post-flop action. Townsend would finish up second overall with $290,100.

From hero to zero to hero again!

Also finishing amongst the top dogs chip-wise were overall leader Andy Bloch ($321,600), Erik Seidel ($282,300) and Philippe Rouas $233,300. All told, 62 players survived the day (full chip counts here) and will return tomorrow to play down to the final 27.

With plenty of pros still in contention, a spectacular structure to keep things sane and PokerListings.com on the grind throughout the proceedings, Day 3 at the WSOPE's Big Show should be another classic. Keep it locked right here for another dose of awesomeness as we keep it live from London.