Rijkenberg, Antonius Headline WSOPE Main Event Day 2

By: Matthew Showell

Day 2 is done at the 2011 WSOP Europe main event and Holland’s Constant Rijkenberg is leading the 111 who will return to play down to the money Tuesday.

Rijkenberg, whose victory at EPT San Remo in 2009 was marred by rumors of over-selling his action to backers, bagged 462,800 and leads a star-studded leaderboard that includes Triple Crown winner Jake Cody, American veteran Hoyt Corkins and Finnish superstar Patrik Antonius.

In addition to making it within sight of the 64 who will get paid in this event, Day 2 also saw the official prize pool numbers released.

With attendance up 71% over 2010 this year’s winner will be taking home €1.4 million, with €5,692,800 in total being distributed.

Over the course of six 90-minute levels the Day 2 starting field was cut down from 328 to 111 and among the busted were a few names poker fans would be sorry to see go.

Ten-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan was eliminated, as were November Niner Sam Holden, 2011 WSOPE bracelet winners Philippe Boucher and Tristan Wade, five-time bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro and former world champion of poker Scotty Nguyen.

Two players who came into the day among the chip leaders, Jamie Rosen and Tommy Vedes, were both also eliminated before play was halted for the night.

Through to Day 2 are Barry Greenstein, Bruno Fitoussi, Victor Ramdin, Brian Roberts, Chris Moorman, Barny Boatman, Liv Boeree, Ramzi Jelassi, and Tony G.

Poker’s leading all-time live tournament money winner Erik Seidel is also through, looking to continue building on the more than $6.4 million in earnings he’s already amassed in 2011.

Defending champion James Bord also survived the day, and continues to fight to prove his claim that Europeans are better at poker than Americans.

Tomorrow will see the remaining 111 return and attempt to play down to the final three tables. On Wednesday that number will be reduced to the final table of nine.

Beginning tomorrow play will be eight-handed until the final table is reached.

Action will resume at noon, and can be followed live on PokerListings.com’s WSOPE 2011 Live Coverage page.

Here are the top ten chip counts, courtesy of www.wsop.com:

• 1 - Constant Rijkenberg - 462,800
• 2 - Hoyt Corkins - 395,000
• 3 - Jake Cody - 380,000
• 4 - Joel Dodds - 375,000
• 5 - Mustapha Kanit - 320,000
• 6 - Rifat Palevic - 320,000
• 7 - Shawn Buchanan - 300,000
• 8 - Victor Ramdin - 295,000
• 9 - Tom Bedell - 290,000
• 10 - Patrik Antonius - 265,000