Day 2 of the 2014 Master Classics of Poker Ends in the Money
A total of 158 players returned to the tables of the Holland Casino in Amsterdam on Wednesday for Day 2 of the 2014 Master Classics of Poker �4,250 Main Event. Registration was still open until the first card was dealt at 14:00 CET, which allowed six late entries and 11 reentries to take advantage of the option and boost the overall attendance to 298 entries.
This equaled the number of runners of the year prior and even more remarkable is the fact that all Main Event champions of the past three years made it into the money. Ole Schemion was leading the field at the start of the day, and the 2012 winner made it through to Day 3, as did David Boyaciyan (2011), and defending champion Noah Boeken.
Among the early eliminations were such familiar names as Marcel Luske, Bryn Kenney, Steve O'Dwyer, Artur Koren, Davidi Kitai, Sorel Mizzi, and Paul Valkenburg. Jorryt van Hoof had a rough day on the felt and busted in a massive three-way pot with the against Stuart Rutter's when the Brit spiked the on the river to bust the November Niner and eliminate Fatima Moreira de Melo as well �� the latter holding the .
Action continued fast and furious with the field being reduced from 43 to 36 in the span of less than 20 minutes to reach the money. Clyde Tjauw Foe woke up with the in the big blind after the all-in shove of Keith Hawkins with the , a call from Michiel Brummelhuis and another all-in shove from Mohamed Almani with the . Brummelhuis folded the and would have made a flush, but the kings held up and Tjauw Foe bagged 658,800 to claim the overnight chip lead.
Michael Telker just missed out on the money as did Aviv Meiri and Joeri van der Sman, both of whom were eliminated while Jason Wheeler had a decision for his tournament life on the bubble. Wheeler, an American, ended up calling for his stack of 180,000 in chips with the and Jussi Nevanlinna, who finished runner-up to Boyaciyan in 2011, had him covered and the better starting hand with the . The board ran out , and Wheeler was out. All remaining players were guaranteed at least �5,901 for their efforts and a shot to go further on Day 3. That's when play will continue with levels of 90 minutes and the first blinds at 2,000/4,000 with an ante of 500.
The big stacks for the penultimate day include [Removed:17] (640,700), 2011 champion Boyaciyan (582,600), Jimmy Pan (435,900), Andrew Chen (434,200), Day 1 chip leader and 2012 champion Schemion (425,800), and Amir Mozaffarian (355,700). Play will resume at 14:00 CET and will continue until the final table of the last nine players remain, the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there to cover all crucial hands.