Another day of action at the Resorts World Las Vegas has come and gone. The players remaining in the Main Event are closer to making history and reaching the first PokerStars North American Poker Tour final table in over a decade.
A field of over 200 started Day 2 action, and one by one, many fell along the way, with even poker greats like Phil Hellmuth eliminated before the money bubble could burst.
The majority of the remaining players did, however, make the money. Players like Matt Affleck, Jarred Jaffe, Shannon Shorr, Maria Konnikova, and Landon Tice all fell short of Day 3, busting with nothing more than a few thousand to show for their performance at the NAPT Main Event.
They were joined by several Day 1 chip leaders, including the overall Day 1 chip leader Parker Talbot, who was among the last to leave the field on Day 2, and Dongwoo Ko and Anthony Zinno.
Only 34 remain in the Main Event, which will be restarted today at 12:30 local time in Las Vegas, as remaining players play down to a final table and the official PokerStars live streaming finally begins, bringing the action straight to our homes.
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Anthony Dianaty Takes Overwhelming Chip Lead
Day 2 action was wild and heated, and when the dust settled, American Anthony Dianaty came out on top. Dianaty will be entering Day 3 with 3,220,000 in chips, which will be good for 129 big blinds and almost twice as many chips as anyone else in the field.
Liran Betito will be playing the role of runner-up, while big-name players like Nick Schulman and Sergio Aido will also be making Day 3 with significant stacks they may well ride all the way to the final table.
It is curious to note that, despite many foreigners building up big stacks in the early going, only eight of the remaining 34 players are not Americans, with two coming from Canada and one each from South Korea, China, Japan, Israel, Spain, and Slovakia still in the field.
European players will be represented by Sergio Aido from Spain, an established player with over $15,000,000 in tournament winnings, and Slovak Tomas Patka, who is coming off final table finishes at recent FPS and Eureka events, sponsored by PokerStars.
Patka and others will be looking for final table seats along prolific pros and less-known faces, but all will be chasing Dianaty, whose $3.2 million in chips may be enough to see him cruise to a final table appearance.
With Day 2 action now finished, here is a look at the full chip counts going into Day 3 action:
| Position | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Dianaty | USA | 3,220,000 |
| 2 | Liran Betito | USA | 1,885,000 |
| 3 | Nick Schulman | USA | 1,860,000 |
| 4 | Jonathan Borenstein | USA | 1,855,000 |
| 5 | Scott Ball | USA | 1,785,000 |
| 6 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 1,635,000 |
| 7 | Aditya Prasetyo | USA | 1,435,000 |
| 8 | Aaron Massey | USA | 1,425,000 |
| 9 | Timothy Rutherford | Canada | 1,305,000 |
| 10 | Ryan Yu | South Korea | 1,225,000 |
PokerStars Cup Kicks Off with a Bang
With the NAPT Main Event now dwindled to just a few tables, it was time for another big event to take over the Resorts World Las Vegas poker room, and that event will be the $550 PokerStars Cup, whose Day 1 flights will be running until the end of action today.
Boasting a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool and a very affordable buy-in, PokerStars Cup is expected to attract hundreds of entrants, including many who busted out of the Main Event and are looking to keep the dream alive.
Yesterday saw hundreds of players sign up for PokerStars Cup Day 1A and Day 1B, with two more starting flights set for today, and the prize pool expected to swell over the promised $300k.
On the sidelines, NAPT Las Vegas saw 65 players enter the single-day $550 8-Game event, with nine of those making the money, all Americans.
Ultimately, Andrew Yeh overcame Benjamin Miner for the title and the $9,355 first-place prize. While the prize may not be comparable to what they are playing for in the Main Event, it was certainly not a bad day’s work for Yeh, who bagged nearly $10k in cash and will have an opportunity to play a brand new event today.
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$270k on the Line as Live Streaming Starts at NAPT
Today marks the first day of PokerStars live streaming, which you can watch on PokerStars Twitch and YouTube channels with a slight delay.
The remaining 34 players in the NAPT Main Event will be playing down to a single table, and all the action will be brought to you live by your favorite team of Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan, who will be joined in the booth by experts like Maria Ho, Nick Walsh, and Griffin Benger.
You can expect plenty of massive pots as the final table draws near, the chips consolidate in the hands of the few, and a lot of exciting live action over the weekend, with each day bringing fresh action from the Main Event and the High Roller.
The few players who survive Friday’s action in the Main will come back to battle for the title and the $268,000 first place prize on Saturday at 12:30, which will represent the first NAPT final table the US has seen since the days of the Black Friday.
