Bethyo Leads, Raymer Lurking After Day 2 of HPT Ameristar East Chicago
From a starting field of 520 entries, just 89 returned for Day 2 action at the HPT Ameristar East Chicago $1,650 Main Event. After just over eight levels of play, it was Evan Bethyo bagging up the chip lead for the final table, and he'll be bringing back 3,355,000 for Monday's Day 3, good for more than 110 big blinds.
Bethyo spent the day running over opponent after opponent, including knocking out Daniel Marshall in 12th, and with nearly a million chips more than his nearest competitor, he'll look to keep riding the momentum in search of his first HPT title.
Sitting in second place is a man with many accolades, both in HPT and World Series of Poker lore, as 2005 WSOP Main Event champ and 2012 HPT Player of the Year Greg Raymer bagged up 2,275,000 for tomorrow. Raymer spent the day steadily chipping up, winning a big pot off of Bohdan Slyvinskyi, who bagged the third biggest stack with 2,010,000, late in the day to cement his status as a fellow big stack.
Marc Yofon (1,950,000), Matt Schurter (1,615,000), former HPT Soaring Eagle champ David Gutfreund (1,520,000), Tim Barany (1,375,000), and Dale Hackney (1,125,000) all sit in a fairly tight group behind the leaders, while Benjamin Craig (315,000) will have some work to do as he returns for Day 3 with just ten-and-a-half big blinds.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Name | Hometown | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 1 | Greg Raymer | Raleigh, North Carolina | 2,275,000 |
| Final | 2 | Marc Yofon | Rolling Meadows, Illinois | 1,950,000 |
| Final | 3 | Dale Hackney | Durand, Michigan | 1,125,000 |
| Final | 4 | David Gutfreund | Las Vegas, Nevada | 1,520,000 |
| Final | 5 | Tim Barany | Chicago, Illinois | 1,375,000 |
| Final | 6 | Bohdan Slyvinskyi | Chicago, Illinois | 2,010,000 |
| Final | 7 | Evan Bethyo | Vernon Hills, Illinois | 3,355,000 |
| Final | 8 | Matt Schurter | Crystal Lake, Illinois | 1,615,000 |
| Final | 9 | Benjamin Craig | Chicago, Illinois | 315,000 |
Day 2 Action
Of the 89 players who returned for Day 2 action, just 54 left with a cash. Some of those unfortunate enough to bust before the money included Sam Vizza, Craig Trost, Michael VanderWoude, and bubble boy Greg Baird, who lost a flip to David Kenniston to become the last player leaving empty-handed.
Players that were able to secure a slice of the prize pool include the aforementioned Kenniston (11th - $12,074), Kevin Maahs (16th - $6,931), Brent Ballentine (21st - $5,292), Ravi Raghavan (25th - $5,292), Alex Ziskin (34th - $4,323), former HPT Player of the Year Aaron Johnson (39th - $3,503), and former HPT Ameristar East Chicago champs Gary Herstein (41st - $3,503) and Nick Davidson (48th - $3,205).
The final table of ten played for twenty minutes before the official final table bubble boy hit the rail. Brian Brunner jammed his last 250,000 with pocket sixes, but Hackney made the call in the big blind with ace-nine suited, and paired his ace to send the final nine home for the evening.
Day 3 will kick off tomorrow at Noon local time, and the final table will be taped and televised for future use. The final table will also be streamed at the HPT's Twitch channel on a delay, and the PokerNews blog will sync up with the stream during tomorrow's play. Be sure to tune in to see who will walk away with the $171,411 top prize, the $3,500 Championship Package, and the trophy here at Ameristar East Chicago!