Sunday welcomed Day 2 of the $3,500 World Poker Tour Playground Championship with 286 players advancing from three Day 1 flights and 34 players registered before the start of play. Ten levels of play cut the field down to 53 advancing players, with Zhi Gang Yang bagging 2.15 million for the lead.
Stephen Dauphinais is right on his heels with 2.14 million and Day 1B leader Connor Daynard is third with 2.06 million. The next 11 players all bagged up million-plus stacks, with Fadi Chamoun and Azim Popatia finishing right at the average stack.
Illankumaran Kandiah, Tim Rutherford, Michael Wang and Darren Elias advanced on to Day 3 but have below-average stacks. Each player has $8,782 locked up and five-figure payouts start at 45th place.
Patrick Tardiff, Omar El Nasrallah, Rob Wazwaz and Tanupat Punjarojanakul each cashed in the event but did not survive the day.
It was a rough day for notables in the field with Eliot Hudon, Mike Leah, Eric Afriat, Ema Zajmovic, Alex Queen and Daniel Dongwoo Ko all hitting the rail before the money bubble. Howard Feingold was eliminated short of the money when he only had first place in his sights.
Day 1B chipleader Connor Daynard has the third biggest stack going into Day 3.Action clocks and the money bubble
The WPT Action Clocks were brought out after the dinner break. Players were given five time extension chips, which they accumulate as the event progresses.
The field hit the money bubble late in the day during Level 18. Hand-for-hand play lasted for three rounds before there were three all ins with a call at three different tables. They ran the hands one at a time, the first two saw the short stack double up – one was Wang who joked a sweat with a made straight – and the third made 105 people very happy.
Frederic Harvey was all in holding two red kings and David Burnard called holding two black aces. The board ran out with two pair, Burnard’s aces were still best and Harvey hit the rail.
Michael Wang sweating the bubble
Prizepool and schedule of play
The total field ticked up to 840 players officially for a prizepool of $1.935 million for the top 105 finishers. The min-cash came in at $4,607, a trip to the final table locks up $28,433 and the winner earns $296,779 and a seat into the WPT World Championship.
Day 3 resumes on Monday at 11:00 am with the goal of playing the same ten-hour schedule as previous days, but the levels go from 60 minutes to 90 minutes when the field hits 40 remaining players – which makes the math a little fuzzy for finishing time.
WPT Playground Championship top 10 stacks
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zhi Gang Yang | 2,150,000 |
| 2 | Stephen Dauphinais | 2,140,000 |
| 3 | Connor Daynard | 2,060,000 |
| 4 | Zachary Fischer | 1,965,000 |
| 5 | Johan Lees | 1,760,000 |
| 6 | Antoine Sankari | 1,650,000 |
| 7 | Patrick Nguyen | 1,470,000 |
| 8 | Ari Shin | 1,340,000 |
| 9 | Zak VanKeuren | 1,245,000 |
All photos courtesy of World Poker Tour - Alicia Skillman
