It's time for Day 2 of the Moneymaker Tour Main Event at the Texas Card House in Houston and Moneymaker himself is set to star. With 26 players remaining, a decision will be made based on how play is going whether the action will finish today or go on to the planned Day 3 tomorrow.
Houston local player Linh Dinh is the start of day chip leader with a big stack of 661,000. With play returning to the 2,000/4,000 blind level, that is good for 165 big blinds. Dinh won a tournament at another Houston card house back in September for a six-figure score of $135,000.
Can Chris win the Moneymaker Tour Main Event?
Joshua Bozarth and Thai Ha come in as the next two largest stacks before Chris Moneymaker himself, who starts the day in fourth spot. Moneymaker had a great Flight D yesterday afternoon, and held the chip lead for most of the final levels before bagging 472,000.
Moneymaker's presence as a big stack will bring extra excitement to today's action. All eyes will be on him to see if he can better his ninth-place finish in the last Moneymaker Tour Main Event in Cincinnati in September.
Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Brad Ruben is the fifth largest stack heading into the day as he looks to make another splash, fresh off a fourth place finish in the WSOP Choctaw circuit main event.
Houston local and proud representative of Ecuador, Gabriel Andrade is among the players in the mix as well, and five-time WSOP bracelet winner and Moneymaker Tour regular Ray Henson enters the day as one of the shorter stacks and will be looking for a quick spin-up.
Texas Card House Houston - the numbers
Total entries: 198
Prize pool: $267,300 (beating the $250,000 guarantee)
Players remaining: 26
Start of Day 2 Chip Counts
Rank | First Name | Last Name | Chip Count |
1 | Linh | Dinh | 661,000 |
2 | Joshua | Bozarth | 612,000 |
3 | Thai | Ha | 483,000 |
4 | Chris | Moneymaker | 472,000 |
5 | Brad | Ruben | 471,500 |
6 | Dara | Taherpour | 396,000 |
7 | Venhut | Chivukula | 394,000 |
8 | Walter | Lynch | 381,000 |
9 | Edward | Sebesta | 375,500 |
10 | Vladyslav | Shouko | 356,000 |
11 | Tony | Lam | 322,000 |
12 | Han | Feng | 309,000 |
13 | Juan | Tejeda | 303,000 |
14 | Gabriel | Andrade | 290,000 |
15 | William | Newby | 266,500 |
16 | Jason | Daly | 260,500 |
17 | Carson | Weiland | 256,000 |
18 | Mumad | Arani | 252,000 |
19 | Prithvi | Rudrappa | 220,000 |
20 | Lisa | Fleishman | 164,000 |
21 | David | Shaw | 139,000 |
22 | Bruce | Perry | 136,000 |
23 | Charles | Sims | 132,000 |
24 | Ray | Henson | 113,000 |
25 | Steven | Mc Kuin | 107,000 |
26 | Sean | Cha | 68,000 |
We'll keep you up to date on Day 2 action on our X account and bring you a full recap here after the event.