World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Palace: Nicholas Wilbur Leads with 15 Left

Posted by Lasse Hamar 31/01/12

It was an action-packed Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,600 Main Event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The day began with 133 players competing for a prize pool of $963,210, and more than half got paid when the money bubble burst at 72 on Sunday. The field was then trimmed to 15 players after ten levels of play, with chip leader Nicholas Wilbur pacing the field with 1,541,000 chips.

Wilbur earned most of those chips when he got his {a-Hearts} {k-Spades} all in preflop against the {8-Spades} {8-Clubs} of Brandon Riha. In a pot worth more than 1.4 million chips, Wilbur managed to catch up on the river as the board ran out {q-Clubs} {j-Spades} {5-Spades} {3-Hearts} {A-Spades} . After that, Wilbur used his big stack to chip up for the better part of a level and a half.

Wilbur’s run is especially impressive when you consider who is chasing him. Jeff Madsen, Dutch Boyd, Sean Getzwiller and Kevin Calenzo are still in contention with very healthy stacks. Madsen was one of the chip leaders throughout Day 2. However, he took a tough hit late when his {k-Diamonds} {9-Diamonds} was unable to catch up to the {a-Spades} {q-Diamonds} of Rellie Sigua. Madsen will return with 917,000 chips on Monday.

Boyd was also consistently chipping up throughout the day and then hit a one-outer on the river against Sam McGrath. Boyd's luck didn’t last, though, as he was unable to fade the flush draw of Joe Kuether on the very last hand of play to finish with 726,000. Kuether, the Day 1a chip leader, is just shy of the chip lead entering the final day, holding 1,519,000.

Getzwiller bagged up 989,000 in large part because his pocket jacks held against the {a-} {k-} of Brandon Riha and the {k-} {4-} of short stack Mark Kroon late in the night. Calenzo, meanwhile, got most of his 695,000 chips toward the end of the day when he was dealt pocket aces against the pocket queens of Joshua Pollock.

Scott Clements, William Reynolds, Dan O’Brien and James Carroll were some of the unfortunate players who fell short of the money on Sunday. Andreas Hoivold, Kathy Liebert and Gavin Griffin all made the money but were eliminated before play ended.

Monday will bring the final day of the WSOPC Main Event at Caesars Palace. The final 15 will play down to a champion, and our Live Reporting Team will be providing updates all day long. Be sure to check in to find out who wins the WSOPC gold ring and the $197,451 top prize.